We're Going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo!
Just after Ed and Denise visited NYC, we hooked up with their friend, Kate, for a day at the Bronx Zoo. When we'd been out during E&D's visit, I was showing Kate The Wildlife Conservatory magazine that we get for being members. (The TWC gives us access to the FOUR NYC zoos and the aquarium.) Kate was rather taken with the tree kangaroos, so we had to see them in person.
The day was lovely and surprisingly warm. Hurray! Our first stop was to see the tree kangaroo. During a previous trip to the zoo, Toby and I saw two tree kangaroos. One was bullying the other out of a spot on the tree. The bullied one looked quite sad to be forced onto the ground, laying her weary head on a low-lying branch. This trip, we only saw the one tree kangaroo. We guessed this one was female, perhaps with a joey in her pouch: she moved rather awkwardly through the tree branches. Maybe she's carrying extra weight that she wasn't used to, we surmised. At any rate, it was fun to watch her move around, but she did look sad. We also were hypothesizing that on the previous trip, a visiting male from another zoo was brought in for breeding purposes. Who knows? But I do hope there will be a tiny tree kangaroo to be seen at the zoo soon!
Tree Kangaroo awkwardly climbing the tree.
Phew! I made it!
Given the warmish day, the zoo was busier than it had been during winter visits. We did manage to get a good spot to watch the tiger enrichment session. This time, we watched Alexis being fed, then her mother, Norma. The zookeepers were telling us about Alexis being rather aggressive when it came to food, so she was always fed first. Then she left with her final treat (a chicken, I believe), and it was Norma's turn to be fed and poked and prodded. Partway through, though, Alexis came back and roared at Norma. The keeper left the enrichment area, and within a few minutes, Alexis became bored and allowed Norma to finish her enrichment session. It was fantastic to see TWO tigers interacting!
Sadly, just several days before this visit, one of the two male brown bears had died. We stopped by the bear den to pay our respects and to watch the remaining three bears (one male, two females) lounging about in the afternoon sunshine. The polar bear next door was pacing as usual. We've only seem him/her pacing the same route; I think that this fellow needs different enrichment sessions!
Even brown bears need to nap in the sunbeam sometimes.
We also visited the House of Darkness at the zoo, where we watched crazy fruit bats munching away on hanging bits of fruit and flying around far too quickly for my feeble eyes to track! There were naked mole rats, which are always a bit creepy to me. And sand cats (awwww) and slow lorises. We could just see the furry lump of the sloth before the lights turned on and we were told that the zoo was closing.
A few weeks later, Toby and I stopped by the Central Park Zoo. Normally, we wouldn't bother with this small zoo seeing as (1) it's in the southern (read: extremely crowded) part of Central Park, and (2) it's very small but the admission price is large. But, seeing as we have passes, we've stopped by a few times. I suspect the visits will stop as the weather warms up and the area gets immensely crowded! Anyway, we had to get a few photos of the two resident mouse deer for Kath and Tom, seeing as they haven't been able to see any wild specimens in Malaysia so far! (I was quite annoyed to overhear someone calling a mouse deer a 'deer mouse'. ) The rainforest building in the Central Park Zoo is pretty nifty, all things considered. Bats were spotted sleeping (occassionally waving their wings as if to fan themseles), hanging from the emergency sprinklers! One large colourful bird was trying to make with the zookeeper's hand/head/railing - basically whatever it could land on! He even alighted on my shoulder momentarily, much to my surprise!
Another reason we stop by the Central Park Zoo is to visit the red panda. It's usually sleeping with its back to us, but this time it managed to adjust just enough for us to get a glimpse of its uber-adorable face.
Mouse deer and tortoise (with a large leaf in foreground for perspective).
We'll be back to the Bronx Zoo soon, I'm sure. And we'll have to check out the one in Prospect Park (Brooklyn) and the Queens Zoos before our memberships run out! Of course, we will need to visit the aquarium again too, as it's a great excuse to hang out with my favourite creatures: sea otters!
The day was lovely and surprisingly warm. Hurray! Our first stop was to see the tree kangaroo. During a previous trip to the zoo, Toby and I saw two tree kangaroos. One was bullying the other out of a spot on the tree. The bullied one looked quite sad to be forced onto the ground, laying her weary head on a low-lying branch. This trip, we only saw the one tree kangaroo. We guessed this one was female, perhaps with a joey in her pouch: she moved rather awkwardly through the tree branches. Maybe she's carrying extra weight that she wasn't used to, we surmised. At any rate, it was fun to watch her move around, but she did look sad. We also were hypothesizing that on the previous trip, a visiting male from another zoo was brought in for breeding purposes. Who knows? But I do hope there will be a tiny tree kangaroo to be seen at the zoo soon!
Tree Kangaroo awkwardly climbing the tree.
Phew! I made it!
Given the warmish day, the zoo was busier than it had been during winter visits. We did manage to get a good spot to watch the tiger enrichment session. This time, we watched Alexis being fed, then her mother, Norma. The zookeepers were telling us about Alexis being rather aggressive when it came to food, so she was always fed first. Then she left with her final treat (a chicken, I believe), and it was Norma's turn to be fed and poked and prodded. Partway through, though, Alexis came back and roared at Norma. The keeper left the enrichment area, and within a few minutes, Alexis became bored and allowed Norma to finish her enrichment session. It was fantastic to see TWO tigers interacting!
Sadly, just several days before this visit, one of the two male brown bears had died. We stopped by the bear den to pay our respects and to watch the remaining three bears (one male, two females) lounging about in the afternoon sunshine. The polar bear next door was pacing as usual. We've only seem him/her pacing the same route; I think that this fellow needs different enrichment sessions!
Even brown bears need to nap in the sunbeam sometimes.
We also visited the House of Darkness at the zoo, where we watched crazy fruit bats munching away on hanging bits of fruit and flying around far too quickly for my feeble eyes to track! There were naked mole rats, which are always a bit creepy to me. And sand cats (awwww) and slow lorises. We could just see the furry lump of the sloth before the lights turned on and we were told that the zoo was closing.
A few weeks later, Toby and I stopped by the Central Park Zoo. Normally, we wouldn't bother with this small zoo seeing as (1) it's in the southern (read: extremely crowded) part of Central Park, and (2) it's very small but the admission price is large. But, seeing as we have passes, we've stopped by a few times. I suspect the visits will stop as the weather warms up and the area gets immensely crowded! Anyway, we had to get a few photos of the two resident mouse deer for Kath and Tom, seeing as they haven't been able to see any wild specimens in Malaysia so far! (I was quite annoyed to overhear someone calling a mouse deer a 'deer mouse'. ) The rainforest building in the Central Park Zoo is pretty nifty, all things considered. Bats were spotted sleeping (occassionally waving their wings as if to fan themseles), hanging from the emergency sprinklers! One large colourful bird was trying to make with the zookeeper's hand/head/railing - basically whatever it could land on! He even alighted on my shoulder momentarily, much to my surprise!
Another reason we stop by the Central Park Zoo is to visit the red panda. It's usually sleeping with its back to us, but this time it managed to adjust just enough for us to get a glimpse of its uber-adorable face.
Mouse deer and tortoise (with a large leaf in foreground for perspective).
We'll be back to the Bronx Zoo soon, I'm sure. And we'll have to check out the one in Prospect Park (Brooklyn) and the Queens Zoos before our memberships run out! Of course, we will need to visit the aquarium again too, as it's a great excuse to hang out with my favourite creatures: sea otters!
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