Yesterdays trip to the zoo was interesting. I had not been to the Franklin Park Zoo in a few years and the last time I went I was chasing after an 18 month old so I was not really take it in. Emily and I decided to go since there has been a big stink lately about the economy hitting the zoo’s state funding. The zoo director played dirty by going public and crying out about the drastic cut in budget by saying the zoo might have to close and as a result euthanize animals. Needless to say, Governor Patrick has been attacked for putting the zoo in such as hard place and the zoo has been chastised for saying it would euthanize animals. (Lineham did come back and say that he was incorrect about euthanizing the animals).

Well, we took this as an opportunity to fork over $13 each to visit the struggling zoo. I use struggling nicely. As a designer, it was really hard to embrace a place that uses laminated sheets of paper tacked up to posts telling people that the Andean Condor saying that the bird was born in the 50’s and acquired by the zoo in the early 90’s (I forgot the exact dates). A zoo is an education place that is to teach everyone about the animals. Did you know that the condor is the largest flying land bird in the Western Hemisphere? No? Well, you would not have known that about the condor going to the zoo for it was not posted on the 1 sign of info about them (I looked it up the the nifty Internet).

I know that I am being really harsh about the zoo and its appearance now, especially when it is facing budget cuts. It just makes me wonder if others even notice what the zoo is lacking or they just view it as a place for them to take their kids to kill a few hours on a Saturday morning? Thoughts?

Enough ranting…

They had quite a few zebras that were in two parts of the zoo. I love their short manes…. mohawks!

We did get to see the lion quite a bit and even hear him roar. He sounded more like the cowardly lion than the ling of the jungle. Still really cute. Check out my video.

Moving along the ill-marked paths we came across two hornbills. We watched them for awhile and one became so comfortable with us there that he? dug up a chunk of dirt and grass, walked over to the enclosure fence and put it down to give to us. Well give in the sense that we were still two feet away from it. Then it stuck its beak out of the fence as far as it could and sat there for awhile watching us.

We also saw flamingos, kangaroos, a tiger, giraffes, butterflies, and more.

Post zoo visit we walked back to my house- 5.5 miles. Sweet.

All in all I know I will go back but I just hope that they get the funding they deserve and outfit the zoo to properly house their animals and educate the public.