Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens, 02 February 2013

This past weekend, we took Kid A to the Jacksonville Zoo & Gardens in nearby Jacksonville, Florida. She’d previously been to the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage, Alaska and the Central Florida Zoo in Sanford, Florida, but both of those visits were quite some time ago. This was her first functional trip to a zoo, so to speak — the first trip where she laughed, giggled, snorted, pointed, and really got to absorb all the sights and sounds (and smells).

Having said that, she was far more entranced by the choochoo train than she was by the surrounding animals. Regardless, it was a fun day trip. The photos were rather quick and sloppy, as I was trying to keep up with ChooChoo Kid A, but it was still a tremendously fun little day.

This post presents a number of shots from our zoo visit and the various organisms we saw. Most are captive zoo organisms, but a few were wild, out, and about on the zoo grounds.

First up, I spotted this Cuban brown anole (Anolis sagrei) dominating the trunk-ground domain of the park entrance. After paying the anole admission, we were permitted to move forward.

Anolis sagrei, the Cuban brown anole. Wild individual.

The “Stingray Bay” exhibit is mainly populated by Cownose rays (Rhinoptera bonasus), which are not –in fact– true “stingrays” (they’re members of Family Myliobatidae, the Eagle Rays). There were, however, some bona fide stingrays in the swimming in the mix, so it was all cool. I’m not sure Kid A was quite to the point of caring. To her they were awesome wet fish in awesome splashy water wee wee ha ha. I’m with her. Yes. Yes, they were.

“Stingray Bay,” populated with Rhinoptera bonasus and Dasyatis americana.

These two species owned my heart when I was a kid:

Rhinoptera bonasus, the Cownose ray, and Dasyatis americana, the Southern stingray.

The Africa section was quite nice – an abundance of mammals and birds, many of them roaming in a fairly open stretch of land, though the fences didn’t quite make for the best background.

Tragelaphus strepsiceros, the Greater kudo.

I almost always see white ibis in and around zoos. This local species knows good and damn well that there are plenty of scraps to be found in places like this. True to form, we saw many a’plenty white ibis.

Eudocimus albus, the White ibis.

Warthogs live a very difficult, strained life, I image.

Phacochoerus aethiopicus, the Warthog.

The following was the best shot I could muster of the wattled crane. It was busily cleaning itself, its head mostly buried under its thick plumage. I finally caught a brief, fleeting moment of reprieve. I kind of like it.

Bugeranus carunculatus, the Wattled crane.

Cheetah sit all chill-like in north Florida winter. He all like, what the deal with all this blustery cold? This suck. Cheetah bored now. Yawn.

Acinonyx jubatus, the Cheetah.

At first, I thought the bird below was a local reddish egret taking advantage of the good eats. Turns out it’s a Goliath heron, Ardea goliath, native to much of Africa, which made more sense. It would’ve been pretty dang large to have been a reddish egret. Awesome.

Ardea goliath, the Goliath heron.

And then on the fancy-pants side of things, check out the East African crowned crane, who’s way classier than I’ll ever be:

Balearica regulorum gibbericeps, the East African crowned crane.

If you feel the need to wash the pretentiously classy, sleek, and elegant design of the crowned crane from your palette, please turn your attention to this chunk of bird-grit, the Ostrich:

Struthio camelus, the Ostrich.

On the Mammalian side, here’s your requisite hippo (a beautiful and robustly dense individual):

Ceratotherium simum simum, Southern white rhinoceros

Another non-captive, I spotted this male Green-winged teal cruising around the Africa exhibit’s waterline with a few ladyfriend teals. I believe this is a green-winged teal, but I’m not sure. The species is local.

Anas crecca, the Green-winged teal (Unconfirmed).

Another overly-stressed, hyperactive, non-local species, here’s Grevy’s zebra, Equus grevyi:

Equus grevyi, Grevy’s zebra.

It was only a matter of time until we sniffed out the first of the reptile exhibits. The first herp house was focused on Africa, home of the massively kick-ass West African green mamba:

Dendroaspis viridis, the West African green mamba.

And then there’s old friend the gaboon viper. #badass.

Bitis gabonica, the Gaboon viper.

…and the African rock python:

Python sebae sebae, the African rock python.

Now, this Western plated lizard was a new one for me. I’m not sure I remember ever seeing this one before. A cool little tank.

Gerrhosaurus major bottegoi, the Western plated lizard.

Later, we came across the local herp house. A little south Georgia goodness (making me thirsty for spring):

Crotalus horridus, the Timber rattlesnake.

Check out this chunky squirrel treefrog:

Hyla squirella, the Squirrel treefrog.

And then my favorite of the day, a big ole’ barking treefrog:

Hyla gratiosa, the Barking treefrog.

Oh yeah, it was all quite fun. Perhaps my favorite moment of the day was this bonobo chewing his toenails, much like the best of us often do:

Pan paniscus, the Bonobo.

And that was the day at Jacksonville Zoo, slightly abridged for internet consumption.

Coming up soon…? Ah, warm weather. And with that, I suspect some fresh and wild activity!

~ janson