National Zoo in Washington D.C.
John is a docent at Perth Zoo , so it was only natural that we visit the National Zoo in Washington D.C. and we have plans to visit Maryland Zoo another day.
The Smithsonian National Zoological Park, commonly known as the National Zoo and was founded in 1889. We visited the163 acre (0.7 km²) zoo arriving to a very full parking lot around 11:00 am. We didn’t leave until 6:30, where John got to see a little of rush hour on the Washington DC Beltway. That was a lot of hours walking, but we got to see a lot, and I think John was rather impressed.
I thought it would be nice to take a photo of John with a National Zoo docent and him together.
The Giant Pandas are a source of pride for the zoo. We must have visited them at naptime.
A fascination for both of us was the O Line. It’s a thrilling sight to see the orangutans traveling on the Zoo’s Orangutan Transport System, or O Line. The O Line gives the orangs freedom of movement, an expanded living area, and choice of location.
The Orangutan Transport System, or O Line, consists of eight, 50-foot-high (12.2 m) towers connected by plastic-coated, steel cables. At the lowest point, the cables are about 35 feet (10.7 m) off the ground. The entire distance of the O Line is about 490 feet (149.5 m). Tower 1 is in the outdoor orangutan yard at the Great Ape House. Tower 8 is in the outdoor orangutan yard at Think Tank. The towers in between are outside the confines of the animal yards, and the O Line crosses Olmsted Walk twice.
Since orangutans are brachiators and can swing hand over hand from branch to branch, some orangutans use this method to cross the O Line. However, most of them walk or shuffle along the cables, holding on with two or more limbs.
John in the small mammal house getting a photo of a naked mole rat for his son Jamie.
There really wasn’t enough hours in the day for this zoo. We had 80 degree weather so the day was perfect. They are building a fine new place to expand on the Asian elephant exhibit , I told John he should come back to see when that is finished.
🙂
