A Christmas walk at the zoo

On December 21, 2024January 21, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn zoo animals1 Comment

I have a “pay for a day and come back all year” pass at Zoo Tampa that expires by Christmas. I hadn’t gone all summer since it was so hot but since it has been a fairly cold winter here and I wanted to get a long walk in I made a visit recently. It was fun to walk around and see the Christmas decorations. The weather made it feel a little more like Christmas since it was chilly and not 85 degrees like past holidays. I was traveling light with just my phone.

One of the many fun Christmas trees.

It’s not as much fun seeing flamingos at the zoo when you’ve seen them in the wild.

Above are some of the birds in the large aviary. Most were fluffed up and staying in the sun since it was under 50 degrees.

There were a lot of manatees in the hospital. Here at the zoo they rescue, rehabilitate and release them back out in the wild. The girl in the front was trying to get the two in the front pod to drink some medicine. Behind her was a manatee that was being fed through a tube. He must have still been really sick. Between the hurricanes, red tide and a colder fall than usual, these guys have been really busy.

A manatee comes up for air (on the right) in the big pool. There were two others with him (on the left bottom) and they were all waiting to be fed.

They have recently tripled the size of the Florida panther exhibit and this was the first time I have seen him up on the glass panel that you can walk under. It was weird seeing him up over my head.

Getting a sip.

The colobus monkeys were staying out of the wind and in the sun.

The siamangs are a favorite. When it’s cool outside they swing from the ropes and holler so loud you can hear it across the zoo. I was about to leave and heard them and ran over with everyone else there to see them swing. Above is a quick video that is loud.

I got a good hour walk in and am hoping to get one more walk in here before the end of the year.

A hot walk at the zoo

On September 7, 2024November 14, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn zoo animals5 Comments

The last time I was at Zoo Tampa for a walk was the end of May. It’s just been to hot and humid. I saw this cute mallard family in one of the exhibits.

I noticed a great blue heron sitting on a nest over the alligator exhibit and was thinking I wanted to get back to see if there were babies but that didn’t happen.

I couldn’t tell what was going on with the flamingos in the back. I think they were flirting. They create these mud spots to nest on and I think they were working on that.

The manatee hospital at the zoo had 2 patients. They were tube feeding them both medicine. I didn’t want to bother the zookeepers and ask them what was wrong with them. I’m assuming they were sick and stranded themselves and were rescued.

The manatee in the holding pool was sharing his lettuce with some mallards.

All lined up.

A shot of the otter taking a dip.

These primates were so funny to watch. How nice of him to pick the bugs off his friend.

Up close with a manatee

On July 22, 2024September 1, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography, zoo animals9 Comments

You can pay a lot of money and go swimming where the manatees hang out and maybe see them swim by (I have never done it) or you can go to Zoo Tampa and see them really up close without getting wet. Although, I have had one swim within a few feet of me when I was out past the sandbar at Fort Desoto Park. It was feeding time when I visited the zoo in late April. This lady was eating right in front of the window.

The zoo has an amazing manatee hospital. All of these manatees came in as injured or sick ones and the zoo rehabilitates them and releases them once they are better. I saw a release that the zoo did in 2022 and you can read about it here. You can read more about their manatee center here.

It was funny to watch the turtle pick the algae off the manatee.

I got to see the baby pygmy hippo that was not quite a month old.

Now that’s a big lizard!

The red tailed guenons are my favorite primates. They are so animated.

Flamingos on alert.

I walked through the lorikeet aviary and caught these 2 flirting.

A wild baby grackle was looking for bugs but found a leaf.

The wild little blue herons nest in the trees over the alligator exhibit. There were a lot of nests far in the back but only one near the fence. The babies were almost fully grown but not ready to fly yet.

I saw a tricolored heron sitting in the cypress tree across the exhibit.

One tree over I could hear the babies making a loud clacking noise. They were waiting for Mom to regurgitate her food and come over and feed them. They have the craziest looks when they are begging.