RE: NANFA-- Toledo Zoo

Crail, Todd (tcrail_at_northshores.com)
Wed, 27 Mar 2002 16:22:18 -0500

Hopefully the Aquarium wasn't packed with people during your visit. I
was able to walk thru the Aquarium when it was *empty* once. I could
have pulled up a recliner in front of the Moon Jellies and just
forgotten about things for awhile...

The Herp House and Greenhouse are pretty darn sweet too (The Herp dept
is rated in the top whatever in NA). The Zoo has gone to great lengths
to switch over to biotypic displays, and I think with the completion of
the Aviary, they're moving forward now. This summer, there's a Gray
Wolf display opening. The Zoo is compact and discrete, which I give
them total kudos for the layout. You can walk the whole thing in a
morning without rushing and see a heck of a lot of animals.

In the orderliness of displays, I'll give you one on the Shedd, but
don't expect the Aquarium portion to even compare. The Shedd just has
way too much mass going for it, and you can't beat an entire corridor of
natives ;)

Bob's got a good point about stopping in on the way to the Convention.
It may well be worth a stop. And it won't put you far out of your way
to Ann Arbor.

-----Original Message-----
From: sajjad_at_lateef.org

Just returned from Toledo, OH (business trip). I took some time off to
visit the Toledo Zoo and managed to visit it for a few hours, this past
Sunday, before the freak snow storm hit. It's a very beautiful place.

The Aviary is awesome. There were exhibits in which you could walk
through
a bio-type with birds flying around you.

The Aquarium was even better (but I am biased towards fish anyway).
IMHO,
it's better maintained than the Shedd here. Each tank was beautifully
aquascaped (but, I guess it is understandable that the piranha tank and
the Arapaima tanks were not too aquascaped :). Lots of native fishes on
display - brackish Fundulus sp in a correct biotype, sturgeon, huge
black
crappie, walleye (even a mention of the blue walleye in the blurb), a
huge
alligator snapping turtle, a four pound bluegill. They also have a
walk-through display of the Amazon rainforest complete with pools with
arrowana, cichlids, red-tail catfish, terrestrial birds that were
fighting
with each other, and a sloth but I didn't see it.

There were some pretty rare fish in there - a seadragon, some fish which
live at 1800' below, etc.

Odd things: Angelfishes with neon tetras (and no neons to be seen, I
wonder those angels seemed so full and happy :). Glass catfish and
glassfish (Chanda ranga) in the same part of the display as the
saltwater
fish - probably for special care.

If you are near Toledo, I highly recommend a visit.

Sajjad Lateef
NANFA - Chicago
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