The Lincoln Park Zoo is in the heart of Chicago. It is not as big as the Brookfield Zoo outside of Chicago but it has done a great job with their animal habitats. So let’s get started:
I entered the east entrance and just a few steps later was at the African lion exhibit. It is probably the nicest lion exhibit I’ve seen. It was quite large with several viewing windows. The male lion seemed to be posing for people. What a huge mane.
There was a very large crowd at the other end of the exhibit because they were introducing some cubs to their father for the first time. I couldn’t make my way to the area, so I only got photos of the male lion. He really seems to be the King of Beasts in these photos.
On the other side of the lion exhibit was a Canadian lynx. It was pretty warm out so the lynx was cooling off on a rock in the shade. That’s what I like to do on warm days, how about you?
I then head to the Primate House. The zoo has several kinds of monkeys and in the primate house they have my favorite ape: the Gibbon. The gibbon is the most acrobatic ape, with its long arms. A gibbon can have an arm-span of up to 5 feet. If my arms were proportionally as long (compared to my height) as a gibbon, my arm span would be 11 feet 5 inches!!! I like spending time watching gibbons move from branch to branch or bar to bar. They make it look so easy. Maybe, next time you are swinging on the monkey bars on a playground, you can pretend you’re a gibbon!
The Lincoln Park Zoo also has other primates. Like the St. Louis Zoo they have colobus and Allen’s swamp monkey (I still find that name amusing), as well as the Francois’ langur.
I thought the pied tamarin was quite handsome. It looks like it has a miniature lion’s mane. Also like the St. Louis Zoo, this zoo has a Hoffman’s two-toed sloth in the primate house. I should probably say that though they live in trees in and around monkeys in South America, sloths are more closely related to anteaters.
I leave one primate house to go to another, the Center of African Apes. As would be expected there are gorillas and chimpanzees in this area. However, I don’t remember why, but we were unable to get photos of the chimpanzees. That is how it goes sometimes.
As with the lions, the exhibit seems very spacious for the gorillas. It is always good to see a zoo providing good habitat for their animals. Some of the gorillas were active and others just sitting around munching on stuff.
Upon leaving the Center of African Apes, I head toward the hoofed mammals area. I am quite excited about this exhibit because the Lincoln Park Zoo has a Pere David’s deer. For over 100 years, the Pere David’s deer has been extinct in the wild. However, due to zoos and a private game reserve (Woburn Abbey) some of the Pere David’s deer began to be released back into China in 1985. I consider this a success story, similar to the California condor. However, the California condor didn’t have to wait over 100 years to be reintroduced into the wild.
Hopefully the Grevy’s zebra which is currently endangered, will not become extinct in the wild like the Pere David’s deer.
Next I find a Chacoan peccary and Sichuan takin. These two animals live very far apart and different habitats. The Chacoan peccary lives in South America in a semiarid lowland environment while the Sichuan takin comes from China and lives in an alpine (mountain) environment. Though peccaries look very much like a pig, it is quite a bit different than wild boar, red river hogs, and warthogs. Both the Sichuan takin and the Chacoan peccary are listed as endangered.
The Lincoln Park Zoo has a nice set of water areas: Waterfowl Lagoon and Swan Pond. These are a place for local critters to hang out.
The ponds make a nice area to walk by on the way to another aquatic animal, the grey seal. The grey seal looks a lot like the harbor seal I have seen at several zoos, but it has a kind of wildebeest nose and is much larger than the harbor seal. The grey seal only occurs in the North Atlantic Ocean while the harbor seal occurs in both the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans. The grey seal pups are creamy white. If you see them get out of the water, they belly walk. It is kind of amusing to watch.
From the ocean to the African plains. First I come upon the African wild dog and red river hog, though the hog was hard to see. It was a pretty warm day so all the African wild dogs were taking it easy.
In Africa, the African wild dogs are some of the most successful hunters. In large packs, they will run off almost all other predators from a kill, including a small pride of lions.
Now one of my favorite animals, and it really knows how to cool itself, the black rhinoceros.
In wilds of Africa, the mud bath also keeps the insects away. I have decided I don’t want to meet the insect that can pierce a rhinos skin. I have petted a white rhinoceros and their skin feels as tough as the soles of my shoes!!
As I’ve said, I like rhinos:
As I walked, things got kind of strange to me. Right next to the African Savannah animals was…a polar bear! All the way across the globe! It also may be the path I took at the Lincoln Park Zoo, but it was still strange.
Did you know that the skin of the polar bear is black? The white fur helps the polar bear be camouflaged on the snow and ice in the Arctic. While the black skin keeps the heat in. The polar bear has been listed as the largest living terrestrial carnivore (meat eater).
Well, it’s back to Africa with giraffes, plains zebras, and some meerkats thrown in.
Earlier on my stroll we saw a Grevy’s zebra, if you go back up you can see that not only are the stripes thinner on the Grevy’s zebra, but it is also larger with a little different shaped head. The plains zebra is abundant in Africa whereas the Grevy’s zebra is endangered.
This is the first time I have seen inactive meerkats. Like their closely related cousins the mongoose, they usually are very active. It was a pretty hot day so, I guess even meerkats need to relax in the heat.
Now I go into the inside portion of the African area. This area has birds, mammals, reptiles, and fish.
The klipspringer is a very small antelope that inhabit rocky areas with sparse vegetation. They are mostly nocturnal (active at night), which pretty amazing seeing how they live in rocky habitat. I am sure, I would trip and fall trying to walk at night in that kind of place. Spoonbills are surprisingly small (see photo of me with some spoonbills at Tracy Aviary).
The pygmy hippopotamus looks a bit different than it’s common hippopotamus cousin. Where the common hippopotamus lives in rivers that flow through swamps, savannas, and grasslands, the pygmy hippopotamus lives deep in the west African rainforest. Just like the African forest elephant is much smaller than the African savanna elephant, so to the pygmy hippopotamus is much smaller than the common hippopotamus.
As with the St. Louis Zoo, the Lincoln Park’s Bird House was closed due to the Avian Flu. So the last place I went was the Regenstein Small Mammal and Reptile House. This building also housed some amphibians, as well as mammals and reptiles.
When I think of porcupines, I think of the North American porcupine or the African porcupine. However, there are several porcupine species in South America. The Brazil porcupine being just one of those South American species. The Brazil porcupine has a prehensile tail, which like some South American monkeys they use as an extra hand. I thought they should have an African porcupine next to the aardvark, since they live in Africa and will use each others borrows. Not together, ouch for the aardvark.
As with the St. Louis Zoo, most of their snakes were either venomous or big. The African rock python has been know to kill and swallow small antelopes. I was glad to see the emperor newt, because I like newts and salamanders.
So concludes my walk through the Lincoln Park Zoo. It was not real big but it had nice habitats for the animals it had. The Lincoln Park Zoo also had some unique animals like the Pere’s David deer, pied Tamarin, pygmy hippopotamus, chacoan peccary, and the emperor newt.
So to all you Zoo Folk out there, this is a Zoo Guy hoping you soon get an opportunity to visit a zoo, maybe the Lincoln Park Zoo, in Chicago, Illinois.
