Julian, Ryland and I made plans on Saturday to check out Bronx Zoo on Sunday, considering Ryland and I both worked at the zoo back home. I was also keen to see whether Bronx Zoo lived up to the impression I had in my head. First up though, Julian and I met for breakfast at the little English place down the street called Tea and Sympathy.
A lot of the restaurants around here only open at 11 for brunch but we needed somewhere sooner. Luckily this place was handy, open and had a good price. It was a pokey little cafe which only seems to have English staff. One of the women, who I think is the owner, let us in a few minutes early. She was loud, funny and didn’t hold back. A real Londoner. We loved her. Breakfast was simple, just scrambled eggs, Heinz baked beans, toast, mushrooms and tomatoes. It filled the spot.
The Bronx Zoo
Julian and I caught the subway up to the Bronx, a 45 minute journey into a part of New York I’ve never been. We definitely weren’t in the West Village any more. Signs to the zoo were well marked and we found it without any trouble. Ryland and his friend, Rachel, arrived about 20 minutes before us. Little did we know there was more than one entrance to the zoo (such a novelty) so Julian and I walked across about half of it to meet them at the sea lions.
Along the way we saw a couple of cool sights. One was a herd of small antelope running across their exhibit in formation. That was really cool. Another was a wild red cardinal, a bird with brilliant red plumage. Simply stunning. And the final sight was of two brown bears sparring with each other. It looked like one was digging a hole that the other wanted to claim for its own. Such a thing to behold.
We arrived at the sea lions and watched them swim. We were particularly enamoured with the young sea lions splashing about. Ryland and Rachel appeared shortly afterwards and then we went into the Madagascar exhibit. Bronx Zoo does great work with its indoor exhibits. They’re really well themed, have a good mix of species, and attractive exhibits. The interpretation is very good, though there are quite a few instances where there is no lighting and so you can’t read the signs, or the flaps are positioned so the light doesn’t reach the answers underneath. They do have a lot of interactives so that was pretty good. One of my favourite things in this exhibit was the two fossas, small carnivorous animals that eat lemurs. They were adorable, and such a rare thing both in and out of Madagascar.
We then walked down to the polar bears, the tigers and the Himalayans exhibitions. We were treated to the sight of a snow leopard jumping up a tree to spy on something. There was also a young leopard in this exhibit too who preferred to sleep while mum scoped out everything else (while steadfastly ignoring the enamoured crowd).
Next was half of the African animals, including a big open mixed exhibit of geladas (a type of baboon), rock hyraxes (!!!!) and Nubian ibexes all in together. We had another look at the bears, then it was into the reptile house where there was an impressive variety of species. Plenty of snakes, turtles and lizards to look at here, as well as some frog species.
We then succumbed to our need for food at the fast food cafe on sight, picking up an ice-cream on the way out once we’d finished, and then walked back towards the sea lions to go see the Magellanic penguins. They’re quite a big species of penguin. They also shared an exhibit with a tern species that had curled feathers. I thought they were great. There was also a large flock of flamingoes.
We then traipsed back across the zoo to see the Congo exhibit, displaying a variety of African species, including gorillas. Once again, this indoor exhibit was really well done and the theming was excellent. By this stage, it was about 2:30pm or 3pm and we were nearly dead on our feet. We checked out the African Painted Dogs and hyenas next, before going into the giraffe house. Because it’s winter the giraffes can’t be outside, but the indoor exhibit is very small, especially for five giraffe (two were young ones). In addition to the giraffe, there were also dwarf mongoose (so cute) and aardvarks in a dark exhibit…where people were using flash.
Our last stop for the day was the Asian jungle exhibit, a large indoor exhibit that had a number of very large mixed exhibits with lots of trees and water. The power bill for this place must have been huge. There were so many wonderful species here including jaguar, two tapirs (that we saw swimming in the water!), lots of birds, fish, and monkeys. It was a great exhibit to finish our five-hour visit on.
Overall I was really impressed with the space most of the animals had, the design of the exhibits (lots of moats and unrestricted viewing but also with opportunities for the animals to get away), the interpretation and how spread out and natural the zoo looks. The only downside was the confusing path system and layout; there was no organic/natural path to go so there was a lot of doubling back if you want to not miss anything. Still, it’s not a huge zoo so the walking isn’t onerous, and there aren’t any steep hills. I think Bronx Zoo is one of the best zoos I’ve visited, and combined with the work they do for conservation of species in the wild, I highly recommend a visit.
Back to Manhattan
After we hobbled outside, we bid farewell to Rachel and Ryland at the corner where there bus was due to arrive. Ryland and I aren’t sure when we’ll see each other again as he’s off to London soon and then to New Zealand and hopefully boating around the Pacific. We’ll meet again though, I’m sure.
Julian and I boarded the train back down to Manhattan, inopportunely sitting opposite a man and his son. The dad started off talking about the Giants, a football team I think, and how stupid his son was for thinking he might like to barrack for another team. This went on for a while, almost to the point where I wanted to ask what on earth did he get out of this passion for being a fan of this sport’s team. It baffles me.
This went on for a while, and then they got onto some other topic of conversation. The outcome of this was a bleeding lip. The son was play-fighting with the dad, or defending himself from such annoyances, and the dad lashed out, punched the kid in the mouth, and drew blood on his lip. Now, it was an accident but an avoidable one, and the way the dad dealt with it afterwards was infuriating.
No apology, basically saying how strange it is that something like that happened, that the son also hit the dad (so they were in effect equal) and a bunch of other weak bullshit that made me want to slap the guy around the head and tell him what a dickhead he was. The kid’s eyes wet with tears, probably more from the shock than anything, to which the dad wasn’t all that sympathetic. I think the dad was frightened of what the kid’s mother was going to say when she found out he’d cut his son’s lip. The whole exchange was extremely painful and the train took forever to get to 42nd St where we got out.
We got out at Times Square in all its brightly lit hell so we could find the Uniqlo shop. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, it wasn’t in Times Square so walked to 5th Ave, spotting someone with one of the shop’s bags at which point Julian asked for directions. Along the way we saw the Christmas light and sound display at Sak’s Fifth Avenue, looked at the Christmas tree (undecorated) and ice rink at the Rockefeller Centre and then had a quick look in St Patrick’s Cathedral. We weren’t in Uniqlo very long once we’d found it but I’m glad we went in search of it because of all the things we saw along the way. New York does Christmas very well.
Julian and I then went back down to Aaron’s, got a coffee, hung out for a while and then went for dinner at John’s Pizzeria on Bleecker St. We’d passed it the two previous nights but there was always a queue. This time, around about 7pm, there wasn’t anywhere waiting and we got a table straight away. We ordered a cheese, tomato, mushroom and anchovies large pizza to share which was ample for the two of us. One quarter was about the size of my hand. We were nicely full by the end of the meal.
I returned to Aaron’s to finish packing and wait for him to return at about 10pm. I hung around to chat for a while to him and Justin. Sadly it was all too brief and then I caught a cab to Julian’s friend’s place so we could leave together in the morning at 5am. I was very much not looking forward to the early morning rise.
Travels with Dan 
What do you say, eh?