The Zoo: An Earth Day Special

When you go to the zoo, you may think of it as going to see the terribly unfortunate caged animals in all-too-small enclosures. And mostly, yes, that is what you see. But because of the zoo's outdoor ponds, tall trees, and great hiding places, many wild animals also run (and flock) to the zoo's outdoor areas. At the National Zoo in DC, Black-crowned Night-herons are easy to see. They migrate there early in the year and return later.

They perch in the trees near the bird house in their nests and lazily watch the people passing by. The herons have been coming to that very spot years before the bird house was built around their nesting grounds!

Another great wild animal you can see is the colorful Wood Duck.

Note: The birds mentioned and showed below are not wild, but they are cool.

We also were able go get close up to a Stanley Crane via a zoo program. The bird, Alice, likes people a lot, and when she was brought out in front of all us people, she did a little dance. The keeper fed her mealworms as she strutted around the pen we were all in.

One of the caged Wood Ducks had two little chicks with her!

So I hope this article showed how zoos are not just for caged animals, but wild ones as well, and that zoos are a great place to see animals up close. Zoos can be cruel, however, and one here in Virginia was closed after it had done some unspeakable evil to animals, such as drowning injured baby kangaroos out of pure cruelty. So make sure you support zoos that you know treat animals well.

Happy Earth Day, and make a resolution to treat the Earth well from now on.