Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens- Wed., 6/5/19

From the moment we parked in the solar panel covered garage we knew this zoo was going to be spectacularly different! After parking, we took an escalator up and over the road to the zoo entrance to purchase our tickets. This zoo participates in a program with other zoos across the US. If you hold a zoo membership to another zoo and have those with you, you can receive a discount. This zoo offers a 50% discount! Our total entry fee ended up being $27.00 including the $10.00 for parking.

Now our day really begins! We were watching the weather. The night before we had a pretty big storm. Weather bug predicted there would be NO more rain during the day. It was to rain around 7:00. The funny thing is, my WTF (What The Forecast app) said, “This weather is a bag of suck!” It was just overcast all day! 😊 All this being written down because we felt like we had the zoo to ourselves most of the day! At several of the exhibits we could watch by ourselves for as long as we wanted. At one point we were lucky enough (because we are shy people), to stumble across a volunteer named “Vince”. He had an “All Access” volunteer badge on. He has been volunteering at the zoo for 13 years. I felt like we were speaking to the director of the facility. His knowledge of the entire place was amazing. He knew all the animals’ names. He explained how the zoo used the reclaimed water system on the property. They have a 450,000-gallon reservoir under the property they use for certain animals like the hippos. The solar panel power is for the offices on the property. Vince told us specifically to go back to the “Zookeeper Talk” at 2:45 for Fiona and Bibi, the hippos. As he said this he winked. We made sure we were there. Luck was with us again- there was a private tour going on and they were feeding the hippos! Zoom Zoom took some great photos of the two of them eating! Thank you, Vince!

The zoo is known for Fiona. She was the first Nile hippo to be born at the zoo in 75 years. She is the only preemie hippo to ever survive. She had a few things go against her at birth, Vince told us. Firstly, she was born 6 weeks early. A vet that works at the zoo was notified; he lives about a block from the zoo. When he arrived, Fiona was laying on the cement. Usually hippos are born in the water. Hippos dehydrate easily if they are not submerged in the water. The baby is pushed to the top of the water to breathe and then they are nursed in the water for about 2 weeks all the while they are bonding with their mother. So, when the vet got there, he was not so sure he wanted to go in and get Fiona! Hippos are aggressive. He knew that Fiona had zero chance of living if he didn’t try and save her. In he went and Bibi just let him take Fiona. She weighed 29 pounds while most hippos weigh about 60 pounds at birth. She was bottle fed using her mom’s milk and infant milk. Teething at about one month old caused her to stop eating. Fiona refused all foods and liquids-she became dehydrated. A team of doctors from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital aided the vet team and Fiona flourished. They put a catheter in her for feedings. If it hadn’t been for the collaboration between the hospital and the zoo, Fiona probably would have joined the statics of all the other preemies born. It looks like Fiona will live a long happy life now!

Zoom Zoom off to the zoo!
Vince, the volunteer that had ALL the skinny about the zoo!
Bibi, Fiona’s mom
Fiona
Smile
Fiona
Fiona
Peek-a-boo!
Top Model pose
I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!
Vince, our hero, tod us to come back at 2:45. We did and this is what was going on.
Private tour: $250.00 per person

Of course, we hightailed it to the giraffes. It was feeding time! 4 tiny pieces of lettuce = priceless (in real life $6.00). The giraffe I fed was pregnant! They have two pregnant giraffes. They belong to a breeding program with other zoos, so they can’t just let things happen naturally. Giraffes are such interesting animals! They have an 18” long prehensile tongue – meaning it can wrap around leaves to strip them from the trees! Their hearts weigh 25 pounds. Yep, they do have BIG hearts-literally! They have 4 stomachs!! I can’t even deal with the one I have; I can’t imagine having four to keep up with! Their eyelashes are something most of us women truly envy. As long and luscious as they are, they serve a purpose – they keep splinters and other tree debris out of their eyes as they eat their meals. Their nasty ratty looking tails are fly swatters! And their patterns on their coat are for camouflage while out on the savannahs. I promise as soon as they create a teacup giraffe, I’m going to be first in line for one (or 4!)

This one is expecting in early fall.
More please!
I love to feed the giraffes!
How do I measure up? I am 4′ 16″
Peek-a-boo!
It’s hard to play hide-and – seek when you are a giraffe1

This zoo also had manatees! The only other place we have seen manatees is…is at the Dallas Aquarium. These guys are just big blobs of fat shaped like squishy walruses minus the tusks and the tails aren’t shaped the same. Manatee tails are more round with a tiny notch in the center. They move so slow in the water, I can see how they get hurt by boats, they just aren’t Olympic swimmers. Just like most exhibits we were alone in this one for quite a bit of time! It was so relaxing to sit on the bench and watch them lumber along. At some point the keepers dropped lettuce in the water. A few of them were hungry and “took off” for a treat! The zoo obtained all 4 of their manatees through rescues in one way or another. One was found abandoned after its mother was struck by a boat and didn’t survive, one was rescued from a boat strike, and two of them were rescued after 2 separate hurricanes. The zoo built an amazing facility for them to live out their days.

The zoo has some of the usual animals we see in almost every zoo… birds, lions, tigers, monkeys, apes, fish, turtles, and elephants. Siegfried and Roy donated their white tigers to the zoo when they retired. The enclosure is so pretty. We happened upon them when they were napping. The zoo is also a botanical garden so everywhere we walked the pathways were lined with blooming flowers. I don’t mean “damn” flowers, Suzie😊, I mean they have opened up to their fullest potential for the birds and the bees to do “their thing.”

Being the “forever five” year old that I am, I wanted to ride the train. A mere $8.00 later and we secured our spots on the train! Remember it is nearly empty today 😊 no fighting for seats today. The $8.00 got us a round trip ride through the zoo! We knew we weren’t going to see everything today, so this became great way of seeing some of the parts we would miss. The wolf was one of those parts! Just enjoy those pictures and remember I’m really like a 5-year-old.

Vultures – their wings are clipped so they don’t fly off.
Storks
Cheetah exhibit
closed today!
Wolf 🙂

Our last place to visit was the gorilla enclosure. This was a perfect way to end our zoo visit. I don’t know what it is about these creatures, but they are fun to watch and creepy all at the same time. The silverback obviously rules the roost! He knows to sit close to the windows with his back to us. That’s the creepy part, they are so intelligent. Then there was momma bear sized ones. One gave me the “side-eye” and would just sit and stare at me – again…creepy! But, the cutest ones, the kids, or the baby bear sized ones! What is it about little things that are so fascinating AND when do they reach the magical age when we decide they aren’t so cute anymore? We do that with humans too. We gush over babies, we ooh and aah over little kids and then puberty hits and we aren’t doing that so much anymore. No one except Zoo Zoom gushes over me! I think I’m gush-able just like our granddaughter Little Bit, oh well I guess that’s a different story! These two little guys were rough housing so much. It was as if they watch WWE and try some of the moves on each other (ooo…I wonder if it is the other way around, the WWE guys watch these gorilla babies to get new moves!) I know I’m on to something! Well, no matter what it was a great way to end our visit at this zoo. We felt as if we were the only ones there most of the day. If you find yourself in Cincinnati, go to the zoo, wear good shoes it is hilly, find Vince and you will have a great time!