9/27/15 - Old bear Grottos

Where in the zoo is this?

~Thylo

ThylacineAlive said:

Where in the zoo is this?

~Thylo

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It's one of the entrances to American Trail and it's by the Giant Anteater exhibit.

Here's a image of it on google maps that might help you find out where it is.

Screenshot by Lightshot

Thanks. I visited last in 2012 so that area was closed for the American Trails construction at the time which is why I didn't recognize it.

~Thylo

Is this grotto the same as the one in this picture, does anybody know?
http://www.zoochat.com/612/various-pictures-national-zoo-70s-237339/

DavidBrown said:

Is this grotto the same as the one in this picture, does anybody know?
http://www.zoochat.com/612/various-pictures-national-zoo-70s-237339/

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I think so but i'm not 100% sure though but the person who posted the picture did say they were in an area called Beaver Valley which would be accurate to where these exhibits are.

I do know that these grottos were home to Kiska* a Kodiak bear in the late 1990's and early 2000's and it also held Sloth bears before they moved to the grottos where the andean bears are currently before moving to Asia Trail.

* https://www.flickr.com/photos/ucumari/203289956/in/album-72157622539658153/

^ I don't know if I can post a random flickr page but I think this same exact photo has been posted on here before so why not.

Also the same person has some old photos of the zoo if you want to look at that.

Thanks for the information and the link to the photos. Interesting photos of the bygone National Zoo including the grizzly, hippo, and giraffes.

Here's a picture of the sloth bears that used to live in these grottos.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/8177037@N06/934940066/in/album-72157601068332808/

^This person also has a nice amount of old pictures of the zoo [Most are of Lions and Tigers though].

https://www.flickr.com/photos/91829349@N00/2883661590/in/album-72157607293274259/

^This is a link to a photo from back in 91 and the animal they're looking at is what I believe is a Malayan Tapir. Tapirs are one of my favorite animals but sadly I was born around the time the zoo started to lose a lot of cool species like Tapir so I wasn't able to see it.

This person doesn't have a photo album of the zoo but they do have one of DC in 91 with some pictures of the zoo if once again you would like to see.

Where were the tapirs kept?

~Thylo

ThylacineAlive said:

Where were the tapirs kept?

~Thylo

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They were kept in other places before but the last place they were kept was where the current sloth bear exhibit is.

My mom has told me that the fence for their exhibit was also the fence for the zoo so you could also see them from the street.