Smithsonian National Zoo: Amazonia, Part 1 (the Ground Floor)

 When you choose to make the ascent up the hill from the base of the Smithsonian National Zoo along the western side, you leave the Kid's Farm and wander seeming off to nowhere.  But it's somewhere: a building called Amazonia.

Amazonia was built in two phases.  The Giant Amazon Rainforest complete with massive tanks that can be view from the ground floor like humongous aquariums, and from the second level as a river flowing through a jungle completely with a waterfall, lush flora and free-flying birds.  Over the years, both three-towed sloths and Bolivian Titi Monkeys have been kept there.  A couple of years ago, the aging sloth lost its grip and fell.  Fortunately, she was not injured, but since that happened, they've not let primates or other arboreal mammals loose within the space.  This section opened in 1992.  

In 1996, the edition that includes a model of an amphibian research and breeding lab, along with some fascinating related artifacts from the Smithsonian's unparalleled collection of stuff.  There's even an alcove area featuring large aquariums dedicated to rare and endangered species of Sea Coral.  The overall design gives you a feeling that you are a guest at some "Fazenda suntuosa" where gentle ceiling fans spin and high ceilings keep you cool from tropical heat and humidity outside.  

As I approached the entrance, I noticed a couple I had spoken to a few moments before looking hesitant, and half a dozen or so others mingling as if waiting for something to happen.  I wondered whether or not the facility was open.  A dapper older man was sitting on a bench closest to me.  I smiled and approached him.  When I start to talk he raised his shoulders and turned his hands fingers extended and palms up and said, "I no language." while gentle shaking his head back and forth.  Now I don't know if my Spanish is shit or not, but for some reason I am just trusting what little I know in situations like this.

I said, "Lo siento, Senor.  Es esta edificio abierto?"  

His eyes lit up and he replied, "Si, si, si..."

I replied, "Muchas gracias, mi amigo."

Then I approached the couple I had previously spoken to (Kim and Theresa Mary) who looked confused and said, "It's open.  We can go in."  And we did.

The very first thing you encounter is a pool full of Amazon River Manta Rays with giant trees covered in jungle flora rising up and out of sight into another cavernous level.  Besides the River Rays there are often birds, including the resident Roseate Spoonbill who is quite the Diva!

These gentle animals have this uncanny "smiley face" mouth and nostrils which you can see when they swim up and press themselves against the glass while foraging for algae.  

Proceeding and you enter a world full of fresh water river behemoths. 

 

Also some usual suspects like this school of Red-bellied Piranhas.

There are also plenty of mid-size fish like this adolescent Turquoise Severum, over-swimming a school of Silver Dollars.

Or this Banded Leporinus enjoying a brunch of romaine lettuce!  Who knew?

And if you don't know, don't worry.  Just consult the beautifully illustrated images of the fish.

Smithsonian National Zoo: The Kid's Farm

 The story begins with a career politician from Ohio.  Representative Ralph Regula, a Republican, was first elected in 1973.  He ended up spending 36 years in the United States House of Representatives.  At some point in the 1990's he began talking up a need for the Smithsonian National Zoo to have a proper dedicated Farm area.  He felt strongly that both urban and suburban children needed to see farm animals in an environment that approximated an actual farm in order to learn about nutrition and all the benefits American agriculture provided.

He was so persuasive and had accrued enough committee seniority that the money was appropriated in 1998.  Designs were drawn up, and construction at the lower end of the zoo began around 2000 with the grand opening to the public in the summer of 2004.  I have to say that it is the largest (2 acres) commitment to Farm Animals I have ever encountered at a zoo.  It also transformed a forgotten little corner of the zoo into a destination exhibit.  You can see: Pigs, Cows, Goats, Donkeys, Chicken and Alpaca.  What you can't do is enter into their spaces and interact with them.  

A LITTLE FREE ADVICE:  I always park in Lot D.  It's at the lower end of the zoo.  I do this because the zoo is built on a very steep hill.  You are going to do some very strenuous climbing no matter where you park.  But if you part at the bottom, you climb in the morning.  This is definitely a benefit from my perspective.  

When you enter the zoo from the bottom and then the Kid's Farm which is directly on your left you can either go straight into the middle of the animals, OR you can take your first left and skirt around the edge.  I always do the latter.  There's a beautiful Koi pond with shade and benches to sit and relax.  It's the best way to see the pigs.  You get a great view of the large "pasture" with the cows and alpacas.  And you can still double back around on the far end to see the rest.

Let's meet some of the animals!

PIGS: Initially, the Ossabaw Island Hog was the preferred swine.  It's a heritage breed that morphed from pigs brought to the New World by some of the first European settlers to Georgia in the 16th century.  They are large (up to 300 lbs), often black or black-tan mottled animals with a reserved personality. 

In 2023, the remaining Ossabaw Island Pig was swapped out for a trio of young Kune Kune pigs.  Kune Kune pigs are native to New Zealand.  They are also a Critically Endangered species of domesticated swine.  They are smaller, growing to a maximum weight of 200, but averaging 170 lbs.  They are very comfortable in companionship with humans and therefore pose less general concern when it comes to caring for them.  They are also adorable!

Here we have (top to bottom) Otis, Winston, and Norman!

Norman was rooting the soil closest to me.

What a furry little cuss!  

The Main "pasture".  Would you even imagine that you are in the middle of the Nation's capital?  People have no idea what Washington, DC is like...

Home to alpacas and cows

COWS:  The Kid's farm is home to two cows.  A more diminutive Hereford named Rose, and an enormous Holstein, named Magnolia.  When Magnolia stands up, you're just like...Holy "Cow," she's a good 5'+ tall at the shoulders.

Magnolia on the left, and Rose on the right.

ALPACA: The Kid's farm is home to four Alpaca (at least that's what I understood to be true, prior to my visit today).  Today only one, Rainstorm, was out and about.  The others could have been inside the barn.  Rainstorm has been described as "more cautious" and so it's a little odd she just did her own thing today.

Rainstorm came to the National Zoo in May of 2025.  She was born in 2023.

Dinner: Red Soup!

 

Resilient Ox Tongue

 A few years ago I bought a little Gasteria gracilis.  I planted it in a little rectangular planter and surrounded it with little pebbles and stones, and made my annual Garden Zoo habitat for a family of Fennec Fox.  It was both fine with the DC summer weather and happy to over winter inside at a window with a southwest exposure.  It relied almost exclusively on natural precipitation when outside and would tolerate long stretches without any watering inside.

Native to arid regions along the coastal highlands all along South Africa's coasts from the Atlantic to the Indian Oceans, it seemed to be just as at home here in my little house in suburban DC.  It started out rather small, and took its sweet time adding a new leaf to its palmate sort of form.  It was a law care, curious little plant.

Then, late in the spring, not too long after being returned to its seasonal perch on the table on my back deck, disaster struck!  Disaster in the form of Winken, Blinken and Nod three young raccoon siblings who regularly terrorize everything on my deck!  On this morning after, I found the upper portion of the plant snapped off from the base and laying with other debris across my deck.  The little Fennec Fox figurines were likewise scattered, but all were eventually found.  

As I cleaned up the mess and pondered the remnants, I wondered what to do for the little Gasteria.   It seemed clear that I could not reconnect the upper leaves to the base.  I also thought, "Well, this sort of thing must befall Gasteria in the wild, right?"  So I set about looking up answers on the internet.  In the end I left the base alone, and simply placed the broken off piece in it's own planter where the torn bottom of the acaulescent stem was in contact with the soil and then added pebbles and stones to give at a surface featuring an inorganic covering like that one it used to have.

I am assuming, since it looks normal and healthy that it is using its plant energies to re-establish a root system.  

As to the original base, a most glorious transformation is occurring.  "Pups" (or new growth spurs) are appearing both around the base, and even more curiously, as a cluster at the site of the open wound to the stem.  Life is tenacious.

Incredible Impatiens

 I love to tell this story.  In 1984, I lived in Costa Rica.  My rented abode was half a little house, framed and sided with wooden planks on one side only--even the exterior walls.  It had two bedrooms and a large area that contained a small kitchen, and bathroom.  The toilet was in a closet, but the shower was not.  Ken, my roommate, and I made it work.

It was located in a contiguous neighborhood on the outskirts of San Jose called Curridabat.  From the main road to Cartegena, the exit to Curridabat climbed a steep hill to a city square with a cathedral.  Half way up that hill lined with little houses was a public bus garage.  And just beyond that a rather hidden driveway to the backside of a one-time shoe factory.  A 20 foot tall metal gate was only opened for truck traffic and to the side was a little metal door.  Open the door and to the right was the little house I lived in.  No one would ever know it was there, unless you knew it was there.

The other half of the house was rented by an old man who had lived there for decades.  He had a little dog named "Jogito," and a cat and he was a sweet person.  All around the house were trees he cultivated.  Papaya, Mango, Orange, Lemon, Lime, and herbs (Rosemary bushes!), and flowers.  Everywhere possibly Impatiens thrived.

Fast Forward.  I'm back in the states, it's 1985.  I'm living in central Kentucky in the same little town I went to college in.  I get a call that the Methodist Bishop of Costa Rica is moving to town to attend a local seminary in persuit of a Doctorate in Theology.  I'm asked to help them settle in.  The seminary secures a home for him and his family.  The local Methodist Lady's Society plants the front yard with gardens of flowers.  Impatiens are a new and more expensive offering at the time and learning they are native to Central America, they splurge and fill the beds with them.  

Upon arriving, the welcoming committee greets the Bishop and his family at their new home.  The Bishop's wife is enthralled by the house.  When asked to comment, she says, "Oh, everything is so beautiful!"  Then indicated the beds of expensive, exotic, Impatiens, she adds, "And once we get rid of all of these weeds, it will be perfect!"

Indeed.  Impatiens.  Weeds if you consider their veracity.  Impatiens are nothing short of amazing.  They will persevere every way, every time every chance they get.  You can damage them.  They will adapt!  They will sprout anew.  They will always survive.  Their seeds can also make it through sub-zero winters!

They are truly worthy of awe.

Welcome To The Jungle

 A rainy August Sunday--a rare gift.  My deck from the Kitchen door.  Welcome to MY jungle!  What joy.

Happenstance Theatre: Adrift: A Medieval Wayward Folly

 My second Happenstance production and now I know that what you get from them is very much what you would expect to have gotten from a Medieval troop of actors and musicians traveling across England or France in some annual rotation.  Setting up shop and delighting the serfs in the town square or church hall, perhaps even an appoint at the local manor where some of the egalitarian humor would have no doubt been tamped down a bit.  The show is a folly in the truest sense, bits and pieces strung together with some regular stuff and music (instrumental and vocal) and even a little dance.  Death is present and there's always a place toward the end where death comes and cuts down the majority of the cast--a reminder of it's unrelenting power over their (our) world.  Other regular bits include a pair of oracles that come to answer questions from the audience with great humor and little profundity.  There's a doctor sketch with slapstick where the cures are always worse than the maladies--again to remind the working folk that having a doctor around isn't necessarily a good thing!  A Luna Moth arrives to take away everyone's cares, a metaphorical gift...but a gift nonetheless.

Among the music used was "Gaudete".  I LOVE GUADETE!  With new lyrics in both Latin and English, the song is secularized.  The line that goes "Christ is born" is replaced with "Celebrate everyone".  But my favorite adaptation came in the bridge where the line "Ashes to ashes" is rhymed with "So get off your ___" and we all burst into laughter without the need to fill in the obvious blank!  As before the costumes are beautiful, the actors are a true ensemble, the musical instruments are medieval and exciting.

The journey begins with our intrepid troop encircled by a barrel hoop and adrift at sea.

L-R: Sarah Olmsted Thomas, Mark Jaster, Sabrina Mandell, Gwen Grastorf and Alex Vernon

Sometimes the winds took the adventurers in directions they did not anticipate.

Frightened by the voice of God, Sarah cowers.  Then in the guise of a crow, Marc eases her fears with the succor of nature.

Of Course, the oracles have never been offered a question they cannot answer.

Gwen leads the audience is a medieval sort of "sing-a-long" accompanying herself with the harp.

The Fool finds himself stuck hopelessly to a demon!

He seeks out the help of the Doctor, who declares he has no heart!

To which he replies, "That's my foot!  My heart is up here in my chest."

"I know that," declares the Doctor.  "But you have a soul problem!"

CUE: eye roll!

Try though she might, the Doctor fails to separate them.  This is something that only the Luna Moth can accomplish.  Score one for superstition.  

Sabrina in the guise of the Luna Moth who can take the cares of the world away from the poor.