I got a sneak peek at the Erie Zoo's new tiger exhibit this weekend, and it is phenomenal. It's so...."big city" zoo looking! It has a full glass front (no moat) lining the entire exhibit so you can get up close & personal with the tiger behind the glass. Erie -- you will be impressed. (As, I'm sure you have with many of the renovations at our zoo.)
My zoo friend told me that they would be rotating the white tiger, Kumar, with a breeding pair of Bengal (or was it Siberian?) tigers. Which means....there could be tiger cubs in Erie's near future. How fun.
Here's my daughter's rendering of the exhibit. View image
* Little orangutan, Leela, was having a good time playing peek-a-boo with visitor's on Monday -- dragging her sheets and blankets over her head and yanking them off -- much to the delight of everyone watching her. It's funny how much she interacts with zoo visitors -- making faces at the kids, peering into purses (hold your purse up and open it wide...she'll come running to see what's in there), and lounging around by the viewing windows.
Photo by Jack Hanrahan/Erie Times-News
* Samantha the gorilla was cuddling with her "baby" stuffed animal gorilla -- putting it's body under her chin and wrapping it's arms around her neck. Too cute. The "baby" is looking desperately in need of a bath. My zoo friend told me it's the original stuffed animal they gave her years ago and she's quite attached to it.
Photo by Janet Campbell/Erie Times-News
* There's a cool frog & toad exhibit in the Children's Zoo Adventure Center. They have native frogs and toads, including a tank full of tadpoles. I've seen most of these amphibians in my yard or my pool at one time or another so it was nice to be able to put a name to the frog/toad.
* The black swan is sitting on a nest of eggs. We saw at least two, but there may have been three.
* The creek by the Children's Zoo is currently filled with wild ducks and lots of tiny little fuzzy ducklings.
* The otters, too, seem to enjoy interacting with zoo visitors -- racing from one side of the exhibit to the other -- enticing kids to chase them.
If you're planning to visit the Erie Zoo -- buying a family membership is the way to go. For just $55, your entire family can get into the zoo all year for free (except for nightly events like ZooBoo).