Weekend Zoo Blogging

As many of you know, I don't have a cat, and I don't have a dog. My parents still have Tucker in Carmel, but now that I'm 26 and out of the house, I can't really consider him my cat anymore. Instead of posting a picture of Tucker here for Weekend Cat Blogging, I decided to post some pictures of my recent trip to the Bronx Zoo, and I'm calling it Weekend Zoo Blogging. This blog is primarily about my adventures in food in the city (so please excuse this brief departure), but I could not pass up this opportunity to encourage you to support our local zoo. And if that doesn't work, join the Wildlife Conservancy Group, which I have since done.

If you live in the city and are an animal person like myself, then get up out of your chair and go to the Bronx Zoo now. Are you leaving yet? And don't forget the camera. A baby gorilla was born in January and if you go now, you will be able to watch the little Triska with her new family at the Congo Gorilla Forest. It is well worth the eight dollars to get in. I am pretty passionate about animals and could have sat there all day looking at this adorable face. Can you see why? And look how close I got. There was only a thick glass separating the two of us. I was a few short inches away from its nose (according to the sign on the glass they haven't determined if Triska is male or female yet). We were playing pattycake through the glass. It was truly amazing.

Triska was glued to her mommy's chest too. Any time the baby would try and "crawl" on its own, a feisty young gorilla would fly over to play and mommy would swoop it up in her long furry arms and back to her chest it would lie. It was a sight to witness. And the coolest part? I got to go on a weekday (the only advantage to working weekends) and I really had the gorillas (and all of the other animals too) all to myself. Here are a couple more:

Here are a few more of the other creatures I ran into. My last zoo experience was a long time ago, and I can't remember which one it was, but I remember being deeply saddened by seeing animals caged up. But the Bronx Zoo surprisingly has (for the most part) some beautiful facilities for its animals. And I just told myself, the zoos are trying to promote awareness and like the guy said who won the Oscar for "March of the Penguins," "If we can turn one child into a penguin-loving person, we did our job." To me, that's what zoos should be about, turning people into animal lovers who care about protecting them, in addition to providing the best nurturing environments for its wild animals.

I'm not a snake fan but I couldn't resist this guy staring back at me. It looked like he had just eaten a goat with his scaled body expanded to about one and a half feet in width.

And these cuties, especially the one on top smiling at me.

And finally Tiger Mountain. This was too funny. I have a really old digital camera and thank goodness Sasha (we identified her by a stripe chart on the wall in her house) kept pacing back and forth for me. But this was the only head-on I got! The picture actually takes about five seconds after I press the button so I kept on guess-timating when to take the picture. Oh was it frustrating. This still gives you an idea of how close I was.

I hope you will get to the zoo before Triska grows up. I figure, how many times in your life will you be able to see a baby gorilla? Next up, a zoo with baby pandas :) A lot of the animals were hiding out because of the cold, but I did get to enjoy some of the main characters: polar bears, grizzly bears, penguins, tigers, gorillas, giraffes, eagles, and many others. I hope in the spring I will get back to check on Triska, to pick up our pattycake game, and to find some lions.