Bronx Zoo Teddy Goes to The Bronx Zoo

teddy panda

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Hello, I'm Teddy! I'm a 19 year old New Yorker who's been interested in zoos and aquariums since I was very little, and despite the dream of working with live animals not working out (studying to be a museum curator), I still want somewhere to blab about my zoo/aquarium experiences where people might listen, starting with my home base!

I've been twice so far this year (once in March), but I'll be writing about my most recent visit on June 4th, 2024.

It was surprisingly crowded on a weekday in early June and even though I came early, schoolkids on field trips kept blocking my path, especially in World of Birds.

I usually enter at the Bronx River Gate, so I started off with the bison, who are active, shedding their winter coats and even some calves were running around, which made me happy to see :)

The newly renovated World of Birds was also amazing to see, and I saw some species I haven't seen before or haven't seen in a while, like the Andean cock-of-the-rocks, who were actually displaying! Other highlights include green Amazons and bleeding heart doves.

The Père David's deer were wading in their pool a few feet from me as I walked to Tiger Mountain, though the tigers (one of my favorite animals) were sadly lazing around behind the brush, along with the snow leopards.

I had a great encounter with the cranes at their pond, with one of them even trying to stare me down and following me as I left!

At the Gelada Reserve, I sadly couldn't see any hyraxes (also love them) and the geladas were curled up in the shade of the rocks, but I got to see a peacock try to display to one of the Nubian ibexes, which isn't something you see every day lol

The bears were busy relaxing and I watched them for a very long time (as you can tell by my username haha), I loved seeing them lounging in their pool like a person in a hot tub!

I didn't see too much action in most of the African Plains for some reason, so I skipped ahead (I went to JungleWorld on my last visit) and decided to do something I somehow have never done before: ride the Wild Asia Monorail! I got a very close shot of the new baby Przewalski's horse, a very good look at their other tiger, 4 peacocks displaying at the same time, and even saw the elephant shake her tail at us!

I'm also pretty sure they moved all their red pandas to the monorail exhibit, since the one near the snow leopards and the one outside the Mouse House are gone, and there are 3 pandas at the monorail now.

Congo Gorilla Forest never disappoints! I love seeing the okapi graze and the colobus monkeys swing around in their enclosure. This time, one of the gorillas chose to mimic Rose in Titanic as he reclined right up against the glass, and 2 of the females even got into a brawl! outside the exhibit, I came across one quietly eating bamboo alone.

Since I was on a crunch for time, I skipped Zoo Center, the Mouse House and the Reptile House, though I noted the peasant cages, the cages on Schiff Hall and the cages outside Mouse House are all closed for renovations of some sort.

The Children's Zoo is my absolute FAVORITE part of the zoo, and I'd recommend anyone to come here, even if they're an adult! I got to see many nesting herons, rabbits, a really cool looking soft-shell turtle, a giant anteater, some sleepy coatis and an even sleepier sloth, a napping fennec fox (who else remembers when a fennec was in the Mouse House for some reason?) and the overly friendly goats (and another peacock displaying to them) and mini donkeys in the petting zoo! There was also a very scary goose screaming at me and pigeons taking over the turkey feed haha

Next was the Budgie Landing, the first time I've been to it since it opened! It's a very cool exhibit, and it's actually very difficult to get the budgies to leave you once they want your stick haha, one that took a liking to me even looked like my late budgie, Ernestina!

I always stop at the aquatic birds last, since I love penguins, and despite the old layout, I still love staring at the kiwi and fairy penguin colony, and risking getting pooped on in the aviary haha :)

And that's it for my ramble!

Apologies for my bad writing skills, and lack of photos since I'm writing this from my laptop. While I'm pretty sure no one will read them, I'm thinking of doing these for all of the zoos and aquariums I've visited recently! And since I'm visiting Peru after a while this winter, I really want to write something on the zoo in Lima!
 
Welcome to Zoochat! The Bronx Zoo is my favorite zoo. I also used to go to the Norwalk Aquarium all the time when I was younger so I'd be curious to see a writeup on that place.

Could you share a little more about why the children's zoo is your favorite part of the Bronx Zoo? My favorite parts are Congo Gorilla Forest, Madagascar, World of Birds, Gharial River (inside Jungle World), and the Lion exhibit.
 
Welcome to Zoochat! The Bronx Zoo is my favorite zoo. I also used to go to the Norwalk Aquarium all the time when I was younger so I'd be curious to see a writeup on that place.

Could you share a little more about why the children's zoo is your favorite part of the Bronx Zoo? My favorite parts are Congo Gorilla Forest, Madagascar, World of Birds, Gharial River (inside Jungle World), and the Lion exhibit.

Hello! I enjoy many of the same parts as you! Congo is super fun to just space out in and watch the gorillas go about their day haha

I love how the children's zoo, since it's made for little kids, is a lot more interactive than the other parts of the zoo (think the meerkats), with a lot of short glass walls and small aviaries that allow you to get a much closer view of the animals than other parts of the park. Plus I like how the exhibits are designed for a smaller point of view with clear barriers and windows lower to the ground, since I'm quite short myself haha
 
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