Saturday we went to the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium. It was … disappointing. There are no giant anteaters or fruit bats or ring-tailed lemurs. And the leopard doesn’t have anything to climb on except for a wee hut that is so low to the ground it wouldn’t take much effort to step on. The penguins seem crowded and stand facing the walls of their enclosure, sort of rocking back and forth a bit — not unlike the inmates at Arkham Asylum. There’s a transparent tunnel you walk through in the aquarium where you are surrounded by sharks — which is cool for you but I imagine is fairly frustrating for them. Here look at all these tasty toddlers that you can’t eat, guys. Seems kinda jerky, to me.
I don’t remember feeling particularly bummed by the Philadelphia Zoo as a child. I hated that the peacocks were not protected from horrible people who wanted to steal their tail feathers — but I don’t really recall being overwhelmed with sadness looking at the animals, and yet, I feel like I was much more sympathetic as a child. I don’t really have the best memory though, so maybe it’s always like this in a zoo.
It’s not like I don’t feel like zoos are important. I just feel like there ought to be enclosures that make sense for the animals that are stuck in them.
The new polar bear enclosure is pretty fancy. You can walk underneath the tank and see them swimming above you if you catch them when they’re in a swimming mood. This lady up above is one of the new pair of female polar bears acquired this year. They were smaller than I thought they’d be, but I think I read that they’re still fairly young. Or not as old as the fellas, at least.
This is stately lady was trying to get a little privacy so she could powder her nose, but having no other choice, she let lose an epic piss which excited the assembled crowd of phenomenally stupid children and parents. To be honest the children might’ve let out a chorus of Eeeewwwwwws but a lot of the parents were acting offended — like the elephant was being rude. One lady pulled her son away from the viewing area, and he wasn’t even looking at her. “Mom what’s wrong? Where are we going? Did you see the baby elephant running? His ears were all flapping. Can I see him for a minute?” Jeez.
I really didn’t get many photos because the children and over sized stroller mommies kept swarming and jostling us away. Well, mostly just me because I’m not tall like D. At one point I felt like unleashing s stream of f-bombs just to get the mommies to yank their kids away from me. I was good though.
Speaking of dumb jerks at the zoo — there was a guy wearing a Michael Vick jersey. At The Zoo. He had a gaggle of obnoxious tween boys with him and every single one of them needed to be pushed into the piranha tank. Only in Pittsburgh, folks, y’know?
Eventually we tired of getting hit with doublewide strollers filled with babies too young to know where they were or what was going on, and we got out of there. I stopped at the gift shop to pick up a shot glass for one of the Bleiman bros, had a wtf moment staring at a display of stuffed hot pink penguins and lime green elephants, found a sweet elephant t-shirt for D and then we fled in search of food that wasn’t an odd combination of gross and overpriced. (I wanted very badly to take a photo of the ice cream place across from the zoo, but there wasn’t time before the light changed. It’s called Ice Cream Station Zebra. No lie.)
After a delicious meal at Taco Loco we went to a show D’s friend put together; a band out of Chicago called The Atomica Project. Not really my thing (I’ve never been into Portishead) but the singer had a great voice, and the first few songs were lovely. Maybe I was just super tired from wandering around all day, but I was psyched to go home and fall asleep with my own big cats (and one very small cat.)
Sunday involved pancakes and Watchmen. There was an elderly couple sitting next to me and each time there was some full frontal Dr. Manhattan on screen the little old lady would gasp — every single time and it never got old for me. I loved her. When it was over, I heard her say to her fella, “Oh my!”
Hi, Thanks for your comments about the Pittsburgh Zoo. I’ll try to address some of your questions. First, where’s Taco Loco? If it’s delicious food, I want to try it.
Anyway, the polar bear girls, Anana and Aurora, turned two on November 24 and the boys, Koda and Nuka, turned four on November 24. It is just a coincidence that they have the same birthday. We are going to have a birthday party for them this year! They aren’t fully grown yet. The girls are about 700 pounds and will grow to be 1200 pounds! The sharks, even though they look hungry and menacing, really only eat once a week. We’d feed them more if they wanted to eat more, but they don’t! They do the same when they live in the ocean.
About the penguins, often they face the wall when they have eggs on their feet. The males and females take turns incubating the eggs. They get the same amount of light and dark as they do in the antarctic and they live in the same temperature. Since they are eating and mating and they play a lot, I hope that means they are happy.
We do have ring-tailed lemurs, they alternate time with the black and white lemurs because right now we are breeding one of the females so we have to keep her with the other black and white lemurs. We don’t want to put her with the red ruffed or the ring tailed, because we don’t want them to mate with her.
Did you go into the South American fruit bat cave at Kids Kingdom? That’s a pretty cool experience. I know what you mean though, the giant bats are really great to see as well.
The Amur leopard does climb the huge tree in the middle of his exhibit. He used to be up there all the time, but I haven’t seen him there lately. We are renovating that exhibit and widening it; I think the renovation is slated for this year.
I hope you come back again. It is always a different experience each time you come. Even working here, I see something new or fun every time I am on the path for a walk (I work in the office, so I don’t get out as much as I’d like to.)
Thanks again for your comments!
Connie, thanks for the explanations. I want to make it known I’m truly not someone who sees animated kid flicks, gets all upset and wants to go free the animals. Really! I love zoos! I convinced my company to have their annual picnic/party thing at the Pgh Zoo two years ago. (It was a hit. The pavilion was sweet.)
A sign explaining the penguins/eggs thing might be helpful, because I’ve heard other folks talking about how, well, sad the penguins seem to those of us who aren’t up on penguin behavior. Having seen them once before, I almost avoided going in there again.
It was surprising how small the polar girls were. (As in short, compared to the fellas who I remember being of towering proportions.) They are absolutely beautiful! Their area is really neat, and I’m so glad you guys were able to build it.
The sharks definitely do not look underfed or miserable, by any means. Their liveliness is what made us wonder how they feel about potentially tasty morsels wandering through their space, just out of reach. I’m sure they get used to it, but I felt like I ought to apologize to them for not being able to let ‘em have just a curious nibble, y’know?
The comment about the fruit bats was because a friend jokingly asked me to pick her up one or a fennec fox when I said I was heading out to the zoo. I couldn’t really get close enough to see in the bat cave because it was packed. Frankly, I got out of the Kids Kingdom as fast as possible — if you were there on Saturday too and saw the crowds enjoying the gorgeous weather we had, then I’m sure you understand why. (Yikes!)
Another friend wanted a photo of ring-tailed lemurs… and I am a sucker for a giant anteater. (I moved here from DC and am crazy in love with Maripi at the National Zoo.)
Is the metal wrapping around the base of the leopard’s tree just to keep him from shredding it?
It’s funny, when I downloaded the photos off my camera I thought, “Oh jeez I caught them all looking so bummed out.” The more I think about it though, the more I realize that it wasn’t the zoo itself that was disappointing. It was a combination of the day and the other visitors. I don’t think I want to go back unless it is a school day and off season.
Some zoos have evening/night events for adults once or twice a year — do you guys have anything like that? If not, could you give it a try? I know a lot of my friends would be into getting a chance to actually be able to get to see the exhibits without having kids shoving them out of the way. You could have some folks around to answer questions like “Is that thing keeping the leopard from climbing the tree?” and “Are the penguins as depressed as they’re making me?”
I went to one at the National Zoo and it was great. A lot of the animals were awake and it was nicer temperature wise than a bright summer day, so everyone — animals and visitors — were more active.
Actually, I would like to talk to someone about organizing something like this for a joint event with some of the science-y and non-profit groups I am involved with. I feel like the Pittsburgh Zoo would be a good recipient for our next charitable donation. (I will email you soon.)
Taco Loco is on E. Carson in South Side between 25th & 26th. If you are a fan of deliciousness then I highly recommend it. Definitely try the guac! What is good food-wise close to the zoo for the next time we’re there?
Thanks again, Connie!