I just got back from my zoo visit. I’m sorry but I’m exhausted, and I don’t have the desire or motivation to type up a full zoo trip report or to post pictures, so I’ll save that task for later on in the week.
Anyways, here are my some things that stood out to me the most from my trip:
1. A lot of the monkeys, gibbons, orangutans, and gorillas were sitting by themselves and all alone. Aside from the ring-tailed lemurs, Tufted capuchins, Angola colobus, and blue monkeys, the tropical forest kind of disappointed me, honestly. There was only one gorilla outside and he was all alone and by himself, there appeared to be only one orangutan, there only appeared to be one male white-cheeked gibbon, and one male black howler monkeys. Most primates are social animals and enjoy to be around each others’ company, you cannot leave a social creature like a primate alone in an exhibit. It’s not good for their emotional well-being. What really puzzled and kind of bothered me was that there was only ONE Western Lowland Gorilla outside in the gorilla yard (I checked the indoor exhibit too, and I didn’t notice any inside). Why would you bring only one gorilla outside and leave the others inside? Why wouldn’t you let the whole group go outside together? It’s really confusing and that was the first time I’ve only seen only one gorilla outside, so I definitely wasn’t prepared for that. The Hoffman’s two-toed sloth was also absent from the tufted capuchin exhibit. I did get a very pleasant and unexpected surprise when I saw the siamangs in their outdoor exhibit.
2. The cheetah cubs were a HUGE hit!! All 5 were outside with their mother. It was an awesome experience and by far the highlight of my trip.
3. It was so awesome seeing three different species of crocodilian all spread out throughout the zoo. I’m a reptile lover and a crocodilian lover, so it was so awesome to see all the different kinds. I’m SO glad I got to see the dwarf crocodiles, as that was a species that I’ve really missed seeing in past visits and I’m glad their exhibit is finally being occupied again. Also seeing 5 gharials all together in one pool was such an awesome experience! I’ve never seen one in a zoo before and I know less about them compared to other crocodilians, so that was an awesome experience. My favorite crocodilian species at the zoo, is by far and will always be Otis, the male American Alligator. He is awesome. He’s so big and powerful. Such a great creature and I’ve truly grown up with Otis over the years. I was born in 1995 and he’s one of the very few zoo animals that has remained at the zoo.
5. The Galapagos tortoises, and the yellow-footed tortoises were actually in motion and active, particularly the Galapagos tortoises which is awesome, because it’s not every day you see a Galapagos tortoise walk so much as it did today. That was such a cool and unexpected surprise.
6. The tiger cubs, Andre and Tesha that we’re born in 2017, have grown SO much. They are huge and almost look like full grown adults. It’s been so great to see how they’ve grown and matured over the years.
7. The lion exhibit looks to be coming along, as I feel that it’s close to being done.
8. They are definitely doing construction and expansion on Compass Point. I can’t wait to see what they finally put in that section of the zoo.
9. I didn’t see the Bennett’s Wallabies, but I did immediately afterwards see the Red Kangaroos which healed any disappointment I had.
10. Today was one of the few times I’ve actually seen the sea lions (or any Water’s Edge species in general) active swimming in the underwater tunnel section of Water’s Edge. That was a nice sight to see.
11. I noticed a rat in the indoor Western Lowland Gorilla exhibit. I don’t know how they manage to get in there.
12. Some areas of the zoo look overgrown with algae or excessive vegetation: for example the the water moat in the tiger exhibit has SO much green algae. It would be nice if they could somehow treat the algae so the water could be accessible to the tigers for bathing and drinking purposes. I also noticed that in the Indoor sea lion/northern elephant seal pool, there was also a lot of algae at the bottom of the pool.
13. Quite a few of the penguins looked like they were molting their feathers. Also, one of the gentoo penguins had something green (ALL over its white belly). I from last year’s visit remember the green on this particular gentoo penguin’s visit. Also while on the subject of molting, the timber rattlesnake was shedding its skin.
14. There are northern elephant seals at the zoo. I saw one sunbathing while the sea lions were zooming around in the water.
15. There was only one meerkat which I found puzzling due to the fact that meerkats are highly social creatures.
Anyways, those are just the things that stood out to me the most from my trip. Like I said, I’ll do a full trip report with pictures as the week progresses.
