Metro Richmond Zoo

Anyone who knows me knows how I love to collect things. Some have even dared to associate me with the current crop of fame seeking pseudo-celebrities dubbed "hoarders". Fortunately, the things that catch my attention do not include newspapers! Zoos, however, are another thing entirely.

Today I made a road trip of visiting my third zoo this spring: the Metro Richmond Zoo. As the name implies, it's located adjacent to Richmond, Virginia. Adjacent in this case is more than just an adjective. It usually takes me 2 hours to drive to Richmond's Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. It took me 6 minutes shy of 3 hours to get to the zoo. Located outside of the city to the southwest halfway to the city of Amelia, it's not a zoo one would get to unless one was going to it.

Fortunately, the Mapquest directions were accurate. Unfortunately, the sign for Beaver Bridge Road was less than legible approaching it from the east. Once turned around, it was completely obvious and user friendly approaching it from the west! (Which is to say, that visitors coming from Amelia, VA would have an easier time finding the Metro Richmond Zoo than those coming from Richmond...time to buy a gps device.)

The map of the zoo itself was easy enough to use.

First impressions included this view of the zoo just past the entrance.

The zoo is a private zoo. The only employee of the zoo that I spoke to made this clear to me in her first set of comments. They accept to Federal, State or Local funding. When you visit their website you will also discover that they host a well attended little production that they call the "Miracle of Christmas" every December which they characterize as "Our gift to the Community". You can see the fallow "manger" set at the far left edge of this photo.

Add to this the fact that they are possibly the only zoo in the nation to be closed on Sundays, and I was more than curious to see what a zoo run by sincere "Christians" would be like--and I'm also making many assumptions about them based on my deep and survived association with Evangelical Christianity. Without further explanation, the answer is it's a well done zoo. In many ways, I found it superior to the long established, well endowed Maryland Zoo at Baltimore. Things that were glaring in Baltimore, and still lingering in even Philadelphia's Zoo, were not endemic to the philosophy of the owner/s of this zoo.

Following the map, you first encounter an area with Flamingoes, which fronts an open aviary containing some larger birds also from the Ciconiiformes order. Adjacent to this is a large and very active colony of black-tailed prairie dogs.

One of the areas of interest in this zoo are the members of the primate species and their adjacent species like Lemurs and marmosets. Here are trio of Saimang gibbons housed on an island. They are joined by Chimpanzees, Orangutans, other species of gibbons, monkeys, lemurs and marmosets. The larger the animal, the more spacious their enclosure. Chimps and Orangutans were given their own islands, as well. All had the freedom to be outdoors or within a closure. I wish that the lessor smaller primates had more natural environments, but all of them had contact with living plants and fresh air. If I owned this zoo, I'd be making this my priority up-grade. Especially given the fact that I was responsible for so many of these animals. To the zoo's credit both the Orangutan's and Diana Monkey's have procreated successfully in the past few years.

Another are of emphasis are the large cats. The zoo has 3 Bengal Tigers, 2 Siberian Tigers, Lions, Cheetah and a Snow Leopard--one of the few instances of a single member of any species at the zoo.

In both of previous zoo experiences there were Rhinos. In both the animals were catatonic. In this zoo there were 3 White rhinos, all of which were up and engaged in Rhino activities: foraging, bathing in mud, watching (listening to) the people.

One striking aspect of this zoo was the enclosing of various compatible species together. Here you can see the Bongo with Kudus and a white stork (and what you don't see are the giraffe, crowned crane, and orstich.)

The Bongos cool off in the lake.

Water features prominently in the park, and all major water features are lousy with Koi and turtles--Gazillions of both.

In another interesting pairing, half a dozen Addax shared a spacious enclosure with 4 Grant's Zebra.

The Cheetah's enclosure abutted that of the zebra/addax and the Zebra were happy to taunt the cheetahs as the two chased one another back and forth along the fence. I've seen Cheetah at every zoo I've every been to, but none were as "alive" as these two.

This zoo is home to many giraffe. Most of which are of the sub-species reticulata. However, members of two other sub-species are also present: angolensis and tippelskirchi.

Giraffe camelopard tippelskirchi also known as the Maasai Giraffe and the Kilimanjaro Giraffe.

Mammalian members of the families Antilopcapridae, Bovidae, Camelidae, and Cervidae join with Giraffidae as a major focus of this zoo. The zoo is home to both Bactrian Camels like this molting shaggy fellow and dromedary.

Large wooded enclosures include a variety of North American herbivores like American Bison, and Big Horn Sheep. Others included White Tailed Deer, Elk, and in the following picture, Pronghorn Antelope.

Besides the Snow Leopard, the only other example of a single member of species that i saw at the zoo.

South African Penguins chilling in the shade.

I really liked this zoo. There were so many things about it that were good and beneficial to the animals. Was it perfect? No. Some animals were still enclosed in "cages" that both made them difficult to see, and limited in their ability to experience their lives vitally. The Snow Leopard would be a key example of this. But overall? You will find animals that are engaged and stimulated. Whoever the founders of this zoo are, they have made a very good start.