ROAR!!! Welcome to the Bronx Zoo

On Saturday, we decided to head out to the biggest zoo in North America - the Bronx Zoo! How hard could it be to get there, you might ask? For two subway, savvy New Yorkers it should be a piece of cake - hop on the #2 subway from Times Square and you're there, right? Well, let's just say that locating the zoo on a map was easy. Finding it from the subway stop was a little tougher. We were finally able to find the zoo by walking along the Queensborough Parkway following freeway exit signs for zoo parking. Finally there is was - we made it, and the excitement didn't stop there.

At the entrance was a big list of all the corporate contributors that had donated to the park. Notice Morgan Stanley listed just to the right of the big flash. Well - at least one of our companies made the list...

So the Bronx Zoo is the biggest zoo in the States. It is 265 acres, has 4,000 animals. To offer a comparison, the Woodland Park Zoo is 65 acres. Hey, what's a mere 200 acres? Actually, the size difference was not that noticeable when you're in there walking around. They make the zoo really easy to navigate so it's not overwhelming. The Bronx Zoo is famous for being one of he first zoos to move animals from cages into more natural habitat exhibits. I hope none of them get out! Yikes!
When the zoo originally opened in 1899, it was designed around the sea lion habitat. Right now there are four sea lions that call Astor Court home. The weekend we went was dubbed start of "Homecoming Week". Basically, it is a celebration and educational series about the migration of sea lions. None of the resident sea lions seemed too interested in "migration" and they continued to swim in circles around the pool.

The next stop on the zoo tour was the bison exhibit, not to be confused with buffalo. The Bronx Zoo has been very active in increasing the numbers of bison in North America. Conservationists to the zoo have successfully breed bison at the Bronx Zoo and in 1907 the first "herd" of Bronx Bison were released into a reserve in Oklahoma. This group of bison opted to stay and take advantage of their private swimming pool.

Another amazing exhibit is the Congo Gorilla Forest. It is the largest man-made rain forest in the world and take up 6.5 acres inside the park. It was really amazing. There was lots of action to see at the LIVE gorilla exhibit; including sitting, laying, eating, and sleeping. One gorilla put on quite a show by "watering the flowers" himself. Even better then that...was the part where he actually tasted it!! Actually on the subway we've both seen worse.


Our favorite exhibit (or should we say, resident) was the brown bears. They were quite the performers. Two of the bears played in this big pool, splashing and blowing bubbles. It was pretty cool to watch them have so much fun. Unfortunately, we forgot to charge the camera battery so we couldn't get any pictures.


A few other things worth mentioning:
The Skyfari - gondola-like cars that take you over the zoo from one end to the other. The only downside with this is the long line to get in and the fact that you don't really get to see much of the exhibits because of all the trees. Still, definitely on of our favorite parts.

The Camel Rides - that's right, you can ride a live camel. They smell authentic and everything!

Wild Asia Monorail - Funny that this is where you can see the hippos. I always thought they were in Africa...maybe Brad can confirm.

The Dancing Crane Cafe - Ice Cream...need we say more?



So, two ice cream cones, six penguins, three bears, one peeing gorilla, and a 45 minute subway ride later we feel confident saying that we are now Bronx Zoo Wildlife Experts - not to mention the newest Bronx Zoo Members! That's right - we're members, and we're willing to give tours for a small fee.