Cincinnati Zoo

After posting this blog entry, I noticed that if you use the photo viewer to view all the photos (Lightbox), then you won't see all the photos.  Lightbox can't display the amount of photos I have in this blog entry so, if you want to see all the photos, then you'll have to scroll down the page through the entire blog entry.

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While we were in Ohio with our two oldest grandchildren back in June, there were a few places that we really wanted to visit.  One of these places was the Cincinnati Zoo.  

We don't have any zoos in Vermont so visiting a zoo was one of our priorities since there is an outstanding zoo in Cincinnati.  Amtrak would drop us off in Cincinnati and this is the city from which we would depart too so we spent a few days in Cincinnati before getting back on the train to head home.  This would allow us some time to visit a few places in Cincinnati before we had to depart on the train.

As I mentioned in previous blog entries, the weather was brutally hot and humid throughout this entire trip.  Our clothes were perpetually soaked in sweat.  The humidity was in the 90's with thunderstorms almost every afternoon and the temperatures were hovering in the triple digits during the day and around 90° at night.  Still, we were determined to do some outdoor activities and visiting the Cincinnati Zoo was one of these things.  

This heat and humidity probably worked in our favor for all of our outdoor activities during this trip though and the zoo was no different...  it really wasn't all that crowded since nobody wanted to be out in this oppressing weather.  The only place in the zoo I can remember encountering a line was at the giraffes which was the first stop near the entrance to the zoo.  There was a long line to feed the giraffes so we just moved to an open deck area and captured a few photos, watched them wander around for a bit and then moved on to the next attraction.  The rest of the zoo really was mostly empty which was kind of nice regardless of the heat.

I captured a lot of photos during this visit to the zoo since we don't get to visit a zoo all that often.  Consequently, this blog entry is pretty heavy in photos.  

In this first photo, we are paying for parking at a kiosk at the entrance to the zoo...

An escalator takes us up to a walkway over a busy road so we could safely access the zoo from our parking lot...

Now we are in the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens.  Below, we are in the midst of non-native bamboo...

Very near the entrance are the giraffes so this was our first stop to view any animals...

Most of the flamingos were all together in a messy bunch.  I'm not sure this small group of flamingos was nearly large enough to call a "flamboyance" as they are officially referred to when in great numbers...  just a messy small group that would have captured a moment that was more of a snapshot in time rather than a proper photo.  Since I couldn't find a good subject for a proper photo, I continued searching for a good angle and a good subject.  Then this one flamingo walking alone along the edge of the water caught my eye...

Capturing photos of vultures isn't all that interesting (to me, anyway) but this guy made the photo pretty easy for me although it would have been better if he was in the light.  Most of the animals were avoiding the sun due to the heat but I can't complain about that because we were doing the same...

Cheetahs...  now classified as a "vulnerable" animal with less than 7000 of them globally.  If it weren't for zoos and their conservation efforts including reproduction efforts, Cheetahs would likely be extinct today. 

The meerkats were great subjects to photograph.  I could have spent about an hour shooting photos of them in their surprisingly large play area!

Lukey, Kenzie and Gee are watching the hippos below.  I don't know if one of these hippos was the famous Fiona or not.  Fiona was born pre-maturely at this zoo about eight years ago so is quite well-known.  

The two newest babies at this zoo are Ellie the possum and a new baby boy gorilla who has not been named yet.

Sheila and Lukey are buying tickets for the train ride while Kenzie and I wait in the shade...

Capturing a photo of this wolf, below, was tough.  First, spotting him in his expansive environment was difficult because they really do blend well into their environment but, even once we found him, he was behind this thicket of branches making it difficult to capture a good photo.  My camera kept focusing on the branches so I had to switch to manual focus and was able move into just the right position to get a fairly clear shot of him...

In hindsight, I should have posed Kenzie here cautiously peering around and into the entrance into the darkness to see if was safe to enter...

This tree looks like a giant elephant leg...  I'm not sure but I think this could be a big old European Beech tree.  The gardens in this zoo have many non-native species of trees and plants.  I know we missed most of the botanical gardens in this zoo because we were more focused on the animals in our one day visit but I think we also missed upwards of 40-60% of the zoo animals for one reason or another.  The high heat and humidity was the prime reason most animals were hiding under cover or weren't even out for public viewing.  This is one of those places that really needs multiple days of visits.  It would be awesome to have daily access to this zoo for the photographic opportunities.  But back to the original point...  this giant elephant leg is really a giant tree...

This guy, below, was another great model for me.  I captured some really nice photos of him.  This one, below, might actually be my favorite of all my zoo photos...  ever...

The zoo also has quite a few animals of the marine variety even though there is a large aquarium nearby which we visited on the following day.  Below, we have a manatee, I believe...

These aquariums were in covered grotto-type areas that were naturally significantly cooler than being out in the heat and humidity so these areas were rather crowded.  Actually, these areas were the only areas that were consistently crowded!  This zoo had a nice selection of marine life....

Below, we are entering a large pagoda where we could overlook a good portion of the Asian elephant area....

When we left that first pagoda pictured above, we then walked around the perimeter of the elephant environment...

As we walked from the pagoda pictured above around to the other side of this enormous elephant area, our timing ended up being perfect.  Just as we arrived at another large Asian-style pagoda and found some seats in the shade on the steps facing the elephants (we...  well, really, my spinal injuries needed a break), a zookeeper came out to talk about these elephants which turned out to be interesting and amusing...

I thought this elephant, below, looked as though she's laughing about something as she walks away from a few other elephants...

At the end of the presentation by the zookeeper, this elephant, below, got into the water right in front of us and was splashing around.  He looked like he was about to have some mischievous fun by spraying some water at us.  As much as I would have liked to cool down, I didn't want to get my photography gear wet so I immediately captured this photo and then made a very quick exit...

Below, we have a lemur trying to stay cool in a cave...

This gorilla, below, was pretty amusing.  For the most part, he was just lying there but he would occasionally look directly at me and sometimes even point...

That giant sunflower in the distance is actually a misting station for cooling down.  I avoided it to keep my photography gear dry, however, Lukey and Kenzie gave their cameras and bags to Sheila so they could cool down at least a little bit for a short bit of time...

I am definitely not a fan of Bald Eagles in the least (I classify them as being right down there with pigeons, seagulls and vultures) but I managed to capture a few good photos of these guys...

Below is one of the rarest rattlesnakes in the world, the Aruba Island Rattlesnake.  Its unusual coloring caught my eye so I did take note of the information placard to figure out what I was looking at...  a very rare Aruba Island Rattlesnake.

Sheila, Kenzie and Lukey had all-day passes to the carousel so we stopped here a few times throughout the day...

From the look on Kenzie's face below, Kenzie's cellphone must be one of those smellphones...  I wonder what she is looking at...  or smelling...

We had a great time at the zoo and we managed to avoid the usual afternoon thunderstorms too!  By mid-afternoon, the sky was rather dark and we could hear distant thunder but we never did get any rain at the zoo.  Just in case, while we were hearing the distant thunder, we stuck close to areas where we could quickly get under cover.

Lukey and Kenzie also shot some photos at the zoo but I'll do another couple of blog entries with their photos sometime soon.