ZPLC (Zoological Park of Lorain County)

[CleZooMan]

Finally, I have uploaded World of the Bhalu! Last will be Wild Lorain County.

Horns honking, rickshaws rumbling, birds singing and Bollywood music blaring set the scene as you enter World of the Bhalu, a unique Indian-themed exhibit that starts in an Indian market! Complete with recordings of the sounds of an Indian market and tables piled high with (fake) fruit and vegetables, the first part- The Market- is home to several animal exhibits, but you have to know where to look! Rose-ringed parakeets- complete with signage about their wide range, including India, and ability to live in disturbed areas- live in a netted aviary that encompasses several of the market tables. Common mynas live in a smaller, slightly wooded area off to the side- but still within the market- and a third aviary is home to laughing doves and red-whiskered bulbuls flying among a mockup of an Indian vegetable stall.


Looking at the tables and other structures- small huts and rickshaws, for example- themselves, you start noticing that some of them have lush terraria on top of or inside them! Complete with interpretive signage about their range and Hindi names, you see that these terraria are home to several small animals common in India- Indian chameleon, leopard gecko, house gecko, Indian smooth snake, common vine snake, common wolfsnake, common Indian toad, common skittering frog, the (quite large!) Indian bullfrog, painted frog, Indian burrowing frog, Indian tree frog, ornate narrow-mouthed frog and, in a glass-fronted mockup of an Indian kitchen, complete with plenty of food waste, little Indian field mice and house mice!


A path planted with palm trees and several other plants native to the Indian subcontinent takes you past a larger cement-block building with a wooden sign nailed to it- BHALU TOURS- SEE SLOTH BEAR AND SO MUCH MORE! CALL VEER, +91 258 953 9752. The focus on detail in this exhibit- and the rest of the ZPLC- is even apparent in the phone number, arranged like a traditional Indian phone number, with 258 953 9752 corresponding to BLU WLD ZPLC (“bhalu,” “world,” “ZPLC”). Just past this building, you round a bend and see a large paddock with varied terrain- a large pool, mud wallows, a grove of trees and a drier, sandy area. Interpretive signage around the bend in the lush trail tells you that this paddock is home to Indian rhinos! The trail takes you around the south and east boundary of the paddock, which is separated from another similar, but smaller and less muddy, paddock with bamboo fences.


This paddock, with a bamboo fence and a low rock wall reminiscent of a Hindu temple, is mostly flat and swampy, but has a forested section, a drier, sandier section on the ground and a reed-filled marsh on one end. Interpretive signage is displayed along the rock wall, telling visitors exactly what is in here- barasingha deer, nilgai, blackbuck, Indian hog deer, bar-headed goose, ruddy shelduck and Indian peafowl.


You can get close to the animals from the path, but the best way to view this paddock is through an elevated boardwalk just past the rock wall. Separated from the paddock by netting, the elevated boardwalk goes right through- and- above- the paddock, giving you supreme views of the various ungulates and birds calling this exhibit home. For those who choose not to take the boardwalk through the paddock, the path curves around it to the end of the boardwalk, continuing on past three netted wetland aviaries with a pond, muddy shore, reed-filled bank and a drier, sandy area on land- home to painted storks, lesser adjutants and spot-billed pelicans, respectively. A fourth aviary with less water and more places to perch is home to Brahminy kites. After the Brahminy kite aviary- and more interpretive signage about Indian wetlands- the path goes toward the centerpiece of World of the Bhalu- a large Hindu temple.

As you get closer to the temple, you realized that it is separated from grassy, outdoor exhibits by a rock wall. The path gives you a choice- you can either walk under a decorated stone arch right into the temple or go around- but what is in here?

Interpretive signage tells you that the temple and the exhibits around it are home to the bhalu- the Hindi word for sloth bear!!! More interpretive signage explains why the outdoor exhibits are built the way they are- with several trees (as sloth bears are good climbers), grassy areas but uneven terrain with fallen logs and rock piles for the bears to explore and a wide, slow-moving stream with grassy, rocky and sandy banks (as sloth bears are very good swimmers!). This stream becomes a large pond, with the path taking you past an underwater viewing window for the sloth bears, more views of their exhibit and through one of the two entrances of the Hindu temple. Inside the temple is a dark glass “cave” for Indian flying foxes and glass-fronted indoor exhibits for the sloth bears, as well as interpretive signage telling you even more about sloth bears- their range, diet, anatomy, breeding and cubs- everything you would want to know about sloth bears!

The temple’s exit is right next to the entrance going straight to the temple instead of around the outdoor exhibit. Taking the path back, you find yourself among the hustle and bustle of the Indian market again- complete with birds chirping, horns honking and Bollywood music blaring- but, as you leave the World of the Bhalu and enter the last part of the ZPLC- Wild Lorain County- that soundtrack gives way to that of baas, moos and clucks!

 

[CleZooMan]

Finally, here is the 6th and last section of the ZPLC.

The last area of the ZPLC- Wild Lorain County- focuses on the native wildlife of Ohio and also contains the children’s zoo, Lorain County Farmyard, which focuses on the importance of farming in Ohio- specifically Lorain County. As visitors enter Wild Lorain County, they either have the choice to go left toward what appears to be a large tree or right toward a big red barn! Going left, the first exhibit visitors see is a simulation of Lake Erie, complete with the screech of gulls and a wave pool mimicking the lake. Interpretive signage explains that Wild Lorain County, focusing on educating visitors about the native wildlife of Ohio, is divided into lake, wetland, meadow and forest areas.


The large, mixed-species Lake Erie habitat is home to herring gulls, ring-billed gulls, mallards, Canada geese and double-crested cormorants! The gulls and cormorants mostly live on a rocky breakwall jutting out into the back of the exhibit, with the mallards and geese congregating in the sandy area in the front. The path continues past several fish tanks built into rockwork, all for Lake Erie fish- walleye, steelhead, yellow perch, brown trout, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass and two tanks for invasive fish- common carp and round goby- as well as tank for another invader, zebra mussels. Interpretive signage about Lake Erie’s conservation and the invasive species educates visitors about the species they are viewing. The Lake Erie section ends with a terrarium- and more interpretive signage about!- Lake Erie water snakes.


The water theme continues with the Wetlands exhibits, focusing on the marshes of Lorain County! Visitors view most of the Wetlands exhibits from an elevated boardwalk. The first exhibit- a mixed-species exhibit for great blue herons, great egrets and green herons- is a large, open-topped wetland with plenty of duckweed, reeds and perches and a muddy land area. The next exhibits are similarly lush and marshy- for American bitterns, least bitterns, Virginia rail and sora- with interpretive signage focused on wetland conservation, the importance of wetlands (and how they are much more than “swamps”) and Lorain County’s wetlands, especially Sandy Ridge Reservation in North Ridgeville. Rounding the bend, you see two large, netted aviaries- one for bald eagles and one for ospreys- with both featuring a water feature with live fish the eagles and ospreys can catch! Interpretive signage focuses on the eagles and ospreys’ comeback after the DDT ban.


The wetland theme continues past several exhibits built into outside rockwork for American bullfrog, green frog, painted turtle, spiny softshell turtle, common snapping turtle, ribbon snake, northern water snake, red-eared slider (with information about this turtle’s status in northern Ohio as an invasive species) and several tanks of fish in different specific habitats. The last wetland exhibit- another glass-fronted pond- is home to mallards, wood ducks and Canada geese.


Turning into a large meadow, visitors see a set of double doors ahead of them separating them from the meadow- as most of it is a walk-through butterfly habitat for monarch butterflies, painted lady butterflies and tiger swallowtail butterflies!!!! Visitors are treated to up-close views of a honeybee hive as well as several invertebrates living in terraria (i.e. milkweed bugs, grasshoppers, crickets and praying mantises) once they enter the walk-through habitat, along with quite a few interpretive signs about monarch migration and the importance of pollinators and pollination. A netted aviary- for eastern meadowlarks, bobolinks, dickcissels, grasshopper sparrows, Henslow’s sparrows and eastern bluebirds- is next, followed by aviaries for short-eared owls, Northern harriers and red-shouldered hawks.


The first exhibit in the forest area resembles a walk-through aviary, but, instead of birds, it is home to eastern gray squirrels! Known as Squirrel Forest, visitors can buy a cup of peanuts to feed these familiar rodents as they walk through the netted exhibit, meant to resemble a deciduous forest. The next exhibit- the Migratory Bird Aviary- is another lush, walk-through exhibit with cups of birdseed for sale to feed the Ohio birds that live here- blue jay, Baltimore oriole, northern cardinal, cedar waxwing, hermit thrush, wood thrush, American robin, gray catbird, Swainson’s thrush, eastern towhee, yellow warbler and eastern phoebe. After exiting the aviary, the lush forest path continues past a mixed-species paddock for white-tailed deer and wild turkeys, exhibits for red foxes, gray foxes and coyotes (complete with interpretive signage about how the gray fox can climb trees, but the red fox cannot) and a large sign hinting at the next exhibit- “The Forest Continues Inside!” A large walk-through tree resembling the Yagga Tree at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, it is complete with displays aimed at children about forest wildlife! The top floor is focused on “creepy crawlies”- exhibits for several species of forest arthropods (i.e. isopods, centipedes, millipedes, spiders and ants) as well as red-backed salamander, American toad, ring-necked snake, Jefferson’s salamander, spotted salamander and eastern box turtle). Children can slide down a slide resembling a fallen log to get to the bottom floor or walk down the stairs to the middle floor.


The middle floor focuses on nocturnal animals, with glass-fronted exhibits- complete with a plethora of interpretive signage- for Eastern screech, barred, great horned and northern saw-whet owls, white-footed and deer mice (native mice), Virginia opossums, raccoons, northern short-tailed shrews, striped skunks and southern flying squirrels. The star of this floor, however, is a walk-through bat cave with glass separating visitors from native bat species- Indiana bats, big brown bats and little brown bats. Signage in the bat cave focuses on bat echolocation and white-nose syndrome.


Continuing down the stairs to the bottom floor where the slide ends, visitors enter another glass-fronted room- an indoor viewing area for North American black bears! Visitors exit the tree just past the black bears and pass by their densely forested outdoor exhibit- complete with rocky areas, climbing opportunities and a large pond!- before coming to the big red barn.

The Lorain County Farmyard, as this area is known, is centered around the big red barn, with outdoor petting paddocks for the farm animals surrounding it on all sights. Going counterclockwise from the entrance to the barn entrance on the other side, visitors see various domestic animals, with kid-friendly signage focusing on what the male, female and baby of each animal is called, what sound it makes and why it is farmed. In order, these paddocks and signs- with other signs focusing on the importance of farming in Ohio, especially Lorain County- are home to Nigerian pygmy goats, southern babydoll and Jacob sheep, Dexter and Scottish Highland cattle, Shetland ponies, miniature donkeys, llamas, alpacas and Vietnamese potbellied pigs. The barn, just past the potbellied pigs, has indoor holding and viewing for all these farm animals, followed by a barn owl exhibit in the barn’s rafters and a sign leading up the stairs to a hayloft marked Pets’ Corner, with rabbits, guinea pigs and domestic cats (all from the Friendship APL in Elyria, Ohio) for children and adults alike to pet! Signage in the Farmyard is kid-friendly, but is meant to be read- and learned from- by everyone!


Going outside, there are more ponies in another paddock that young visitors can ride for a small fee, coops for domestic chickens and turkeys, a pond for various domestic ducks, geese and koi (including machines for feed) and, finally, a path back to the entrance of the zoo. Our ZPLC adventure is finally done!