2ofus requested photos of the Waco Zoo (it's actually the Cameron Park Zoo, but it is in Waco) so here are a few. It's a great zoo, very walkable and green, and the animals are very well cared for. I hope you enjoy the photos as much as we enjoy visiting the zoo, We're members, so we get a behind the scenes tour yearly and get to meet the animals up close and personal. We've even been slimed by an elephant!
@marlingardener - lovely photos Do they also have an aquarium (asking cause of the seahorse photo). I love seeing those huge old tortoises and would love to have one walking about the garden. I think they're really interesting. Am also equally fascinated with all sorts of monkeys, gorillas, orangutans etc. Can't help but wonder if I'm related anytime I see one. Thanks for sharing
Islandlife, yes there is a fantastic aquarium with fish native to Texas in one area, coral reef fish including eels and angelfish, and of course, the small exhibit of seahorses. The Galapagos tortoises are very temperature sensitive, and if the temps go below 75 degrees, they are taken into their warmed hut. Watching the caretakers lure the tortoises to the hut with escarole lettuce is one of the most fascinating, if slow parades, in the world! Orangutans also live at the zoo. There are three--one hybrid Bornoan orang that isn't eligible to be bred, but the other male and female--we have high hopes of a romance resulting in a baby orang. There are no gorillas at present. When I see the orangutans, I just hope that we share a gene pool--they are gentle giants with strong family ties and bad hair days every day (maybe we do share some genes!).
Funny you should mention family connections with orangutans...when my first daughter was born she weighed 9 lb 2 oz and a full head of bright red hair. Her dad said she looked like a baby orangutan.
Very interesting set of pictures Marlingardener and thanks for sharing. I DO like the little seahorse, cute and colourful little creatures. As for gorillas, we have two zoos nearby run by The Aspinall Foundation with breeding programs to return young gorillas and other threatened species back to the wild.
Raddang, the Waco zoo is one of a few here in the USA that is authorized to have an orangutan breeding program. While reading up on breeding/returning to the wild programs, I've noticed that the UK is a leader. Both our zoo and many of yours have programs to maintain or restore habitat for the endangered species.
I love all the great apes. Love watching all the nature shows about them and watching the various antics especially the facial expressions. It is really very unfortunate, well tragic actually, that their natural habitat is being eroded and they're being poached. Awful. Don't think I ever realized the UK had breeding programs to return young gorillas and others to the wild.
Marlingardener, we Brits have a reputation for being animal lovers and I think that is largely true. We do have the occasional instance where domestic animals have been ill treated, particularly horses, but in most cases people will spend big to have their sick animal treated. In many cases several thousand pounds. Not uncommon to here a lady say her cat or dog comes before her husband. But when it comes to the repatriation programs for endangered species, I remain a little sceptical. Vast sums invested in putting a few dozen animals back into the wild when the reason for the decline in the first place was logging, human habitation, and poaching, things that still exist. I think in the long term these beautiful animals will only exist in well managed zoo parks and I think that is a good thing. It is most unlikely that we can re-establish viable colonies of endangered species in their natural habitats in the long term. I hope time will show me to be wrong but, as a grumpy old man , I have my doubts.....
I'm so glad you posted pictures of the Waco Zoo. I knew they would be great! I liked them all but the gibbons looks so gangly that they were cute and the sea horse looked like I could reach out and touch him!
@ Raddang - I kinda think you're right in that thousands are being spent to get an animal back to its natural habitat when essentially that natural habitat is gone or seriously in the process of going particularly if an animal (i.e. Mountain Gorillas) have had a huge territory. Their land mass is shrinking and I've often thought how long it will be before they have no natural habitat left.
There is hope for "rehoming" wild animals--not all, but some. For example, in the USA, the northwest has had wolf packs re-established. They were nearly wiped out by hunting, but now they are coming back in good numbers. Bison have been re-established on the plains, to the point that they are forming large herds that migrate in the old patterns. Whooping Cranes are another example of bringing a species back from the edge of extinction. We can only try, and zoos keep the gene pools and DNA tracked, and can help a species survive.
@marlingardener Great to here of those successes that you report above. MG And here is another for IL, and also one of my fav's. Both at Aspinalls zoopark.
Raddang, when we were at the Dallas zoo we were standing in front of the gorilla enclosure, and a gorilla came up and put his hand on the glass. I couldn't stop myself, I put my hand up and we both stood there for a moment. I still tear up when I think of it. And about being slimed by an elephant--we were on a behind the scenes tour of the Waco zoo, and Timbo is particularly fond of escarole. The keeper gave us each a bunch of escarole and warned us that the trunk was pretty "wet". Well, that was an understatement! But it was worth having elephant trunk wetness all up and down our arms!
I invite you to have a look at this beautiful, if a little scary, video of John Aspinalls granddaughter Tansy with the lowland gorillas. This was actually filmed around the mid nineties and I can remember seeing John Aspinall with tansy and his daughter enter the gorilla enclosure in the afternoon, quite a regular and amazing experience for visitors to see. I hope you enjoy this. Damian Aspinall gives some idea of the success of their breeding program. This was posted on Youtube 4 years ago so no doubt even more have now been released into the wild. Kleenex at the ready IL https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...C626954A7147ED80C165C626954A7147ED8&FORM=VIRE
