A Day at the Chiang Mai Zoo

[Sunday - well looked at my watch and it's really Monday, 12:45 am Thai time]

We were out of the house at 7:30am. Unusual for us, but it was cool outside, I was awake, and we needed to just get out. We biked over to the University of Chiang Mai reservoir. From there we could hear the gibbons howling at the zoo. We've never been to the Chiang Mai zoo. It's close to our house, but I have ambivalent feelings about zoos. The LA County zoo was an important part of my childhood. I got to see real live elephants, bears, lions, and tigers as well as monkeys and all the rest in person. It helped instill in me a love and knowledge of animals I could not have gotten any other way. But animals shouldn't suffer for our education, and certainly not for our entertainment.

So we decided to go. As zoos go, this is not a bad zoo. J hasn't been walking that much because she uses her bike and she misses walking. The CM zoo has lots of room to walk. There are large areas of natural forest. We had lunch on an overlook with a delightful breeze. Below are some of my new friends.

As nice as the rhino's cage was, it just wasn't big enough for an animal which the sign said could go 55 k/hour. And waving his head back and forth just didn't look like mentally healthy behavior. But I'm not a rhino expert, maybe they do that in the wild too.

It feels like cheating to take pictures of birds that are in cages. But I've worked this out in my own head. Pictures in birdbooks are usually one bird, from one view, at one time of the year. The more pictures you see of the same bird, the easier it is to recognize it. The zoo's generally too tiny cages allowed me to take some decent bird pictures. But they aren't good for the birds.  The exception was the giant aviary. It was huge with monster trees inside.

There are lots of different types of hornbills in Thailand. In 2007 we saw and heard wild hornbills at Khao Yai National Park. You can see and hear one at the link.

This is the crested serpent eagle. I was lucky enough to catch a wild one on the way to work a month or so ago.

The gibbons didn't look too happy in their cages. I'll add some video and audio if I have time. But there are three gibbon islands that one of the workers said would be open in a few months. Then they will be out of these awful cages, but they still won't have enough room for gibbon life.

An unexpected treat was to see superman.

This elegant creature is a Lady Amherst Pheasant. There were several in an earlier cage, several in a large aviary that we walked through without wire between us and the birds, and this one. I'd rather a picture without the wire, but this was simply the best shot I got. And you shouldn't forget this is a zoo. And these animals are confined to prison.

Like the white crested laughing thrush (right) which we see flying around in the wild. This just isn't enough room. We think the other one is a Greater Necklaced Laughing Thrush. We're aren't absolutely sure, there wasn't a sign, but it looks like that in the book, though there is red on the one in the book.

All the big cats looked really healthy.

Most peacock pictures are from the front. So, here's from behind. This would be pretty impressive if we didn't know what was on the other side.

One of my many favorite animals. This one is not as well known as a lot of animals. It's a tapir from south America.

We managed to get home by 5 pm in time to contact Matt who was meeting us for dinner at the organic food party. That too was fun and interesting, and I'll try to post on that later. Try I said.