On May 7 we went to see the elephant crossing exhibit for the first time and were very impressed! It just opened May 5. There are five elephants now and five acres for the exhibit! When we arrived, the trainer was calling the 11-ft. tall male elephant over to cross to the other side so we got to see how the gate worked. It is so cool! It separates the two big sections of the exhibit and the elephants cross through one way and then the people can go across and walk in the same place the elephants did.
There was so much to see we spent an hour just exploring it. I had planned to take pictures for this blog post, but my battery died so went back around 4:00 to get more but they had just brought the elephants inside. In the video it shows how close the people can be inside and how we can watch the trainers move them along. The mole rats (little mice) and a python is in the elephant building too.
I wanted to go again on Sunday right after I got done teaching my Sunday School class, but Gerard didn’t realize that. I expected him to read my mind but he didn’t. We started on our way after lunch, but since mothers got in free for Mother's Day, it was packed like I thought it would be. In fact, the traffic was all backed up almost to our street! We decided to take Abby to the park instead—see how flexible we are? Turns out it was a good idea because Monday, we heard that the zoo had closed all their parking lots at 1:00 because they were all full!
I took off work Wednesday to go, hoping it would not be so crowded and finally got the pictures I wanted. The meerkats haven’t arrived yet which was somewhat disappointing but the exhibit is all set up for them. We saw the African bird aviary with lots of different birds I never saw before.
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| Old Exhibit |
We were very impressed with how much room the elephants have now and how happy they seem. The exhibit is huge! There is lots of space to view from all around it as well as inside. The whole Savannah side has two big water holes, a mud area, and lots of space. I saw one of the elephants actually run from one end to halfway. On the other side is a big area with trees for shade, pieces of branches and grass. There is also a night ridge where they can be outside at night too if they wish. This place, however, is off exhibit.
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6 comments:
That sounds like an awesome habitat for elephants! We'll have to put it on our "worth a look" list.
It sounds like a fantastic exhibit. Zoo's sure have changed for the better since I was a kid.
That's a great exhibit for the elephants! They do look very happy there and they certainly have a lot of room to explore. It's wonderful it's so close to your house so you can visit!
Sounds like a great place.
Elephants in Ohio.... pretty amazing, isn't it? Apparently, there used to be wooly mammoth-type creatures (called mastodonts) who lived up in this area. I saw a reconstructed fossil specimen at the NYS Museum in Albany. It was neat!
Glad you had a fun time. Sorry about your camera batteries!
One of the elephants in the video looks so young and strong! What a beautiful set-up for them. Your zoo is a treasure :)
Thanks for linking this up!
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