A trip to the zoo

posted by Jeff | Tuesday, October 18, 2005, 9:13 PM | comments: 1

I decided to take a "solo date" to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo today. I've been talking about it since spring and I never did it. Since it was cool and sunny today, I decided that today was the day.

The zoo is kind of a special place for me, because I used to live just a few blocks away. The neighborhood really scares me now, but I did spend 14 and a half years there. I have so many memories of the place, and it was really weird to go back.

I posted photos on Kodak Gallery.

Let me start by explaining the bridge photos. That's the infamous Fulton Road Bridge in Cleveland. Built in 1932, it has been falling apart ever since. I remember it was in bad shape when I was a kid, and to see it now, I'm surprised they let traffic over it. Well, actually it's down to one lane each way. In any case, I have photos from the ground that include the covers to protect the zoo from falling concrete. Scary. It's going to be replaced starting late next year.

Anyway, I started my walk around the zoo by entering the African area in the middle. The lions, zebras, gazelles, giraffes and ostriches are in this area. Just next to them is monkey island, which is one of the oldest habitats at the zoo. I remember days when that island was totally filled with critters running all over the place. These days there are just a handful. Adjacent to this area, on the other side of the rhinos, is a really nice catering area. I was very impressed.

After passing under the bridge, I entered the western most part of the zoo. That's where the polar bears, sea lions, camels, reindeer and back in the day, some huge turtles (didn't see any). Only one of the bears was out sunning himself. They're such amazing creatures. I think I may have accidentally missed one of the habitats there by taking a certain path, but I'm not sure. It has been so long since I've been in there.

I noticed that they still do zoo keys, these little plastic things you can buy and stick in slots to get audio to play at various exhibits. When I was a kid, there were cool souvenir plastic keys that were shaped like skeleton keys. Now they're more like swipe cards.

There's a neat wolf exhibit that looks fairly new. It's very cool because it's built on the hillside, so there's a lot of interesting terrain for the wolves. Unfortunately, and presumably so they aren't freaked out by screaming children (and there were plenty today), there's a big glass wall between you and the habitat. Although you do get to see the critters swimming in the water this way.

I skipped the greenhouse but went around the old Waterfowl lake. There you'll find lots of ducks, geese and flamingo. This is the old core of the zoo, where the bird habitat is (I missed it or it's gone) and the pachyderm building. This zoo has always been big on elephants. I don't remember any of their ages, but I know several of them were born there. They've always been a big deal.

I skipped most of the new Australian stuff due to time constraints, but I wish I would've looked in there more. Lots of stuff just roaming about. I did peak in the Koala exhibit, but they were sleeping. Some strange reddish-orange kangaroos were also in there.

I guess this is a good place to mention that I saw no peacocks. The thing that always struck me as a kid was that they were everywhere and not constrained to any particular area. That's weird. I wonder why?

I headed up the deck walk to the cat and primate building. This is a very long wood and steel walkway that climbs you up 80 feet. Still a hike! I remember as a kid that kids would often get into the zoo and hide out there all day to cut school. No cutters were there this day.

The gorillas were hiding somewhere, and that bummed me out. I did get to see the cheetahs outside though. They're so lean and skinny looking, kind of like when my cat Luna was particularly sick. They were all chilling out.

Inside, the snow leopard cub was curled up napping, so I could barely see him. The older cats were up and stretching. The various primates were all doing basically nothing, except for one kind of monkey that clearly has no problem breeding in captivity and loves to swing from vines. I forget the species.

Watching the clock, I jumped on the tram to go back down to the entrance (the trams are made by Chance, by the way). That's when I saw some of the cooler Australian stuff that I skipped. Perhaps next time. I had to get into the Rain Forest!

You don't hear a lot of "save the rain forest" stuff these days, but the world is still not doing a good job of preserving them and the gigantic ecosystems they support. That's a damn shame. Anyway, this artificial rain forest was a real joke for the longest time because it went way over budget and opened many years late. Today, it's still a very neat thing to walk through. The species in that building are a lot more unique than those in the main zoo. The orangutans are in there too.

There's a neat artificial rain/fog cycle in the one area, which is complimented by audio about the unfortunate destruction of the rain forest. It's still very neat to see.

I was there for about 2.5 hours and snapped about 130 photos (at least 20 were junk). I was getting frustrated with my cheap long lens, in part because the best it can do is f/5.6 at length, and partly because the soda accident I had at Medieval Times a few years ago causes problems with focusing. I'm really out of practice too. The stuff I shot was largely crap, and not sharp. The problem isn't the equipment as much as it is me. Poor exposure was a problem in the shadowy places with bright sun. I need to get out and shoot more.

Overall, it was a fun couple of hours. The weather was perfect, and the animals at most exhibits were indeed out and about. The overall state of the zoo is pretty good, and better than I expected. There are a lot of empty habitats though, and I suspect they could use more money. I'm thinking about becoming a member myself.

I like zoos. A lot of people don't, but I think it's important to understand animals and learn about them, even if it is in a contrived environment. I'll not likely get a chance for an African safari, so this is the closest I'll ever get to the animals.


Comments

CPLady

October 19, 2005, 1:04 PM #

I love going to the zoo, although I haven't been in quite some time. I like to take a sketch pad with me and draw the critters. Just a nice relaxing thing to do.

The Detroit Zoo still has the zoo keys, although I'm not sure if they've switched from the elephant shaped keys they had before.

I hope to have time to check out your photos at lunch.


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