Lincoln Park Zoo
Zoo animals are ambassadors for their cousins in the wild.
Jack Hanna
On Friday I spent part of my day off at the Lincoln Park Zoo. I love the different views of the city while you walk through the zoo. There is a part called the Farm in the Zoo and I haven’t made it there yet. I didn’t know about it at first and then when I found out about it I just got so caught up in the other areas that I didn’t make it down there. I think the next time I go I just need to make that the first place I go so I don’t miss it again.
I usually make my first stop to the lions because they are one of the first animals you see when you walk in the main entrance to the zoo. They are in the midst of remodeling the lion house so the lions are at different zoos for the time being. I think I read that it’s going to take about 2 years to finish all the remodels and when I was there they were starting to demolish the outside exhibit. They have rebuilt a bunch of the animal homes around the zoo and I think the lion house is one of the last ones to be done. So I went off to my next stop which was the Macaque live.
I visited the Japanese Macaque and I find I spend a lot of time with them. They are normally active when I go and its fun capturing them interact with each other. After spending some time with them I went see the seals. I find it hard to find shoot with the water being a bit cloudy. I had trouble getting the shot that I wanted but I got one shot that I liked. After that I wandered around the rest of the zoo and got shots. I wanted to go to the Farm part but I got to tired and ran out of time to get there.
I’ve loved going to the zoo because I got to see animals. When I was a kid I thought I wanted to be a zookeeper. As I’ve gotten older I’m glad zoos like the Lincoln Park Zoo have changed. Zoo’s still make me sad though. As much as zoos as changed and getting better at getting giving space that the animals need, they are still not in the wild where they should be. I also know that the space where these animals call home are not as they should be. Pouching, humans occupying space, and natural changes(like the fires in Australia) are making it hard for them to live in their natural environment. There are also animals that are injured in a way that releasing them back in the wild would be harmful for them.
