Day 8 – Sunday, August 3rd
Music was CCR’s “Chronicle” record, essentially a Creedence Greatest Hits collection; R.E.M.’s “Greatest Hits” (2003); the phenomenal best seller “Legend” by Bob Marley which is also a Greatest Hits collection; and finally Bruce Springsteen’s “The Rising” which I’ve always maintained is the best record that man has done. It might be a mildly controversial choice considering the “Born to Run” and “Born in the USA” albums but one that I’ve always stuck with for the past dozen years. I feel that it is a more cohesive unit that might lack big hits but is all the more fulfilling and I’ve played it a thousand times over the years.
Trends:
- I saw yet more Fishers today to make it 4 zoos with the species in the past week
- Dall Sheep continue to be popular in this part of the nation (and extinct elsewhere)
- Pheasants are quite common as Dakota Zoo, Chahinkapa Zoo and Wildwood Wildlife Park all have 4-7 species of pheasant. Is it because they are hardy birds that do well in winter or is there a pheasant popularity contest going on in the states of North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin?
Mini-Reviews:
Como Park Zoo – In my 1,000 word review I highlighted how the 2010 opening of Polar Bear Odyssey ($15 million) and the 2013 opening of Gorilla Forest ($11 million) has transformed this fairly small zoo. The Polar Bear exhibit has 2 enclosures that are a revamp of old grottoes as well as an air-conditioned indoor viewing area. Huge underwater viewing windows, 5-foot high grass and flowers in the mini-meadows makes for great photos and the complex is essentially double the size of Utah’s Rocky Shores simply because there are 2 bears and 2 exhibits. Gorilla Forest also has two large exhibits (completely netted over) with 7 Lowland Gorillas in a bachelor unit and a family troop. The apes were very active and I visited the exhibits on 3 occasions and heard the informative, daily gorilla talk. What I really like is the fact that Como took 2 species that were already at the zoo and greatly improved their existing exhibits rather than leave the animals in substandard conditions only to open something else new.
The rest of the zoo appeals to visitors by showcasing mega-fauna around every corner and there are no gorals or genets here. There is the Large Cats complex with Amur Tiger and African Lion outdoor yards that are probably an acre each in size. Cougars and Snow Leopards are also found in this area and the whole thing is very similar to Big Cat Country at Saint Louis Zoo as visitors look down into open-topped enclosures plus have the opportunity to see into 4-5 indoor cat dens. The rest of the zoo has Sumatran Orangutans plus 6 other primate species; 6-7 large hoofstock yards; a huge Seal Island with 2 species; a mini-jungle walk-through called Tropical Encounters; Wolf Woods (great for wolves but terrible viewing through thick chain-link fencing in a dead-end zone); and the Aquatics Building has sea lions, penguins, puffins and more although that structure is arguably the weakest component of the zoo. Como Zoo has all the major critters (polar bears, wolves, penguins, gorillas, orangutans, other primates, giraffes, big cats) as well as Como Town, a small amusement park with 18 rides and attractions. Plus there is a large Conservatory and a couple of scenic gardens and no wonder the establishment was packed to the rafters on my visit! The whole thing is free and more than 2 million annual visitors pile into this zoo that I enjoyed a lot more than I was expecting to.
Irvine Park & Zoo – This is a non-AZA-accredited facility located in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, and it opened in 1906 amongst the 318 acres of Irvine Park. It all began with a deer exhibit and a bear den and over the years the zoo grew into a minor community treasure that sadly began to decline due to lack of new infrastructure. In 2002 the Park Board gave an ultimatum to build 3 new exhibits or close the entire zoo down and fundraising managed to meet its goal of raising $1.2 million to keep the zoo. A 5,000 sq. ft. American Black Bear exhibit was the first to be finished and by 2010 Bengal Tiger and Cougar enclosures completed the trio. Now the Cougar is gone, having been replaced by a Spotted Hyena.
An enormous American Bison paddock is down the road from the Carnivore Complex, and amongst a few empty fields (for example 40 White-Tailed Deer were removed from the zoo a few years ago) there are large grassy meadows for Ankole Cattle, Rhea, Grant’s Zebra and Rocky Mountain Elk. All can be seen from a car as there are no proper walking trails to the exhibits and I did a lot of walking and still saw what seems like a half-abandoned zoo in about 30 minutes. Back near the Carnivore Complex is a row of 7 chain-link, old-fashioned cages with the following 9 species: Red-Tailed Hawk, Grey Fox, North American Porcupine, Black-Capped Capuchin, Coati, Helmeted Guineafowl, Red Golden Pheasant, Green Iguana and Ring-Tailed Lemur. Elsewhere there is an African Spurred Tortoise exhibit; a Farmyard with domestic animals, and a trio of aviaries with these species: Barred Owl, Great Horned Owl and Bobwhite Quail.
Wildwood Wildlife Park – This is the type of place where there are a hundred bottles of “Bear Juice” that you can purchase for one dollar a bottle and then feed to 3 pacing American Black Bears in a cement and chain-link cage. Red Kangaroos share an exhibit with Llamas and Helmeted Guineafowl ensuring that 3 continents are showcased at the same time. There are cats such as Bengal Tigers (including the now ubiquitous white one), Canadian Lynx, Bobcats, Servals, Cougars and surprisingly African Leopards (including a black one). Animal numbers are impressive (at least 4-5 Binturongs, 6-7 Grey Foxes, 10 North American Porcupines, 10 Alligator Snapping Turtles, etc). How does a zoo in northern Wisconsin obtain African Leopards, Binturongs, Striped Hyenas, Blue Duikers, 3 species of porcupine, 7-8 species of pheasant and 4 species of lemur? It is essentially a rather astonishing collection of 700+ animals in mainly nasty-looking exhibits. Lots of small enclosures that look like this:
http://www.zoochat.com/1516/baton-rouge-zoo-debrazzas-guenon-corn-207583/
Or slightly larger ones (for animals like bears and wolves) like this:
http://www.zoochat.com/1516/baton-rouge-zoo-sulawesi-macaque-cage-207544/
There has been an attempt to inch towards progress as the “Giraffe Serengeti Habitat Area” opened just this year and a huge giraffe barn for 3 individuals dominates the landscape. There are more developments in that modern part of the zoo but the ghastly cages haphazardly placed all over the grounds leaves a bad taste in one’s mouth. Worst of all is the Animal Encounters Area near the front of the zoo with its two rows of at least a dozen cages of small mammals. I had two staff members ask me what animal I would like to hold, ranging from a baby coati, prehensile-tailed porcupine, opossum, rabbit, kinkajou, etc. I declined but other visitors made their choice and the unfortunate animal was then hauled out of its slumber for a few minutes, petted and cooed over, and then placed back until the next request. Ugh.
Onwards and upwards:
One disappointing thing that occurred today is that after photographing 75% of the “world-class” Wildwood Wildlife Park my camera stopped taking photos. For the first time on the trip I used a different memory card and it jammed and from then on the camera was useless. I’ve got at least 200 photos of cages and signs on the card and so hopefully it can all be salvaged when I get back home to Canada but I missed out on the new giraffe complex and the big cat zone amongst a few smaller cages as well. I’ve already reverted back to my trustworthy memory card so hopefully Wildwood is the only zoo that I have problems taking photos at. I arrived there so late in the day and I essentially stayed for the last hour and a half that the facility was open and so there was no time to run back to my vehicle in order to switch memory cards and photograph the missing 25% of the zoo.
Eagle-eyed readers will note that I squeezed in Wildwood Wildlife Park a day early as I managed to arrive just in time to tick it off on Sunday evening. That means that a 61st zoo will be added and on Monday morning I’ll drive just across the border to the state of Michigan to tour DeYoung Family Zoo (including its 35-40 big cats) before resuming my schedule to the Northeastern Wisconsin Zoo and Lincoln Park Zoo. As a side not, there are 3 zoos called Lincoln Park in the United States and it is a source of much confusion when glancing through websites.
assuming 6 hours of solid typing that would come to a shade under 3 pages a minute!
