LSP Environmental Studies Community Event Reports

     Well, this past Wednesday, (October 15th) I decided to go to the Bronx Zoo. Not only do I love the zoo, it is suggested donation on Wednesdays and who can say no to a $1 zoo trip? Not me, that’s for sure. So anyway, I got there at about 2 PM after a riveting trip aboard the 5 train. The tone of this event I guess would be nature appreciation but really, it was just a trip to the zoo.
     I set out camera in hand, actually, in bag, but whatever the case the zoo was my oyster for the day. After giving my generous donation to the ticket office I strolled into the zoo to plot a route, a journey, through the expanse that is the Bronx Zoo. And what did I see immediately after examining the zoo’s map? Wildlife!

Here we have a common pigeon walking around a heavily pine-coned area just outside the “Wild Asia/Camel Riding” section. A true marvel of the natural world, this specimen seemed to have escaped its designated location and repopulated all over the park – odd.
     I went from section to section with assorted groups of middle-schoolers trying my best to not take pictures of them and escape the wrath of the omnipresent chaperones. My first stop after the giant Indiana Jones gate thing

was an oddly quarantined bird exhibit of the Waldrapp. The Waldrapp almost went extinct and now has a population of a little more than 400 within the world’s zoos and even less than that in the wild. These creatures, apparently ½ turkey, ½ vulture, and all ugly, were in a prohibitively small space, which seemed to be a recurring theme throughout my trip to the zoo. I am all for interanimal interaction, more death at the zoo would undoubtedly bring in the crowds, or at least shift the average age from around four to maybe, I don’t know… seven?
     “JungleWorld” and some monorail followed the exhibit of the ugliest bird that humans haven’t seemed to kill yet. “JungleWorld” although enticing with its ever-present Malarial odor, was an indoor exhibit so that station was skipped and the monorail you had to pay for so you can probably guess what happened there.
     Onwards and upwards.
     My journey through the oasis that is the Bronx Zoo next took me to the “Africa Trail” – a panoply of fantastically fatal, but still charmingly cute animals:

Here we have the Indian Peafowl, and according to the sign, Peacocks do not mind the New York winter, which is good to know because this very bird above was thrown into my bag immediately after this picture was taken and made into a winter coat for yours truly. JUST KIDDING, I look terrible in blue.
     There were multiple animals in with the Indian Peafowl, namely the Nyala (a deer-like animal) so seeing them interact made this exhibit much more interesting. After almost getting pecked to death by another Peafowl while taking pictures of this lovely dame I decided to make my way to a tamer and more civilized animal, the lion. It turns out that lions are pretty boring in the zoo – lots of yawning and rolling around little roaring and mauling. But, here are some facts I learned: Male lions leave the pride at age three while females tend to stay with their “natal pride” their entire lives, females have anywhere between one and nine cubs, and the average lifespan is fifteen to twenty years. Yay lions!
     After the lions failed to do much of anything for ten minutes despite my jeers and continued offerings of preschoolers I decided to move on to the baboons. The baboons were also up to literally, no good, so I was forced to read a sign about them. I read a really enlightening sign about the rare animals in Ethiopia; it turns out that the topography creates “isolated pockets of habitat” so the animals have evolved and changed within these microcosms – pretty cool. The zoo had also posted the requisite facts and bits of information below the viewing window but to my surprise, and disgust, they had also created a fairly large sign about tracking the signs of baboon pregnancy, urine samples and all; that was about enough baboon information for me so I trekked onwards.
     After almost vomiting while reading about baboon pregnancy I decided it was time for a change of scenery and what better than … THE WORLD OF DARKNESS!!! AHHHH!!

     This place was really cool. I learned that most of the action on earth occurs at night. That came out wrong. I mean most of the creatures on earth are nocturnal. This exhibit was jam-packed with deadly animals and facts like this: all scorpions glow in ultraviolet light. Yup, true. You just learned, deadly. So yeah, there were a fair share of unmoving and therefore unexciting things like frogs but there was also a bat cave that was verging on scary, bats cannot seem to make up their mind as to their purpose so they just fly all over the place, kind of like my writing. After my eyes had adjusted and I stopped walking into and knocking over little kids I decided the fun was over and went outside. The next stop: bears!
     Bears, like most big animals at this zoo, are boring.
     Next.
     Next, was the turtle pond. This was actually the most moving part of the trip for me. The pond was full of trash.

I could not help but be disappointed in this, at a zoo of all places. Pitiful.
     I walked around a bit more at the zoo and I’d love to describe the remainder in person to you but I’ve already gone way too long with my description of the event so I must move on.
     This event was both familiar and new to me because, although I had been to many zoos in my life I had never been to the Bronx Zoo. I learned lots of interesting facts about animals that I had no real knowledge of before. The community might benefit from my visit to the zoo because I am now even more conscious of how fragile the environment is. As for further interest, I don’t really see myself feeding monkeys although it did look fun, so I’m not sure that my visit had any direct effects on me aside bolstering my opinions and ideologies about the environment with more information. This event might have been more beneficial had I had a tour guide who could have walked me through the zoo and given me a deeper understanding of each species in the ecosystem as opposed to the basic information stated on the placards. The image of the trash floating in the turtle pond will remain the poignant memory of the trip for me because that trash is something tangible that I can change right now and those changes with definite solutions are nice to have every now and then.
     Overall I thought the experience was fantastic. I loved walking around the zoo with all the younguns and just going where the breeze took me. I learned a bit and thought about the environment for a solid three hours so I’d say that it was a worthwhile and successful trip.