This place is a zoo!

Friday, March 25, 2011

PHOENIX, AZ — Today we learned that the March break is on different weeks for different schools. It’s March break week for a lot of schools in Phoenix, because half the population of the city and their kids decided, as we did, to visit the zoo today.

Fortunately, the zoo itself and the parking lot are both very large, geographically speaking. We did end up having to park in the school bus zone, since every other type of space was already taken, but having done so, we found virtually no line-up for tickets. Once inside, there were lots of people, but there was plenty of room for them all.

The Phoenix Zoo opened in the early 1960s and, with 125 acres of land and more than 1,300 animals, it is the largest non-profit zoo in the US. One of its claims to fame is the successful re-introduction into the wild of the Arabian Oryx, which had virtually disappeared. Today, any oryx found in the wild has an ancestry that goes back to the Phoenix Zoo. We saw the ones still at the zoo, with their long, handsome horns, pointing almost three feet above their heads.

The zoo also has programs to rescue animals, such as Reba the elephant, a mature 40-year-old that came from an unhappy life in the circus. She doesn’t play nicely, as the zoo attendant put it, with the other two elephants, so she has outings when the others are inside.

We had almost as much fun watching all the excited kiddies with their long-suffering parents, who were pushing strollers, doling out sticky snow-cones, pointing out animals asleep in the shade, supervising the duck-feeding, or consoling tantrum-throwers, as we did watching the animals.

There were lots of activities for kids, including an entire loop of the zoo geared to that age group. In addition to looking at and learning about the various animals, kids could go on a paddle-boat in the pond, hop on a carrousel with endangered species instead of painted ponies, ride a real camel, pet a stingray, feed a giraffe, or climb on any number of oversized concrete animals to their hearts’ content.

It was a lovely, fresh day, and there were plenty of trees providing shade, water-fountains to help us keep hydrated, and placards to inform us about the exhibits. There wasn’t a single enclosure where we could not see the animal or bird, even if some had chosen shady spots to rest in.

The large African enclosure had, co-mingling on one large grassy hillside, giraffes, ostriches, vultures, gnus, gazelles and Watusi cattle with huge, lethal-looking horns — and all mostly peacefully, although I caught sight of the vulture rushing a surprised gazelle that quickly scampered out of range.

We saw turtles and flamingoes, monkeys and bighorn sheep, lions and rhinos. It was a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon.