Betty White is known for a lot of things; namely, her acting career, which has spanned over six decades and includes credits on hit television shows like “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”, “Mama’s Family”, and of course, “The Golden Girls”.

But she’s also known for her love of animals, something she learned from her own parents as a child.

“My interest in animals started in the womb,” White said. “I think my mother’s and father’s started in the same place. They were animal nuts long before I came along.”

The actress is so well known for it, in fact, that many of the characters she’s portrayed over the years have also been animal lovers, something which was probably written into scripts at her urging. As a “Golden Girls” fan, I can recall several episodes which saw Rose pestering her roommates to get a pet, or rescuing a dog, or something of the like.

This week, she’ll be traveling to Washington to check out the animals at the zoo after a trip to the Smithsonian, and says she’s especially excited to see a famous harmonica-playing elephant housed there. White considers herself something of an authority on animals, having been an advocate for them for so many years (and writing books about them), and doesn’t agree with the idea that zoos are cruel places.

“So many people say, ‘Oh, I hate zoos. I want all the animals to be back in their natural habitat,'” she said. “Well, you know what we’ve done to their natural habitat. Without zoos, we would have lost already so many species.”

The zookeepers are just as excited to see White as she is to see the animals and say they are honored to meet someone who cares so much about the work they do.

White joined Twitter just last month and has already won over some admirers with her tweets: