Day One:
Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden:
I enjoyed this zoo thoroughly, and always have. I was at the zoo for approximately five hours, from 10:00am to 3:00pm. I'll do brief reviews/summaries of each section in the order I visited them. The Gorilla World exhibit is presently closed for expansion, and will reopen in May, and several animals (mostly in Jungle Trails) were off-exhibit due to weather.
Wildlife Canyon:
It was disappointing to go along this path and no longer see a Sumatran rhinoceros as the first animal of the day. Instead, its exhibits were taken by a warthog in the first yard, and a capybara/crested screamer mix in the second. It's hopefully for the better, though, that Harapan is now in Sumatra. The other yards have Visayan warty pig, Sichuan takin, Przewalski's horse, domestic bactrian camel, and emu. Each is adequate, if not creative.
Eagle Eyrie:
A large pair of flights, with the smaller for Andean condor and the larger for Steller's sea eagle. In my opinion, the condor aviary was too small while that for sea eagles was fantastic.
Reptile House:
The oldest American zoo building, its age shows in architecture and general unsuitability of exhibits. The tanks for animals as large as monitors were too small in size, and the Chinese alligator exhibit in the center is rather pitiful as well. A rare snake species (at least one I'd never seen before) was black-tailed cribo. An outdoor yard for Galápagos tortoise was unoccupied today but in warmer weather will hold
C. microphyes.
Monkey Island:
An outdated rock with a few branches for Japanese macaques. Uninspiring.
Night Hunters:
This nocturnal house was fashioned out of the zoo's old cat house. It is still cat-heavy, but includes animals such as aardvarks, bats, and a python. Most exhibits are (as expected from a nocturnal house) a bit small, but the house is decent overall. Species list: spectacled owl, Pallas cat, fossa, vampire bat (probably the nicest exhibit I've seen for the species), clouded leopard, ocelot, binturong,!potto, aardvark, Indian flying fox, Garnett's galago, fishing cat, bobcat, large-spotted genet, banded palm civet, sand cat, black-footed cat, caracal. Outside is an exhibit for Eurasian eagle-owl, currently empty because of construction.
My less-than-perfect photo of the banded palm civet:
Cat Canyon:
More cats! It begins with a nice cougar exhibit, and a winding trail leads through two tiger yards (for Malayan and white, which rotate, as I understand it). The last exhibit is for snow leopard; it is nice and rocky, but there are few climbing opportunities.
World of the Insect:
I normally skip insect exhibits in zoos, but I needed a bird from the walk-through portion of this exhibit for the passerine challenge. The insect exhibits were for quite a few beetles, as well as a bunch of walking sticks, spiders, and assassin bugs. A few vertebrate exhibits such as black tree monitor and rough green snake were dispersed throughout. The building's last exhibit was a butterfly walk-through which also had spangled cotinga and a pigeon species. I don't know if this building is good or bad, but I suppose I enjoyed it.
Rough green snake in World of the Insect:
Dragons/Lemur Lookout:
Dragons is an indoor exhibit home to monitors of various species: Ackie's dwarf monitor, green monitor, quince monitor, crocodile monitor, and Komodo dragon. The exhibits are consistent and don't stand out. An outdoor yard of average quality is for Komodo dragon, while a nearby large exhibit is for ring-tailed lemurs.
Otto M. Budig Manatee Springs:
This exhibit begins with a greenhouse-like room, with three exhibits. Large exhibits on either side are for American crocodile and American alligator, while an exhibit you cross over has some species of turtle. The next room has one small tank featuring piranha, several exhibits with snakes, herps, and small fish, and one large tank which features Florida manatees. I like this set of exhibits. Also of interest, a dusky seaside sparrow is displayed (a taxidermied specimen obviously).
Rhino Reserve:
Just five of the seven yards were open today. Exhibits for Indian rhinoceros, black rhinoceros, bongo, and okap/yellow-backed duiker are all adequate, but don't stand out. An exhibit for greater flamingos is nice, for the rarest flamingo species still found in captivity in America.
Siegfred and Roy's White Lion:
A mediocre exhibit for two white lionesses.
Lords of the Arctic/Bears:
Lords of the Arctic shows both polar bears and arctic foxes. The foxes have a nice hillside exhibit, while the bears have a grotto, made smaller by a pool.
Jungle Trails:
Good primate exhibits all around, but many were inside because of the cold. The inside accommodations that could be viewed were suitable, nothing special. The aye-ayes were very active, and as always, fun to watch.
Wings of the World/Free Flight Aviary:
This bird house has exhibits of varying quality. The first two main exhibits, which are both walk-in aviaries, have South American and Australian/Asian birds. Both are spacious, and provide plenty of height for the species kept within. There were some rarities such as capuchinbird, Bourke's parakeet, and Raggiana bird of paradise.
After a set of wall exhibits (home to thick-billed parrots, African birds, and ducks) a hallway of quite pitiful exhibits is found. Like a strange museum exhibit, and lit from below, three exhibits (home to bishops and canaries, gouldian finches, and an African pygmy falcon) are generally two small for their inhabitants. The building ends with a few seabird exhibits that are nothing to write home about, including a penguin exhibit.
The outdoor Free Flight Aviary was probably my favorite part of the zoo. It was inhabited by keas, a lifer for me. They made wonderful sounds and were wonderfully colored, and obviously quite intelligent. The aviary was certainly quite enough space for them, and many times they flew back and forth. They clearly enjoyed visitors as well- two flew right up to the window to inspect my camera. It made for some good photos, as well as some funny ones:
Spaulding Children's Zoo:
This is a mediocre set of exhibits, about half of which is a generic and tired barn area. The interesting points are the nursery, currently home to three adorable Malayan tiger cubs, as well as a binturong. Two pooled exhibits are home to African penguin and little blue penguin.
Africa:
This is where most of the new exhibits were since my last visit. Upon entering, a nicely sized savanna exhibit is home to impala, lesser kudu, Thomson's gazelle, crested guineafowl, ostrich, and grey crowned crane, with two vulture species signed but not seen. My only quarrel is that it appears mowed. Next is a meerkat exhibit, with the generic pop-up domes. It's one of the larger exhibits I've seen for meerkats, but doesn't beat Nashville. The final exhibit on this side is for hippos. It was larger than I expected, based off of the reviews on this site, and I suppose it was average. However, from such a new addition I would expect more. On the other side of the savanna is an African lion exhibit, nothing special but quite popular. An empty flamingo exhibit is in front of a large Masai giraffe exhibit, which is where I fed a giraffe for my first time several years ago.
Swan Lake:
I'll cover three small areas in this part. A small path near the children's zoo leads to a pair of nice red panda exhibits, with good space and height. I saw a pair in each. A path over part of the lake has two gibbon exhibits, one for siamang and one for buff-cheeked gibbon (unfortunately not seen). They are compact and vertical, a little too small for my taste. A last exhibit, near the zoo's entrance, has red crowned crane, but could be a bit larger.
Elephant Reserve:
Two exhibits, too small (but most are). One home to a bull and the other, a pair of females. The female yard was a bit larger.
P&G Discovery Forest:
A building with the potential to be a nice walk-through rainforest, but currently with just three animals in mediocre exhibits: two-toed sloth, blue and gold macaw, and boa constrictor.
I enjoyed this zoo a lot, and will probably return later this year (on the way elsewhere). A common theme is that exhibits could be larger, however most were at least adequate with a few (such as bonobo outdoors- unfortunately empty) that were great.
Newport Aquarium:
An aquarium that I've been to a few times before, just 15-20 minutes from the zoo. However, it's a lot worse than I remember, and I was able to finish in an hour and fifteen minutes. Since writing up the zoo took me so long, and I'm actually on the way to my next zoo right now, I won't post an exhibit-by-exhibit review. The collection has declined. No longer are sea jellies displayed, replaced instead with GloFish (genetically engineered) and lionfish. Gator Alley is now deprived of all crocodilians except for the star, Mighty Mike, and two white alligators. This is much better from a husbandry standpoint but I would have preferred the exhibits to be renovated and the various crocodilians still there. I had particularly wanted to see mugger crocodile. Seahorses: Unbridled Fun is the newest exhibit, and it was ok but didn't make good use of available space. I think seven species were displayed, three of which were seahorses. It did, however, have one of my favorite animals: a ribboned pipehorse:
The aquarium failed to impress me as much as it had previously. I had been looking forward to scalloped hammerhead sharks as well, but they didn't do well so they moved to another facility. That's not the aquarium's fault, but was disappointing.
I'm now just about five minutes from the Columbus Zoo. I can't wait to finally see a Siberian musk deer, and the African leopard cubs just now on display are going to be great as well.
