Bronx Zoo

[redbird]

cattitude and I went to the Bronx Zoo today: it was pleasantly cool and damp and not very crowded when we got there around 1 p.m., and pleasantly warm and sunny by the time we left.

On a typical visit to the Bronx Zoo, we may see one chipmunk in the undergrowth. Today they were all over, dashing across the paths, chasing each other, sitting on logs and in trees: both plentiful and unusually bold. It's clearly been a very good spring for the chipmunk population. I counted 19 in the couple of hours we were there and mostly looking for/at other animals.

There's always too much to see at the Bronx Zoo, even with the cutbacks in the last couple of years, so we go with an idea of what we most want to see, and work from there. This time the list included otters (who turned out not to be on exhibit) and okapis.

The okapis live in the Congo Gorilla Forest exhibit, where they have plenty of space, and foliage to hide behind. Often, I'll get maybe one glimpse of an okapi, in between seeing monkeys and gorillas. This time, we spent a couple of minutes looking at an okapi through a peephole in a passageway: at a distance, but straight on, well worth it if you're fond of the okapi, as I am.

We walked along, and saw the okapi again, much closer, through a screen of bamboo and leaves. It was standing around, walking back and forth some, rubbing against tree trunks, and such. It stuck its tongue out a couple of times, something between licking its lips and tasting the air. We spent quite a while watching, moving around as necessary to keep it at least partly in sight as it moved around. That was a lot of fun, the longest and best look I've gotten at the okapi since they built that exhibit and moved them from the more open area next to the giraffes. We then went and looked briefly at gorillas: most of the gorilla viewing area is indoors (though the apes are in the open air) and I wanted to be outside.

The other theme of this visit was young birds, starting with a half dozen ducklings in the flamingo pond. One mallard chick, yes (there are always mallards all over the zoo) and five of what we think were black whistling duck chicks. Oddly, the adult black whistling ducks were some distance away: the only adult duck near the collection of ducklings was a female mallard. I thought the parents were taking chances, but with mallards it's mostly the drakes who are aggressive to other ducks, including ducklings. And it's possible there was a whistling duck parent lurking under the bushes where we couldn't see.

In the Children's Zoo (where we went hoping for otters), there's a walk-in enclosure inhabited by black-crowned night herons. Right now, there's a nest containing five (at least) young herons. We also saw a large but not yet full grown one who was out of its nest and asking an adult to feed it. We spent a few minutes watching them: we see this kind of heron in the park sometimes, but one at a time, and usually they see or hear us first, and call briefly as they fly away. The exhibit also contained a wood duck that seemed to have wandered in somehow, and there was one night heron standing on the outside of the cage. A volunteer we talked to later said that yes, that was a wild bird. (The zoo has several exhibits that include local wildlife, such as turtles and some local birds in the indoor aviaries, in addition to a few signs identifying wild visitors such as mallards and Canada geese, and a lot of random creatures, like those chipmunks, that are just around because it's a green, protected place with plenty of fresh water and cover.)

There are peafowl all over the zoo, especially in the Children's Zoo and some of the Africa exhibits, but also on the roofs of random buildings, scavenging for dropped food near the cafeteria, and so on (though they are less ubiquitous than the mallards, or the house sparrows). This time, in addition to peacocks displaying and peahens wandering quietly around eating, we saw a peachick: probably about half grown, but still fluffy, and with neither fancy peacock tail feathers nor the display feathers both sexes have on top of their heads.

We also spent a while watching the Himalayan cranes that they keep across the path from the snow leopards: at first we saw only one one adult (and a couple of mallards sitting on the nest islet); then a volunteer showed us the chicks lurking in the foliage. The chicks (light brown and fluffy) and eventually the other adult came out and we watched a while. The volunteer said she was there every other Sunday and the babies had doubled in size between her visits. (We'd seen some older crane chicks some years ago; they were also light brown, but closer to their parents' height.)

We also saw lions (fine-looking, in a lazy way), wallabies, lemurs (there are a few in the Children's Zoo again), a tapir, and tigers and sea lions (both briefly), but not bears or bison. Next time, I may try to start with the sea lions and the tigers, rather than ending with them.

Comments

[quility.livejournal.com]

Thank you for sharing a description of your visit. If I can't make it to the Bronx Zoo anymore - I am happy to at least hear descriptions of how it is doing.

Sounds like you had a lovely visit.