Columbus Zoo

When Jack Hanna (now world-renowned animal guy on TV) took over the Columbus Zoo, it was still under the purview of the city streets and sewer department.  I don't get it, either.  It was, from what I understand, a pretty miserable zoo.  By the time I first visited as a kid, he had completely turned it around and cleaned it up.  We went a lot when I was little, at all times of the year (they have a great Zoo Lights program), and even rode the Zoo Ride bike tour a couple times.  I don't even know whether they still do that.

It was.

After GOBA, I stayed at home for a couple weeks to help Dad with some chores and small projects.  While Dad was at work one day, my brother invited me to join him and my nephew (who will be two this fall, and spent a lot of time outside the stroller in energetic attempts to catch sparrows) for a trip to the zoo.  I hadn't been to the Columbus Zoo in so long I couldn't even figure out when my last visit had been, and I admit that they've made so much improvement in that time that I didn't even recognized most of it.  Entire exhibits have moved, the giraffes are gone, there's a manatee tank, dinosaurs line a river I could swear wasn't there before, and they have a large enclosure for polar bears and (adjacent) Alaskan brown bears.

Bison and day lilies.

One of the things I really like about the Columbus Zoo is a very active commitment to conservation.  Recycling bins are next to every trash can, signs by all of the animals explain their endangered/threatened status (and why they might be threatened), and numerous exhibits explain what individuals can do to help.  (For instance, avoid anything with palm oil.  Harvesting it threatens lots of habitat.)  Even the park benches have tiny plaques telling you how long it takes plastic water bottles to decompose, and how many water bottles were recycled to make the bench.

This is a muntjac, one of the world's tiniest deer species (this one was about 20 inches at the shoulder).  It is also known as a Barking Deer, because when frightened, it will start barking.  For up to an hour straight.  Make no sudden moves.

There are also banners acknowledging Hanna's efforts and the fact that he's been tirelessly working for both the zoo and the environment for three decades.  They're calling it his Hannaversary, and include the slogan "Thirty Years of Khaki."

Golden pheasant, native to Asia, and ring-necked pheasant, which I've seen all over the US.  You can probably guess which is which.

My brother has clearly been there several times in the past few years, because he knew his way around, and often told me all about exhibits before I had figured out where they were.  One of them didn't even have animals--it was just a building made to look like a house outside and filled with simulated environments inside (obviously telling kids that something doesn't have to have a roof and a Playstation to be someone's home).  He seemed more interested in crawling through the tunnels inside than his son, but to be fair, it was dark and a little creepy there for a little guy.

I hope I never get stung by a box jellyfish.

Fun facts from the zoo:

• Binturongs are sometimes called bearcats, though they are neither bear nor cat.  More impressive: THEY SMELL LIKE POPCORN.  I was not allowed to sniff the one at the zoo.
• The Humboldt penguin is endangered because it nests by burrowing into enormous piles of guano.  When people realized guano was great fertilizer, they started mining it, and the penguins lost their nesting ground.  One in the zoos exhibit had a tendency to start squawking in long fits; others would come from around the enclosure (including the inside portion) to see why.
• There is very little fat on the apparently corpulent manatee.  There is also very little muscle.  When I asked the nice docent at their tank what filled that massive body, she explained that an all vegetation diet requires a lot of digestion; the manatee's intestine is over 140 feet long.  Essentially, they are huge, floating digestive systems.  Because they have hardly any meat or fat, predators don't bother them, and their only threats are man, machines, and habitat loss.

There's a waterpark adjacent to (and joined with) the zoo.  I suspect it might be sponsored by Kraft.  The pedestal reads: "For your safety, please do not climb on the big noodle sculpture."

We managed to see most of the zoo in an afternoon, even with a toddler whose attention can be held--shortly--only by aquaria and similar large tanks.  He liked the sea room (a few dozen species of fish, turtle, and small sharks all in one big tank), the manatees (who also roomed with a turtle named Stubby and a small school of fish, but mainly stared out the glass while munching Romaine), and the brown bears (one sat in a deep pool of water against the glass and played with his feet, entertaining kids and adults alike), but calmly waited while his dad and uncle gibbered excitedly at various birds, lizards, kangaroos, tiny deer, bats, primates, and bugs.  Then he insisted I tickle him for the entire drive home.