Zoo: okapi but no emus

cattitude and I walked our feet off at the Bronx Zoo this afternoon. I got a good long look (well, several long looks) at the okapi in the Congo Gorilla Forest. The gorillas were also out and about, but there were large crowds watching them, which I didn't want to deal with for long.

The current version of the butterfly exhibit is a large tent surrounded by a butterfly garden, which seems to be appealing to dragonflies as well. I could do without the large model insects and frog in one of the ponds, notably the model butterflies with flapping wings, but I was amused by the real dragonfly perching on one of the model dragonflies, and the spiderwebs built connecting them. Overall, though, it seems like a good setup, including plants that will appeal to early-emerging butterflies (such as lilac).

The flightless bird area was closed off, again. Furthermore, it's been taken off the zoo maps, and a planned science area is now in that corner; the ostriches are now living with the giraffes, but we may have lost the emus and rheas altogether. They've also removed the Crane Walk, though there's still a pair of cranes living across from the Himalaya Highlands exhibit (snow leopards and red panda). I am not pleased. We also saw far fewer mallards than usual, but I don't think that's because of anything specific the zoo management is doing; there are plenty of Canada geese, and the peafowl were being particularly unafraid, wandering close to humans including in the "African Market" snack bar/picnic area.

Tiger Mountain was surprisingly uncrowded: far from empty, but with room for us to easily see the tigers. We didn't stay long, because we were worn out and heading for the exit, but it was a pleasant almost-end to the trip. (From there, we walked past the Pere David's deer, with mallow in bloom next to their stream, and the bison, lurking in the back corner of their exhibit, and catch the Bx12 bus home.)

I also bought a new Bronx Zoo t-shirt, with lemurs on a medium gray background, because zoo shirts are cool and relatively light-weight shirts are good in the sort of how weather we've been having; my general color preferences, combined with Freddie Baer's usual palette, have left me with lots of t-shirts in black, dark blue, bright purple, and the like, and few whites and pale colors.

Zoo: okapi but no emus

cattitude and I walked our feet off at the Bronx Zoo this afternoon. I got a good long look (well, several long looks) at the okapi in the Congo Gorilla Forest. The gorillas were also out and about, but there were large crowds watching them, which I didn't want to deal with for long.

The current version of the butterfly exhibit is a large tent surrounded by a butterfly garden, which seems to be appealing to dragonflies as well. I could do without the large model insects and frog in one of the ponds, notably the model butterflies with flapping wings, but I was amused by the real dragonfly perching on one of the model dragonflies, and the spiderwebs built connecting them. Overall, though, it seems like a good setup, including plants that will appeal to early-emerging butterflies (such as lilac).

The flightless bird area was closed off, again. Furthermore, it's been taken off the zoo maps, and a planned science area is now in that corner; the ostriches are now living with the giraffes, but we may have lost the emus and rheas altogether. They've also removed the Crane Walk, though there's still a pair of cranes living across from the Himalaya Highlands exhibit (snow leopards and red panda). I am not pleased. We also saw far fewer mallards than usual, but I don't think that's because of anything specific the zoo management is doing; there are plenty of Canada geese, and the peafowl were being particularly unafraid, wandering close to humans including in the "African Market" snack bar/picnic area.

Tiger Mountain was surprisingly uncrowded: far from empty, but with room for us to easily see the tigers. We didn't stay long, because we were worn out and heading for the exit, but it was a pleasant almost-end to the trip. (From there, we walked past the Pere David's deer, with mallow in bloom next to their stream, and the bison, lurking in the back corner of their exhibit, and catch the Bx12 bus home.)

I also bought a new Bronx Zoo t-shirt, with lemurs on a medium gray background, because zoo shirts are cool and relatively light-weight shirts are good in the sort of how weather we've been having; my general color preferences, combined with Freddie Baer's usual palette, have left me with lots of t-shirts in black, dark blue, bright purple, and the like, and few whites and pale colors.