A Day at Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo

Our son-in-law, Eric, suggested we might be interested in spending a day at Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo. Now we hadn’t been to a zoo in quite a while and so not knowing what to expect, we made the forty-five-minute drive to the zoo.

Parking was free, and plentiful, we got there early, and buying tickets we entered the zoo. The rhino exhibit was nearby, (white rhino?), and we were amazed at the size of the animals! It was covered with the thickest hide I have ever seen, and the horns were missing. The park had cut them off to stop scum from killing them for their valuable horns.

The white rhinos are currently holding their own and are one of the most magnificent animals I have ever seen! I quickly realized the cost of the ticket was well worth the price, (the zoo is a nonprofit).

We strolled a little further arriving at an enclosure with two large tapirs. These animals are endangered in the wild as they are hunted for their meat.

Exhibit after exhibit was filled with rare and threatened animals, the orangutan enclose was no exception! These are expected to go extinct in the wild, in the next three years, their habit will disappear dur to illegal harvest of coconut palm oil.

Stopping to enjoy the orangs, a large dominant male moved around the large enclosure, while a lesser orang hid behind a waterfall.

It was peeking out from a face covered by its hand, and was obviously having a very bad day, (I have felt like that myself at times). Another orang hung from a rope while its baby hung next to her!

There’s nothing like hanging out with mom!

Strange monkeys and other animals passed by and I made a major mistake.

I had our large lens on our best camera and I didn’t take images of each enclosures inhabitants, (so now I have a whole plethora of animals and the only name I have for them is africa1 and africa2 etc.…).

Strange armored reptiles with long skinny snouts, storks, and so many others that I never knew existed!

I did remember the red river hog, which is not from the Americas’. Another large ungulate cleaned itself with it sixteen-inch tongue.

It had short horns and looked like a cross between a zebra, eland, and who knows what else. Why didn’t I take images of their names?

Finally, we reached the end of the exhibits and looked at one of the newest babies. This was baby pygmy hippopotamus born December 1^st! It mother kept next to the newborn as they floated in a small pond with the mother keeping herself between the baby and the fence we peered over.

Leaving the zoo, we all agreed that the price of admission was money well spent the cost of keeping so many rare and exotic animals must be enormous!

Oh and of course there were African Elephants and Giraffes, Black and Sloth Bears besides other more well know creatures.

If you’re in the area I highly recommend a day at the Lowry Zoo!  Clear skies

It took us about three hours to walk the boardwalks, and we still missed some of the exhibits