Detroit Zoo: Otters and Snakes and Turtles! Oh, my!

 After leaving the Gallery/Lepidopterarium/Aviary you look out at the rest of the zoo and frankly, you don't see much.  There's a path to walk and along the way, I encountered another red shirted volunteer walking in the opposite direction.  They made no attempt at eye contact.  Two ships passing in the middle of the damned day with not so much as a "Hello."  My mind wonders.

After a couple of minutes, no too long, my friend and I arrive at a nice little habitat, which turns out to be the home of the zoo's North American Otters.  To be specific, it was the Edward Mardigian Sr. River Otter Habitat.  There was a generous exterior space with a naturalistic pool of water, and a "Cabin" structure adjacent to the outside habitat that affords interior views and interpretive educational information.  Looking in from the outside, the habitat seemed abandoned.  Looking from the inside, I discovered the pair of otters, docile.  Both snuggled up sleeping through this temperate morning, absorbing the warm rays from the sun.  

Leaving this habitat we continued to walk along path away from the entrance.  Again, map-less, doing our best.  A couple of minutes more and we found ourselves at a cross junction.

Turning to the left a building caught our attention, and it was the zoo's Herpetarium.  You know me--I loves Herpetariums!  This one boasted a design sensibility circa 1975-1985--Sort of post-Brady Bunch modern.  The entrance had a lovely sculpture of a pair of flying pre-historic raptors dueling over a fish.  Inside the journey formed one large loop around a light bulb-shaped main habitat peninsula.  You entered on the right of the front of the building, navigated your way around this peninsula with habitats all along the exterior, and then exited on the left of the front of the building.

The main habitat the occupied the largest portion of the peninsula was given over to an Enormous Water Monitor Lizard.  So big, that I initially mistook it for a Komodo Dragon.  The general design of habitats was well executed; however, the intermittent use of live plants versus fake ones was disappointing.  The interior lighting was a photographer's nightmare--it seemed to be calculated to create glare everywhere.  The worst I've ever seen.  And generally, the building gave off the vibe of a place maintained but not loved.  When it comes to reptiles--I admit, I'm sensitive to these things.  There were no amphibians.  Amphibians at the Detroit Zoo have a separate, newer Herpetarium.  As Herpetariums go?  Kind of "Meh" over all "B-".

The Edward Mardigian Sr. River Otter Habitat.

North American River Otter

Lontra canadensis

A little bronze otter outside the main entrance to the River Otter Habitat.

The Holden Reptile Conservation Center

Double Raptor sculpture in the front.

First Impressions, the large center peninsula divided between 5 habitats and 6 species

Chinese Alligator

Alligator sinensis

Aruba Island Rattlesnake

Crotalus unicolor

Reticulated Python Habitat.  The one at the Detroit zoo was rescued from smugglers entering the US via the port of Seattle.  He is relatively small at just 40 pounds and 15 feet long.  In the wild they can grow to be 30 and weigh as much as 300 pounds.

Reticulated Python

Malayopython reticulatus

Egyptian Tortoise

Testudo Kleinmanni

A pair of tropical "river" habitats are home to a pair each of turtle species.

Yellow Spotted River Turtle

Podonemis unifilis