Richard A. Ashby (1961 - 2024)

 Death is the best of time and the worst of time to consider someone's life, with apologies to Charles Dickens.  The good thing is that the story is over.  The last sentence written.  Looking for facts fits within a neat set of parenthesis (1961 - 2024).  But, of course, the story is over.  There's no more to be written.  And there's no way to ask the source about the what, the why, the wherefore behind the "facts".  

I am the blessed graduate of an idiosyncratic religious college in the middle of nowhere.  I gave my heart to assimilate, but in the end it was futile.  The truth set me free.  And I know, I would not be the well-adjusted, happy person I am today without having transited through those years.  In spite of its wacky ideas about faith and religion, I will never again be in the midst of so many good, and good-hearted people.  Of course, there were some oddballs.  I doubt many of these same people would approve of my "apostate" life, but;

hey, I know what the world apostate means thanks to them!  I know a whole lot of amazing things because of my friendships and acquaintances.  

They send out a regular alumni rag with articles on all the amazing things Jesus is doing for them, and highlights of accomplishments of alumni like babies had, books written, PhD's earned.  The usual.  It's all uninteresting to me; however, I do skim the In Memoriam.  In particular members of the classes of '80 through '86 when I was there and for a few years thereafter.  The latest edition arrived today and listed under that section was "Richard Ashby '83, Business Owner/Finance, 7/18/24 Milton, Delaware."  Hmmm...

Owing to my surname, Richard was one of the first people I ever met at Asbury.  Like Elementary School, there was some alphabetical ordering of activities during orientation week.  I remember that he was from Pennsylvania.  His father was a Methodist minister, and it was during a time when he was pastor of a church in the vicinity of Pittsburgh.  He was a happy-go-lucky fellow.  Quick to laugh.  Always in a hurry.  When we were Sophomores he ran against me for class President.  I won.  But it was all in fun.  Still, somewhere inside him I always felt there was a little sadness.  Or maybe, hindsight is 2020.  

Looking for an Obituary was fruitless.  I eventually found Obit's for his mother, and a brother 10 years his senior.  For Richard, I found an arrest record from 2007 for passing a pair of bad checks in the amounts of $1,000.00 each.  Another Court case from 2002 in which he petitioned for reconsideration of a revocation of his driver's license for 5 years on the grounds of 3 serious citations while driving between 2000 and 2002.  He lost.  His Driver's License was revoked.  The final document was the approval of a request by another brother to be made heir of his "estate".  Recent addresses indicated modest but nice abodes.  No mention of any heirs or indication of said.  The photo is from our Junior College Yearbook.  Richard would have been 21.

Life is a funny old bird.  What you imagine it will be when you are but 20 or 22 is no guarantee of getting there.

Wilmington, DE: Brandywine Zoo

 The final stop on my Spring Break Zoo Trek was the lovely little Brandywine Zoo in Wilmington, DE.  The smallest of all the zoos covering just 12 acres, it hugs a gentle palisade along the Brandywine River in the heart of the city.  It has great dreams and has developed an incredible master plan that would more than double the size and give it the ability to share a wider range of animal species. 

Perhaps by reaching for the stars it was able to achieve an amazing first step.  In 2019, it opened its first truly new habitat in decades.  The new Lemur Habitat costs over 3.5 million and created a home for three species of Lemurs: Ring-tailed (4), White & Black Ruffed (2), and Crowned (2--now, 3 with the birth of a baby in 2024), Guinea Fowl (4) and Radiated Tortoise (3).  They also renovated the huge habitat for their signature species, the Andean Condor.

The next major phase was a new animal welfare and quarantine facility that was completed in 2022.  For such a small zoo, it is nothing short of amazing.

New Entrance blueprint.

Originally the third phase would be led by the creation and expansion of the zoo's entrance.  This plan involves a new pathway, a new entrance gate, a new large water feature built around a new multi-species habitat.  The price tag for this sits at around 8 million.  The state has committed half of that--which is pretty amazing.  They collected contributions toward a quarter more.  But given the gap, the project has been shifted to the final phase.  

Replacing it with a new multi-season Habitat built at the "elbow" of the plaza at the end of the zoo--kitty-corner from the new Lemur Multi-species Habitat.  In preparation for the new entrance, the zoo took on a pair of Southern Pudu and a pair of Toco Toucans who were given a home in the old habitat at this juncture.  Southern Pudu, a diminutive antelope from South America was brought to the zoo in part to excite the community and bolster contributions for the new entrance.  In the present situation, both the Pudu and Toucans have been relocated to other AZA institutions.

The intention of the new Habitat is to create a venue where animals can be viewed both during the warmer months and within a building, during the colder months and inclement weather.  Once completed, it will most likely become the home of a species of sloth along with a return of Toucans.

Any visit to any zoo is a crap shoot.  On this visit, the Brandywine zoo's Bobcat was out, the Andean Condors weren't.  No Pudu or Toucans, but lots of great viewing of Lemurs.  

Andean Condor Habitat.

FLORIDA BOBCAT

Lynx rufus floridanus

Squeakers is a Florida subspecies Bobcat that was rescued in the wild as a kitten and taken in at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans.  From there, she was transferred to the Brandywine zoo around the age of 1, and has called Wilmington her home ever since.  

Encountered a wonderful Keeper who was sharing this amazing lady!

Ball Python

Python regius

The Red Pandas were not in a photogenic mood... 

Two of the RADIATED TORTOISE, Astrochelys radiata.

CROWNED LEMUR

Eulemur coronatus

Mother and child.

WHITE & BLACK RUFFED LEMUR

Varecia varegata

RING-TAILED LEMUR

Lemur catta

HELMETED GUINEAFOWL

Numida meleagris

Breakfast: French Toast with fried Apples and Maple Syrup

 

Philadelphia Zoo: Rare Animal Conservation Center

 A wonderful combined set of habitats hugging a plaza at the front of the zoo with a beautiful fountain, cafe, and open seating.  Inside are a range of smaller animals, mammals, primates, bats.  Zoo360 allows a rotation of the species into exterior Habitat-trails that ring the plaza and even extend a little way beyond.

It's kind of a backward day thing to end with the beginning, but when I entered the zoo, the crowds were all funneling into the build, and I thought; perhaps, it would be better to stop by later.  So this is a exit to entrance visit!

It is so exciting watching so many zoo's on solid ground and growing their futures with a focus on species survival.  Great things are happening everywhere.  From the Maryland Zoo to the Great Plains Zoo, from ZooMiami to ZooMontana.  Under the auspices of the AZA these institutions have agreed to strive toward best practices, and in so doing they are themselves thriving.  If any scrap of our time survives the coming ecological reckoning of how humans treated animals well, then, certainly the evolution of zoos will be part of that story.  I am a believer.

View of the interior with its animal habitats along the outer wall.

Tree Sloth Habitat.

Hoffmann's Two-toed Tree Sloth

Choloepus hoffmanni

Pied Tamarin

Saguinus bicolor

Mongoose Lemur

Eulemur mongoz

Rodrigues' Fruit Bat

Pteropus rodricensis

Prehensile-tailed Porcupine

Coendu

Top: White-Faced Saki Monkey, Pithecia pithecia

Bottom: Giant Elephant Shrew, Rhynchocyon petersi

Philadelphia Zoo: African Savannah

 Animals of the African Savannah at the Philadelphia can be found a long the eastern central portion of the zoo.  A series of habitats line up along the outer perimeter, while a huge hillock is the central feature of a large pasture with a holding barn decorated with simple African motifs in the middle.  During my first visits, this large habitat was home to Gazelle and Antelope, most prominently the Critically Endangered Addra Gazelles.  Another one time inhabitant of this area was the Endangered Okapi.  At one point a dedicated habitat for this species was on the drawing board, but the plan was later dropped.

Coming up the trail from the Southern end of the zoo it's easy to start with the large open habitat.  Today it is the home of a pair of Red River Hog and a trio of Akole-Watusi cattle.  It's an interesting switch from traditionally wild animals to those equally exotic, yet domesticated by farmers halfway around the world.

Large Savannah Habitat.

Red River Hog

Potamochoerus porcus

Akole-Watusi Cattle

Bos taurus akole watusi

Turning back to the pathway, the first exterior habitat belongs to a lovely pair of Hippopotamus.  Today, in early spring, their pool was drained and they were napping cheek to cheek with their butts to the guests!  The crowd was growing as a Zookeeper prepared to give a "chat".  He was stationed in an area designed for his use between the Hippos and the Reticulated Giraffe.  Three female giraffes were present and eager to participate in a program that also promised to provide them some valued victuals as incentives.  Their demeanor made it clear that they had been to the rodeo before!  They clearly knew what good things were about to come their way.  

Hippopotamus Habitat with African Village Motifs

Keeper Chat.  Engaging, personable, a great Ambassador for the zoo.  When he asked if any knew how many bones in a Giraffe's neck, some shouted 12, then some else 20...  Then I shouted, "Seven!"

He replied, "Yes! to seven..." and then when on to explain how the amazing necks of giraffes work.

Reticulated Giraffe

Giraffa reticulata

Beyond the Giraffe habitat is another that is shared by a lone Southern White Rhinoceros named Tony who is quite beloved at the Philadelphia Zoo, and a trio of Zebras.  The elder member is a female Burchell's Zebra named Susie who was born at the Little Rock Zoo in May of 2000.  At 25, she is one of the oldest Burchell's Zebra in an AZA Zoo in North America.  Her habitat mates are step-sister, Laverne and Shirley who were born in 2019.  They are also Plains Zebra, but of the sub-species Grant's instead of Burchell's.

Southern White Rhinoceros

Ceratotherium simum simum

LEFT: Burchell's Plains Zebra, Equis quagga burchellii

RIGHT: Grant's Plains Zebra, Equis quagga boehmi

Always.  The most difficult to reach grass is the sweetest.