The Columbus Zoo

Sean and I took the July 4th weekend and drove to Columbus to visit Sean's relatives. The one exotic thing to do in Columbus is go to the Zoo! And so we did.

The Columbus Zoo claims to be number 1 in the country. I think not. Sorry Columbus. But San Diego, The National Zoo in Washington, The Bronx Zoo and maybe even the Philadelphia Zoo have you beat. Anyhow, Columbus is a damn nice zoo. Here are my photos, and another post will include Sean's photos.

The centerpiece of the zoo is a carousel that was built in 1914. It has 52 hand carved wooden horses and one chariot. Here are two horses that caught my eye.

Without further ado, the animals:

A white-naped crane

Didn't someone say let sleeping tigers lie?

A sun bear plays with his food.

A 24 foot (7.3 meter) long reticulated python.

A palas cat takes a bath.

A zebra shark in the big aquarium.

A large Pacific blue tang.

An orange shoulder tang zips on by.

Holly the manatee.

These Humbolt penguins were very shy and that may have been because they were molting or because they had just had chicks in February. Compare them to the ones I photographed cavorting in their pool in Barcelona.

A Temminick's pheasant in the Pheasant's enclosure.

This Himalayan Impeyan Pheasant is shy and doesn't want to show off his colors.

While the golden pheasant struts his stuff all around the enclosure.

It was day, so the flying foxes are sleeping.

But this little fellow opened his eyes to check us out.

The obligatory flamingos shot. These were all the zoo had and they were cramped in a tiny pond.

The zoo also had a red panda and lions, but they were too far away for me to get photos, so Sean took pictures with his zoom. The zoo also had large primates, but I don't like seeing those.

Basically, I was not impressed, but then again, our visit time was limited. We didn't get to see the polar bears and I had forgotten about them by the time we left! But I love to look at animals at a zoo, large or small. So, I had fun and took photos.

Footnote: I also thought about visiting my very good blogger friend Doug, of Unnatural Devotions. But 2 hours out of the way is forever when you are only in Ohio for the weekend and have already driven 14 hours to get there, sorry Doug! But I was thinking about you! I sure hope that counts!