Bronx Zoo Visit: The Last leg

We came to our favorite part of the visit, the Big Bears Exhibit.

Big Bears - The brown ones were the 'Grizzly Bears', there were four of them running here and there in the pool. One of them was relaxing in the pool for a long time, whereas the other three were playing and after some time they ran up the hill. The one which was left behind was eying a duck for a long time and the moment he got a chance he tried to catch it, but the duck flew. Then he ran to the other side and tried again but to no avail, and he tried once more, but the duck was too quick. In the end, he sat defeated in the pool again. It looked so cute, when it was jumping around to catch hold of that duck. Seeing that, now i can't imagine that these cute bears can hurt human beings. And according to facts also, they usually avoid humans and eat mostly berries, quite unlike their grizzly tales. Mostly 6-7 ft tall, they live in the interior parts of North America. 

Polar Bear - The big white furry guy was lying down resting his head on a rock, it looked so dazed. The polar bear was resting alone. They are almost 6 - 8 ft tall and are known as the largest land carnivore and are also considered marine mammals. They are definitely the cutest bears possible. 

                                                                 Polar Bear

Himalayan Highlands - On our way to the next exhibit, the Himalayan Highlands. And there we were, trying to find some space among the crowd to get a glimpse of the Snow Leopard, the graceful cat. They do not roar but do make others sounds. One of the most beautiful animals, I have ever seen. Red panda, was also a part of the Himalayan highlands, coiled up on a tree, it seemed as if it was hiding its face. The cute red panda looked like a stuff toy. They are known to have retractable claws like a housecat's. 

From here, we went straight to the Tiger hill, to see the mighty tigers. Tiger Mountain - Tigers are the largest of the five species of big cats. There were two of them, who were taking rounds of the whole stretch, as if they were looking for something.

Madagascar - The next stop was the Madagascar exhibit, full of never-seen-before animals. Coqueral's Sitaka, with white and brown fur body and a black face, they look distinct from other varieties. And they were jumping and leaping off the trees and were even hanging upside down. Then there was Collared Lemur, Ring Tailed Lemur, Fossa and Red Ruffed Lemur.

                                                                 Ring  Tailed Lemur

Last but not the least, the sea lions, as no show can end without some acrobatic moves by these ever-friendly eared seals. It was a beautiful endnote to our visit to the zoo. We enjoyed it thoroughly.

Bronx Zoo visit: Continues

After the Butterfly Garden, we went to the 'Dancing Crane Cafe', had pizza, sandwiches and pina colada slush (yumm!!). The next on the list was the Congo Gorilla Forest. 

Congo Gorilla Forest - The first animal we saw was a 'Mandrill', found in the Tropical rain-forests of  Cameroon, Gabon and it looked very different from the usual baboons, because of its colorful face. And one can easily make out that mandrills are from Africa, by looking at their red-white striped face. There was a mandrill baby named Gertrude also in the exhibit. The next one was a surprisingly unusual animal Okapi, as it had zebra stripes on half of its body and the other half resembled horse. This one definitely seemed like it had come from a fantasy land. It was standing still and looked picture perfect with the surroundings. According to facts, Okapi is found in the rain forests of Congo and belongs to the family of Giraffes and not Zebra. They were almost unknown till 1900 and presently there are only 25000 Okapi in the wild (that's less). 

                                                               Okapi in the Woods

Next was the main attraction of the Congo Exhibit, the 'Gorillas', the largest living primates. There were some 7-10 gorillas, which were visible and most of them were sitting and staring. When we went close to the wall, they also came near to the wall and imitated by waving hands, that was so much fun. Some interesting facts we got to know were - they walk on their knuckles and are very expressive (that we already saw). They live up to the age of 50 or more and are considered very intelligent. They are usually shy and peaceful. We also saw the 'Pygmy Marmosets', world's smallest monkeys. They are 5 inches tall and are found in the Amazon basin in Brazil, Peru and Equador. And interestingly, they produce an ultrasonic cry to express hostility, which humans can't hear.  

World of Reptiles - With Turtles, Frogs, Snakes and Alligators - it was scray. Frogs are exhibited right when one enters the building. The first ones were tiny 'Khiansi Spray Toads', they are almost the size of a penny, almost three-quarters of an inch. They are yellow in colour and extremely tiny, to be visible in the tank. There were so many of them, and looked like ants crawling everywhere. They were discovered in 1996 around Khiansi and Mhalala waterfalls in Tanzania, so the name also comes from there. Moreover, it is now listed as an extinct species in the wild.

Then we saw the Heaviest Snake in the World (any guesses), yes!! the 'Anaconda', it can weigh up to 800 pounds (whopping!!). Its a semi-aquatic reptile and gobbles up enormous preys like caimans and deers; and after large meals they may not have to eat again for weeks. The other big shot reptile we saw, was the 'King Cobra'. Also known as the World's Largest Venomous Snake, it feeds on other snakes including cobra and its strong venom helps in digestion. Usually around 13 feet in length, they are found in India and Southeast Asian countries. There were many other snakes also in the exhibit, the green snake and tiny ones too.

After this we went to see the 'Alligator Snapping Turtle' also known as the Dinosaur of the Turtle World and they have been around for more than 20 million years. It feeds on fishes, frogs, other turtles and small alligators too. It looked really huge in the enclosure. Then there was a Snake Neck Turtle, Radiated Turtle and some tiny turtles which were crawling in and out of the water. The other enclosure had the scariest of them all- the Alligators. The 'American Alligator' and the 'Nile Crocodile', both looked huge and bulky and of course scary too.

Bronx Zoo Visit: continues

African Plains - There were peacocks everywhere. It was as if, all the peacocks were dancing with their feathers open, it was splendid. Even in India, I never saw such a thing. And then we went to the other side to see the Lion Island. 

Lion Island - Lionesses with their three cubs- Nala, Adamma and Shani, were frolicking around the trees. The cubs looked so cute, all three of the same height and were jumping up and down the rocks, while one of the lioness was trying to put them down from the rock. They looked so adorable. And the Lion was sitting far away form all this and looked angry. It made a beautiful picture. 

                                                                               Three Cubs Playing

The next was Baboon Reserve- It is also called the 'Gelada Hillside'. The Geladas are a close relative of Baboons, originally from Ethiopia. They are the only grazing Primates known and they have a very distinctive feature i.e. the red skin visible on their heart which makes it look like the upper skin is cut in a triangular shape. They looked calm and quite.

African Plains - Continuing with the African Plains, we went further to see the giraffes -  the tallest living terrestrial animal. And as usual they were eating, and according to facts also- they eat a lot, spending almost 20 hours eating in a day (that's a lot of food). Typically shy, they were mostly unaware of their surroundings. There were 'Ostriches' too, roaming all over the place. The World's largest Bird, Ostrich is usually 7-9 ft tall and are considered strong runners and can even kill a human being or a lion by kicking.

Wild Dogs, were also a part of the African Plains. Also known as, Painted Dogs, they stay in packs and can run as fast as 41 mph. They looked kind of cute and another interesting fact we got to know is that they have elaborate greeting ceremonies like tail waging, squeaking.

Butterfly Garden - The next was the Butterfly Garden, a conservatory. The moment we stepped in, we  could see so many pretty butterflies flying around us. And with the background music playing, it felt like a fairytale; flowers and butterflies. We managed to click some awesome pictures and also got to see a real butterfly coming out of a Pupa/Chrysalis, it was awesome, as half of it was butterfly and half of it was still pupa. And a funny incident also happened, as one butterfly stuck to a lady's feet and we all started clicking pictures. It was extremely funny, as no one was allowed to touch butterflies inside but here a butterfly was touching that lady's feet. And before stepping out, there was a mirror to see if a butterfly was hitching a ride on us or not.

                                        Beautiful Butterfly perched on a flower

A visit to the Bronx Zoo

This was our second visit to the Bronx Zoo, to see the animals which we couldn't see during the winters. We were there around 11:30 in the morning and got our tickets. This time we went straight for the monorail ride and had to wait for half an hour in the queue. But the wait was worth it, the 20 mins ride was breathtaking. With Deers, Elephants, Peacocks, Mountain Goats, Tiger, Red Panda, Rhinoceros and that too, all along the Bronx river, it was amazing. The monorail ride covered the 40 acres of natural habitat for these animals, and also provided some beautiful views of the river.

                                                                    Monorail over the Bronx River

'Jungle World' - After the ride, we went to the next exhibit, the 'Jungle World' and the first animal we saw was a 'Beaver', a semi-aquatic rodent, which are known for building dams, for still water to protect themselves against predators. Then there were brown and grey color Monkeys and 'Ebony Langurs' from Indonesia, with long tails and some beautiful birds. And the 'Matschie', a tree kangaroo from New Guinea were so cute. The main attraction of the Jungle World was the 'Panther', black panther sleeping on a tree trunk, it reminded me of Bagira in Mogli. It was sleeping peacefully behind the glass wall. And yes! there were some pretty fishes too.

                                                                              Fishes 
After the Jungle World, we went for a camel ride, but there were such long queues for it, that waiting so long would have been a waste of time. So we decided to go the other exhibit.