Franklin Park Zoo

[redbird]

cattitude and I went to the zoo yesterday. The Franklin Park Zoo is fairly small, so we got to see almost everything (a few things were closed for the season).

There's a building that houses kiwis and frogmouths, with low lighting because both those species of bird are nocturnal. I had fun watching the frogmouths, including seeing them fly across the exhibit area, and will take Cattitude's word that there's a kiwi in there somewhere. Nearby we got a really good look at a white cockatoo, which was raising its wings so we could see the yellow underside.

I also enjoyed the lions, which we heard before we saw them. It looks as though they have two male lions in there, and no females, which is unusual. Both lions had fine manes.

I had looked at the zoo's website when we were planning the trip, and decided I wanted to see African ungulates. The giraffes were out, despite a sign saying they would be indoors if was below 65 F (the forecast had been for warmer, but it was 60 when we got there) or inclement; it looked like one adult and one young giraffe. I had been looking forward to seeing the gnus, since I don't remember seeing one before, but was disappointed: they were standing in the distance, and looking small and nondescript.

We started the visit with a Siberian crane, which kindly came toward the front of its enclosure as we stood there. Also seen: tigers (one white, one normal orange/black/white coloration), warthogs, an ostrich with a couple of just-molted feathers still clinging to the rest of its plumage, and a lot of parakeets flying in an aviary. That's the "Australian aviary," which was closed for the day or the season; it sounds more impressive on the website than it looked in person from the outside. (Then again, my standards for comparison here are the Bronx Zoo and the Montreal Biodome; the Biodome isn't huge, but they do the walk-through bird area very well, and keep everything open year-round.)

Normal admission is $20 for adults, but we got in for $9 each with a pass from the library. I agreed with Cattitude that it wasn't $20 worth of zoo; I will probably want to go back in the summer, if we can get another pass. However, I now have a Franklin Park Zoo t-shirt, because they had a really nice-looking shirt with a zebra on it; I never did get a Woodland Park Zoo shirt, because I didn't like any of theirs.

Comments

[alatefeline]

RRRRRROOOARRR! BIG KITTIES! Lions and tigers, yay!

Also birdies! Yay!

Ungulates + inclement = tasty words.

Any zoo is far more interesting than no zoo in my opinion. ...But not necessarily *better* than; that depend on how/whether they treat animals and help the environment and community, I think.