Wednesday, July 27, 2011

The tame beasts of the Manhattan Zoo

Today we spent a wonderful (and interesting) day at the Manhattan Zoo, so here's my day in pictures. Enjoy!

In the heat wave that we've been having the past month we had thought that many animals would hide away from the sun and that we wouldn't get to see much, but much to our surprise many were out to say hello. If I were a few of them though I would have been out swimming in my watering hole. I wonder why they didn't seem to think of it... Maybe they haven't been watching CNN or The Weather Channel and they certainly didn't get the memo :(

Black and white Colobus

Spotted Hyena

Emu (These look like an ostrich at first glance but they're not. The emu is widespread across mainland Australia.)

Parma Wallaby (South Australia)

Bennett's Wallaby (Southeast Australia)


Snow Leopard (found in 12 countries in central Asia of which 60% is in China) Now imagine being a SNOW leopard in 104*F (40*C with high humidity). If animals evolve I would be swimming in my drinking water - cat or no cat. You could see it was tough on them too. Shame :(

Red-crowned Crane ("considered sacred across the Orient - a sign of fidelity, good luck, love and long life)

Cinereous Vulture (Found from Spain to mainland Chine - also known as the Eurasian Black Vulture) Shame: this fella was panting. He really did not seem to handle the heat well AT ALL. I felt concerned for him.

Amur Tiger (Largest of tigers therefore largest species of cat) - I couldn't decide which one of him to include here. I got about four really nice ones!

Bald Eagle (No matter how I tried I couldn't get around the cage on this one :(

Bob Cat

I found one! I found one! (Eventually I was feeling like "Look! There's a tiger I need a loo!", "Look! there's a monkey I need a loo!", Look! There's a...." lol ;) And then we found it!

Once my eye balls stopped floating I was able to see this b-e-a-utiful peacock! Isn't he just magnificent! His call sounds funny; like he's saying "H-E-L-P! H-E-L-P!" :D


After this we just had to get out of the sweltering heat. Felt a little bit like crawling out of the desert moaning "W-a-T-e-R! W-a-T-e-R! :D - But a pleasant outing indeed!

4 comments:

  1. Stunning pics, Lee, but I really don't like zoos.

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  2. Thanks, Cindy, and I really don't blame you. Even worse when animals are not treated in the best possible way. Then again, what is the best? Freedom, huh? And then we have cruel people threatening them in their natural environment. Can be rather heart breaking sometimes.

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  3. I love the pictures of the big cats. They are just stunning to look at...but wouldn't want to get too close. HAHA. Hope you're having as much fun as it looks!

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  4. Oh, they are beautiful, Tracy! I just felt so sorry for them in the heat, and the thing about zoos is that the space is not as big as what they enjoy in the wild.

    Garett says one of the times he was there the tiger turned and jumped against the fence. He got the fright of his life! He kept warning me while I was trying to get some good pics. Garett also made a video clip of our visit. I had lots of fun pretending to be a television presenter. Something I can definitely see myself do!

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