Going to the zoo today and I have a few questions

Personally, I would shoot in 'M,' which stands for Manual; but only if you're comfortable with what to do. Otherwise I would say adjust it on the fly, because there really is no ubiquitous mode for something as broad as the zoo, where the subject could be 3 feet away, or 30.

So if it's relatively close, I would go with macro mode, and then landscape for things further away.

As far as quality, I would shoot in the highest quality that you can, but no need to do RAW as well (because it will reduce your FPS unless you have a very fast card), unless you intend to edit the pictures before exporting them to a different format.

Good luck!

This is really a question of your comfort level. Personally, I wouldn't venture much out of M, AV, and TV, switching around to best fit the situation. But if you aren't comfortable with those, you might want to stick with P or even some of the presets.

As for quality, again this is your comfort level. My guess is since you are asking you probably don't have much experience with RAW so I would tend to advise against it. It's kind of one of those things, if you were comfortable with it, you probably wouldn't be asking.

If it's a nice day, I would set ISO at 100 and then shoot in AV mode. Set your AV based on how much depth of field you want in focus. If you want a blurred background on a close-up shot, use a small aperture (minimum your lens will allow). If you want to capture a few different critters all in focus on a wider shot, use a longer aperture (f8-f11).

I now shoot RAW+JPEG (HQ) and usually ignore the JPEG's unless I was just out taking snapshots. I edit the RAW's in Aperture. If you don't have time for post processing your shots, then ignore RAW and capture the hightest quality JPEG's you can get and set your picture settings to add a bit of saturation and a bit of sharpening to your taste. (I use +4 on saturation and +2 on sharpness).

I think those are pretty decent photos for it being the first time you've shot a digital SLR.

I HIGHLY (literally, this has potential to increase your photography potential more than any lens, camera body, tripod, flash.. anything) recommend this book by Bryan Peterson, called Understanding Exposure. It is available at most Barnes and Noble locations, and I'm sure you could find it somewhere close to you.

It is VERY good at explaining technique and the technical aspect of photography, in addition to helping you create creative and successful exposures (exposures are pictures themselves, and the elements that comprise them).

+1 for Understanding exposure, it will get you out of automatic modes and realise the potential of you and your camera.