On the 8th we went to the Detroit Zoo. I don't think I'd been there since I took my almost-first-grader about 15 years ago.
The Detroit Zoo has a large piece of property, and an awful lot of it is in use by people, only. I expect that the people who run the zoo would love to make all that open space over into habitat for animals, and I know that is very expensive, but it feels sort of creepy to me to have all that space for people (who can go anywhere!) while the animals' space is so limited...........
Poor Michigan is in very bad economic trouble right now, as you may imagine. Michigan has depended way too heavily on the automotive industry for jobs and money. With the American automotive industry in serious trouble, Michigan is also in serious trouble, and Detroit may be in the worst condition of all. Detroit has apparently been the victim of some sort of civic perfect storm. It has a tiny fraction of the population it had 30 or 40 years ago. Much of it looks almost like a war zone, with burnt-out boarded-up houses..... I don't know what happened to Detroit that didn't happen to Chicago or Boston or San Francisco, but it is sad.....
The zoo has, I believe, in the last couple of years managed to separate itself from the city, finances- and management-wise. These are very tough times, and I hope the zoo can manage to survive and thrive..........
I will inevitably be comparing heavily with Toledo, where we go much more often. Toledo does a very nice job of using the space they have for the animals.......
I know Toledo has a separate millage for the zoo, which insulates it from whatever monetary needs the city of Toledo experiences......
Love this ad campaign! (as always, click on a pic to see a bigger version)
The 8th was a gorgeous day. Warm and sunny. And hazy....... Many of the animals were dozing in the sun. Perhaps everyone had a big lunch that day, and a nice nap in the sun was a natural follow-up?
This is a guanaco, the shiest of South America's camelids (llamas and alpacas are the other two). For some reason I thought they were smaller than alpacas (which are smaller than llamas), but apparently they are llama-size.
Another recurring theme on the 8th was animals who looked scruffy and/or had clearly suffered some sort of illness or injury. I know these are wild animals, and that as such they don't get groomed, or shorn, or whatever, but it was ... disconcerting ... to see so many of them clearly not in the peak of health.
This guanaco not only obviously could use some help with hair, but had something wrong with its left front leg. The middle joint was swollen and the leg was not straight.............
The sign said these were Chilean flamingos. I had no idea there were flamingos in Chile.....
I wondered at the time if the one on the ground was one of this year's chicks...... Now that I'm thinking about all the instances of things wrong with the animals that I can see more clearly on "the big screen" than I could see in person, I am hoping it was not ill or injured........
Notice the ostrich in the background? (at least, I think it is an ostrich)
These storks summer in Europe and winter in Africa. So this is sort of three sorts of big (and Very Big Indeed) bird from three different continents (if you count the stork for Europe), all in one pic.
Tree kangaroo, from New Guinea.
This doesn't look like a very comfortable pose to me, but it didn't move while we were watching. It was quite high in the tree......
Stork, again, with a bit of poster edging.
Tapir. I didn't notice when we were there (and at a distance), but now that I see this on the "big screen," I am wondering if it is missing an eye..... :-(
Coati. These are very busy animals, and this one just ... sat. I surely hope it was dozing off its lunch...........
I do recognize that older animals tend to be scruffier, and to have suffered more illness and injury over time. Surely hoping these not-in-the-peak-of-health critters are geriatric and being impeccably and lovingly cared for as they age.....
Bald eagle.
A recurring theme in any zoo photography is barriers and backgrounds. It's hard to take pics in any zoo without having fencing and/or glass be a prominent feature of your pic.
In Toledo there is mesh wire between you and the eagle. This one was farther away, from visitors, but with no barrier between me and the eagle.
Przewalski's horse. The last wild horse on the planet (not counting domesticated horses gone wild).
The Detroit zoo seems to have one (1). I know equines are very serious about living in herds, so I thought it was sad that this guy was alone with a bunch of deer....
His scruffy coat and eye issue were visible to us while we were at the zoo, though we couldn't tell that the eye issue was that it wasn't there at all until we got home.
These horses, who come in exactly this color pattern, are very reminiscent of the horses in the Lascaux cave paintings.
His proportions are wrong, though. Look how big his head is, in comparison to his body. The opposite of the cave paintings, where the body is huge in proportion to the legs and head.
The cave horse's proportions are much more similar to this domesticated Norwegian fjord horse (who is beautifully groomed and makes this zoo inhabitant look even scruffier!)
In any case, I'm not sure I'd ever seen one of these in person before.
He seemed to be navigating just fine, walking around the perimeter of the enclosure. I wonder if it was just coincidence that he was walking with his good eye toward his enclosure-mates rather than toward all the people around the edges..... You can see in the pic above (just over his shoulder) that there is at least one male deer with an impressive set of antlers in there. (thinking about things that could damage eyes.....)
According to the signs, there were two kinds of deer in his enclosure. I think this is a white-lipped deer.
I'm glad that they have grass to walk on. Sometimes there are so many animals in an enclosure that the grass can't grow.....
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