I think I my daughter’s mind, this is THE zoo. On a cloudy day in August, we drove down the Taconic parkway into the Bronx. We had purchased our tickets online ahead of time, and were happy we did when we reached the gate to see they were not selling any more for the day. Tickets are expensive- there is an hidden option for an “entrance only”ticket, but that severely limits your experience.
We had peanut butter sandwiches on a bench watching flamingos, and then set down to the serious work of “seeing it all” (spoiler alert, we didn’t see it all.) My daughter brought her fancy camera and was able to get some great shots.
Bring good shoes, a water bottle, a fully charged phone and a printed map. While they had signs, the zoo grew organically over a hundred years. There is less of a plan and more of a general idea. We had both visited before, but still got lost several times. If you have mobility issues or a stroller, it is even more important to know where a path suddenly ends at stairs. There are more than 8 indoor exhibits, we ran out of time to see all of them. Even though they supposedly close at 5, all indoor access was closed at 4. I wanted to peek into the children’s zoo, but got there too late. We were able to see the magnificent architecture of the central building, though.
During our visit, masks were required inside buildings and transportation regardless of vaccination status. The behavior of some of the visitors was awful- unmasked kids running shrieking through the exhibits, garbage thrown everywhere except for the nearby and clearly labeled garbage cans. We especially found it odd that some people assumed all sleeping animals were dead and would shout their dismay until a member of their party would determine the subject was indeed alive and they would move on to the next section to repeat this performance.
I think I enjoyed the monorail ride around “Asia” the most. I was able to grab some back-stage pictures for my daughter. The ride faces one way, but as I was on the back seat edge, I could look backwards. I got to see peacocks scavenging in compost, a tiger in an isolation cage and muddy paddocks. My daughter is considering zoo work as her career, so I was looking with that in mind.
On the long drive home, we talked about our day. We joked that if my daughter didn’t get an internship, she could get a membership and just stand in front of an exhibit with props, teaching about animals.
Now she’s back at college, so our zoo quest will be on hold for a while. Maybe we will visit Syracuse zoo one weekend.
