Visiting the Zoo in Winter

As I write this in late January, I can’t predict what the groundhog will do this year, except be annoyed that some humans in top hats have yanked him out of his cozy burrow, in front of a bunch of cameras. I seem to recall that a woodchuck wrangler got bit last year.

Speaking of animals, Roger Williams Park Zoo is offering half-price admission throughout February to encourage more visitors in the off-season. The day we visited was cloudy and chilly. Most animals were on view, whether inside or out, though some looked happier than others. The giant anteater was pacing inside, obviously wanting to be outside, but it’s cold out there.

Also pacing back and forth was one of the cheetahs, avidly looking at the zebra and wildebeest next door and wishing this blasted high fence wasn’t in the way of a good chase. The other two cheetahs were perched high on the large boulders in their enclosure, looking like they were checking out the traffic on I-95.

In the delightfully warm rainforest building, the sloth was nowhere to be seen (there is an awful lot of foliage to hide in) and the giant river otters were apparently napping too. Perhaps the animals were waiting to come out at 4 pm when all the gawking visitors go home. A female tree kangaroo, in another   building, has had a baby recently. The zoo posted a cute photo of the little one poking its head out of the pouch, but the joey was also staying “inside” at the moment.

The liveliest animals we saw were the two female Bactrian (double-humped) camels who were having a great time running about and playing together. They almost seemed to be smiling. Flamingoes gave a touch of tropical color to the zoo and didn’t seem to mind the lack of sun and palm trees.

I really didn’t like going to the zoo when I was a child many years ago, in a less enlightened era, because I thought of them as smelly places where unhappy animals were confined behind bars. As much as I appreciate the efforts of modern, well-run zoos to provide good environments for their animals, it still bothers me to see animals that need to run or that roam over large ranges in the wild confined to a fairly small space.

Yet the best zoos today work to save endangered species and to provide their animals with all the care they need. It’s one of those things in life which, unlike the zebras at the zoo, is not all black and white. A well-run zoo offers offer people the chance to see in person animals they’ve only seen on screen. You’re reminded once again just how tall giraffes are or maybe you’d forgotten just how enormous an elephant is or didn’t realize that camels could be so playful or that a Komodo dragon is just as scary-looking as you thought. The more you get to know animals, the more you will care about them, or so it is hoped.

It’s always good to be reminded that though we humans may think we’re far superior to all other creatures, this is not necessarily true. Just watch a cheetah run, an otter swim, or a kangaroo hop (boing, boing, boing). If you want to go south for the winter, can you just up and fly a few thousand miles (no luggage needed or airplane either)? People have always envied birds their avian freedom and been fascinated by animal behavior in general.

Speaking of otters, a couple of river otters have wandered over to our neighborhood from the Palmer River to hang out at the pond again. For how long, I don’t know. These slinky and sinuous creates are not always easy to observe. To borrow a line from an old folk song, “first they appear, and then they’re gone” as they pop up here and then quickly swim over there.

I hope neither of them becomes roadkill, like the poor juvenile otter I found at the side of the road two years ago, to my distress. Yes, people do drive way too fast on our twisty country roads.   But it’s nice to know that even if you don’t go to the zoo, perhaps some animals will visit you, on their terms of course.