Favorite Philly Zoo Photos | Part 1
by Elouise
I don’t generally like zoos. Nonetheless, the Philly Zoo has my admiration on several counts. Besides carefully thought-out habitations, it supports worldwide efforts to strengthen endangered species. The Zoo also houses endangered and almost extinct wildlife. It’s the first ‘proper’ zoo in the USA, and is located downtown in a busy area–lots of city traffic noise. You can find out more about the Zoo, with photos, at Wickipedia and at the Philadelphia Zoo site.
Following are some of D’s photos. I’ve chosen them based on what I love to look at. Usually because of color, light and shadows, though personality counts too. I don’t remember all inhabitants’ names or countries of origin, so won’t try. The photo at the top shows the area just outside the main entrance.
We began in the exotic (often endangered) species house. It was nap time!
Now we’re outside with flamingos and other warm-weather birds. Despite their stately appearance, the male flamingos were in a take-no-prisoner mood, with too many males vying for too few females who were already sitting on their still-empty mud nests. A Great Racket ensued every several minutes, especially from the Chief Male. The yellow iris were stunning, as were brilliant feathers the males kept ruffling and showing off.
Next up were warm-weather penguins. Cute and chubby. They’re followed by the loudest of the outdoor birds. They aren’t caged, and are sitting at the end of a lovely pond watching visitors go by. D’s pond photo is another of his impressionistic water shots.
Finally, in the spirit of taking it easy, here are some large animals who look cool to me.
Thanks for coming along! In Part 2 we’ll visit the aviary and our last heart-breaker stop for the day.
©Elouise Renich Fraser, 1 June 2018
Photos taken by DAFraser at The Philadelphia Zoo, May 2018
Wonderful photos. I find zoos very tiring and depressing too, but hey ho, we gotta make the best of what we’ve got.
How big is the philly zoo?
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It’s 42 acres, in which they house nearly 1300 animals. Way too much for me to cover in a day, and some features I can skip altogether–more commercial areas with lots of stuff to buy. Unfortunately, the limited space (not tiny, but not very large given all the animals they manage to house) makes for crowded quarters on some days. And doesn’t allow for the development of large habitats. You can also hear traffic through trees and shrubs along one side of the zoo. Nonetheless, they’ve developed innovative ways to allow some animals to migrate during the day–sometimes from one cage to another; other times by way of a sky-walking tube that snakes through the air through about half the zoo. They also have excellent (real person) guides in many enclosed exhibits. My next post will be mainly from the aviary. A gorgeous building I could spend a morning in (if they had benches!).
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Thank you – it’s very clever what they do nowadays, isn’t it? In Edinburgh they are evolving biomes which combine different species that can live together in larger paddocks.
Why don’t you suggest a few benches? 🙂 xx
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Love it and I shall have to keep and show this to my Ruby when she comes down to see her grandpa; she just adored flamingos, her room is decorated with flamingos her birthday cakes and balloons are flamingos and her biscuits (Yankee’s cookies) are flamingos.
You might say they are an obsession, I have no doubt she will ask her daddy to take her to the Philly Zoo.
I can’t make out what is having a nap in the first pic, and the kangaroos are far from endangered, would you care to take 5 or 10 million off our hands?
We even eat them now, the only people in the world that eat their national animal
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Ruby certainly deserves a visit to the Philly Zoo! I could have watched the flamingos at least an hour. They were too funny. I’ve seen them before, but never this close and never during mating season. What a raucous bunch of males!
I think the little pile in the first photo are hairless shrews. You can Google that for pictures. Look for a sausage-shaped hairless shrew without a cute little snout. As for the kangaroos, I figured the Zoo was getting a little kickback for taking several of them off your hands! 🙂 They don’t know how lucky they are. As for eating them, I’ve heard about them taking over Australia, but my heart has a hard time dealing with eating them. Though I could perhaps get there if they were multiplying like rabbits.
And yes, the handsome napper is a snow leopard. Isn’t he gorgeous?
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Roo’s breed like rabbits, the female always has an embryo or two in her pouch whilst she’s nurturing her joey. As soon as Joey leaves the pouch/nest the next in line slips up and fastens on the nipple.
The meat is actually very good. Somewhat gamey I’ve only tried it once wasn’t to my taste. But there is little to no fat, zero cholesterol and theres no shortage of supply.
Australia has the best camels in the world would you believe, We actually export them to the “Sheik of Arabia” where ever.
The originals were brought to Australia way back when they were building the railway from east to west through the desert by the Afghans. Once the railway was completed the camels were set free to roam the Nullabor and have become magnificent disease free animals the envy of the Arab world.
I was put off of flamingos some time ago when watching a silly show Boston Legal and Denny Crane and Alan ??? were dressed as flamingos at some party or something like that.
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By the way is that a snow leopard having a snooze?
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Yes! Gorgeous George?
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He’s beautiful
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I was pleased to see that you have a happy and content Kangaroo.
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Yes indeed. There are several of them–which means there may be babies from time to time.
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what fun, and every time I go, all the beasties like to take a nap….sigh…so much for good shots but D did great here ❤
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