Bronx Zoo

Our Valentine's day turned to be quite animal. We hopped on the train number 2 and travelled until East Tremont Ave/West Farms Square and walked a bit to get to the Bronx Zoo gate. Winter had made many of the animals go inside and out of reach but we still saw plenty. Like for example the tree kangaroos, who stayed in the tropical "Jungle World" space.

Seeing these little creatures play around brought some memories to E. When she was a kid, her favorite, a very touching movie told a story of an otter (Eurasian or European, I don't know). The otter's Latin name is Lutra lutra, isn't that just wonderfully onomatopoetic? Anyway, she discovered that this playful, water-living animal is probably her favorite of all.


There was also a tapir. But as you may notice from the atmosphere of the photo, it seemed lonely. Or bored. Or maybe it was only resting. There's always the moral problem of visiting the zoos: is it really necessary to gather those animals here where they don't belong just for us to look at and bother them?

At least many of them get to be in a group, like these ebony langurs which were very concentrated in each other.


The black panther looked very royal. But wait a minute, aren't there two panthers resting in this picture?


The Hog-nosed (also known as Pig-nosed) turtle was pretty much worth of it's name.

As we got out from the tropical jungle imitation, we found the most photogenic animals. The Californian sea lions were to be fed, and they tried to catch our attention. It wasn't difficult since they were living in a pool in the middle of the park ad they came showing themselves on the boarder of the pool. Pretty characteristic animals, wouldn't you say?



He's the big guy in the pool.

Oh there was some monkeyface audience as well...


When the feeders came, the sea lions had to do a bunch of tricks. Like getting the frisbee and bringing it back. Fish for the price. Almost every time they got their bodies up there easily.


Just could you give me some more fish?


The tiger was beautiful. But one of the animals that didn't make the impression of a happy animal, going around the same path in it's cage.


The same with the Polar bear. It seemed that its lunchtime was approaching, which maybe gives an explination why walk from door to door.


The little monkeys seemed ok, though. This cotton-top tamarin was one of the only monkeys we could capture in a picture since we didn't want to use flash while taking the pictures. The monkeys were running and jumping and playing with each other.


As the last but not the least of this series, here's a picture of an animal that looks so proud. The snow leopard, one of the animals that probably didn't mind the chilly circumstances.