Toledo Zoo: African Adventure & Eagle Crossing

 One the newer Northwestern extension of the Toledo Zoo, besides the Arctic Encounter is an expanded area of African Origin fauna, called the African Adventure (C).  It's coupled with a lot of typically high-interest amenities like: a children's carousel, a small gauge train ride, and an over-head zip-line experience.  Of the animals housed in this area, the fast majority are ungulates and hoof-stock: Bactrian Camels, Masai & Reticulated Giraffe, Plains Zebra, Watusi Cattle, Greater Kudu and Thompson Gazelle along with Cheetahs and Common Ostriches.  The design only permits the possibility of close viewing if you pay for a train ride, or are up for a zip-line experience.  

It being a chilly day, wandering over into this area I had little expectation of seeing much, and I was not disappointed...well, at the time.  Both the Train and Carousel were operating.  A trio of Watusi cattle were well camouflaged on the far side of a naturalist barrier.  In the far, far distance was a small group of Bactrian Camels--which made sense, since they live far far away from Africa!  The overall signage was poor, and so we followed the general movement of others and discovered a viewing area were through smeared and sun-glare inhibiting plexi-glass you could see some members of the mixed-species Giraffe herd.  What went completely off the radar were the Cheetahs.  There was no signage to indicate they were there, and their habitat was on the other side of the large train station, and so seeing them at all would have been limited.  A word: Disappointing.  I want to be clear, I wasn't disappointed that African Antelopes and such weren't out in the cool air, I was disappointed that what was there was ambiguous (without a map--and frankly, even the map is vague), and that the Cheetahs weren't somehow highlighted for those unfamiliar with the zoo.

While I'm on it.  So, as not to cloud all the coming posts, but in full disclosure, I did not encounter a single volunteer on a busy Saturday when crowds were heavier than usual with Total Eclipse visitors.  Not one.  I met a keeper.  I met a member of the education department--that mistook for a volunteer, but who was quick to correct me and then assured me that there were volunteers...

Returning back to the entrance plaza, we climbed the ADA compliant spiral to the Bridge across Anthony Wayne Trail, a divided highway that bisects the zoo separating the new section from the original.  In the middle of the loop the pathway creates is an aviary for American Bald Eagles (D), a trio calls it home.

The open African Adventure Habitats.

Detail along the fence line, and you see the Watusi Cattle horns?  How about the Bactrian Camels?  Off behind the trio of trees just off center.

Masai Giraffe (Giraffa Tippelskirchi)

Eagle Aviary

Adolescent eagle

American Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)

The view of the highway from the middle of the Crosswalk bridge.  There is also a tunnel for those who prefer, and  an elevator to access it.