Bronx Zoo

We had SO much fun at the Bronx Zoo yesterday. The weather, although quite warm, felt a little cooler than the previous few days. It took us about an hour and 15 minutes to get to the zoo from Queens by subway. The stop nearest the zoo had a flowery design in its windows, which I loved. I think it's my new favorite subway glass design.

The zoo was only two or three blocks from the subway, and on our way there we got to walk through a short tunnel under an overpass. The walls of the tunnel were covered with an animal-themed mural. It was pretty cool.

We entered the park through the Bronx River Gate entrance, which is the one nearby the parking lot. I'm glad we didn't have to pay for parking.

The first animals we encountered were buffalo. It made me miss home. I have fond memories of many summer visits to Yellowstone Park with my family, where there are always a plethora of buffalo.

 

Next we toured the World of Birds, which was a two story concrete building full of various habitats. There were tons of different birds there, many we weren't familiar with. Brian's and my favorite bird was the King Vulture. They were very cool and creepy at the same time. One of the birds hunched over and gave us the perfect vulturey-pose. It was great!

We also like the Toco Toucans. Fruit Loops anyone? Two of the birds were fighting, and kept clacking their beaks together. It was really loud every time they bit each other. You could easily lose a finger if one ever bit you that viciously.

 

Outside the building, we took a moment to enjoy the surroundings. Bronx zoo is situated in a gorgeous area, and there were tons of trees. As we walked along the winding, paved pathways, it felt like we were lost in the woods. It was wonderful.

Happy to be spending a fun day together!

We next wondered to Tiger Mountain to catch a glimpse of these fierce striped cats. However, she was snoozing under a small cluster of trees. Not so fierce, or exciting. 

Our next stop was the polar bear. He was taking a nap as well. We were beginning to worry that all our pictures would turn out like this one. In his defense, it was hot and there was a distinct lack of ice in his cage.

We ended up passing him again two hour later and he was still sleeping. He had rolled over into another position, so at least we knew that he was real.

After passing by the polar bear the first time, we walked up some stairs and came upon the Grizzly Bear pen. There were four bears in total and they were so awesome! These bears were our favorite animal of the day. They definitely earned their keep.

They were so active. One of them kept standing up, which was very neat to see. They bears were so big and when they ran around, you could just tell how powerful they are. There was a pool in the pen and the two most active bears kept climbing in the water to "kiss" and wrestle. One of the others ran over and jumped in the pool, splashing huge waves of water over its edge. It was a great show.

We passed back by them again and they had climbed up on top of the rocky overhang running along the back of the pen. The bears were running around chasing each other.

We really didn't want to leave the bears because they were so entertaining, but we decided we should see what else the zoo had to offer. We weren't disappointed. We got to see a few baboons wandering around. They walk very fast! In the front of their enclosure were a mamma duck and her babies. They were adorable and we watched them waddle over to a stream and jump in.

One of the baboons was sitting on the stream's bank, stirring his hand in the water. He looked up just as I took a picture of him. It turned out perfect.

I was most excited to see the giraffes. I love giraffes; they fascinate me. Their pen was inside a building and there was only one giraffe in the pen. He was munching on some hay. We stayed here quite a while and watched him.

He was so cool. I could have stayed here all day, even if he did nothing else but stand around. We ended up seeing more later, they were in a nearby pen outside.

In the same building as the giraffe was an aardvark. Apparently aardvarks are nocturnal and like it dark, so his pen was located in a very dark room. His pen was very dimly lit with orange light. We finally saw him curled up next to the corner of the glass, asleep. His back was turned toward us and he was curled in a ball, but we saw his pointed ears. It was cool, because we'd never seen an aardvark before.

Outside of the giraffe building, we found the hyena pen. There were two of them in there, but they were lying down towards the back of their pen. One of the signs said something about the hyena being a "misunderstood predator". After reading that we realized that the repeated click we had been hearing was the sound of an electric fence. Funny that the hyena was the only animal we had seen with an electric fence. So much for misunderstood!

The World of Reptiles was next. This exhibit was much more interesting than I expected. We saw tons of turtles, lizards, snakes, frogs, and an alligator or two. 

Our favorite reptile of the whole exhibit was a little blue poison dart frog. He came up right to the glass and would hop around and then stop to look at us. This little attention hog was very cute.

We spent a lot of time watching the fly river turtle, a fresh water turtle that has a pig-like nose. He was munching on some lettuce in the corner. He looked soft and rubbery, and his shell was covered with skin. It didn't look like he could pull his legs and head back into his shell. He was very weird looking.

As I mentioned, we saw lots of snakes. One of the various rattlesnakes had such a cool pattern. I told Brian that it looked like a patterned piece of clothing from the 80's. We got to see a viper, copperhead, corn snake, and a few different cobras as well. I found the cobras interesting. I'd never seen one before.

This frog really grossed me out. It reminded me of a fresh cow-pie, just splatted out on the ground. Being from a dairy farm, I have seen my fair share of cow-pies. The lizard next to him looked awesome though. I really wanted to pet him, because his skin was all bumpy and looked like it was made of beads.

This was some sort of monitor lizard. He was huge, about four feet long. He was just chillin'.

The nose on this turtle was funny.

We headed toward the Zoo Center building to find the rhinos. I was worried for a second that the two statues outside were what the map was talking about. It was a very pretty building, with different kinds of animals carved into its facade. We went inside and to our right was the rhino pen, but it was empty. A sign directed us outside.

It took some hunting to find them, but we finally succeeded. It was worth the walking, because they were fascinating. Very large and armory.

What a weird looking animal. (The rhino, that is, not my husband!)

We visited Madagascar! The tile mural in the entrance to this building was gorgeous. It was all shiny and pretty. This picture really doesn't do it justice. The names of specific ocean currents were inlaid in the swirling lines, so it was decorative and informative.

I love zoos, because I get double the experience. You can ask Brian if you want, but I'm always looking at the plants just as much as the animals. It's fun to try and identify them and remember their names. It's kind of like a two-for-one deal for me. I loved this pitcher plant in one of the gibbon pens. Never seen this kind up close before.

In the next pen were ring-tailed lemurs and these turtles. The one kept following the other, and soon a third joined in, making a little turtle conga line. We called it the turtle train.

The lemurs were jumping and playing (as lemurs do). The backgrounds in the individual habitats were pretty neat, making it feel like you were somewhere other than in a building in the Bronx.

Outside, in a roundabout by the main entrance, was an impressive fountain covered with fish and seahorses (literally horses with fish tails), and little cherubic babies riding on them.

Here is the flamingo pond. (You can spot a few pink splotches in the back.) It was quite a beautiful setting.

There were other bird exhibits. We walked through the aquatic bird section which had penguins and puffins, among others. In the bird aviary we found a a kookaburra, which was a lot bigger than we expected. It didn't laugh for us, even though we sang him the song!

We enjoyed looking at the predatory birds. There were three bald eagles. I love bald eagles, not only because they represent our country, but because I used to see them flying around the area where I grew up. We would always be on the look out for them when out driving, walking or working. The zoo also had a golden eagle (which was a gorgeous bird), various owls, and more vultures.

By this time we had pretty much seen all that you could see for the general admission tickets. We passed the tigers one more time on our way out in hopes that she had woken up. We were in luck. She was awake and drinking from her pool. While we were watching her, two other tigers (I think they were her babies because they were about three-fourths her size) wandered over to the water. We were glad we tried to see them again.

We had such a fun day. I would give the Bronx zoo two thumbs up. Definitely a place to see if you have a day off.