Baltimore Zoo: Old Friends #1

Baltimore hosts the third oldest zoo in the United States.  Now, underwritten by the state of Maryland, it's official name is The Maryland Zoo @ Baltimore.  I've been visiting it for the past 22 years and I have to say it's come a long way baby!  My first visit left me depressed and thinking that it should be closed.  But it has risen under new leadership to become a place were animals are well cared for and able to live in relative comfort and fulfill their essential being in this world.  Given the precarious existences left to so many animals in the wild, zoo's have gone from "prisons" in my mind to potential sanctuaries.

 The grand gazebo at the entrance harkens back to the zoo's origins in the 1870's

 Beyond the admission gate you discover the first of many bronze sculptures.  This particular artist has made them of cheetahs, ostriches and a polar bear to encounter around the park to name some of them.

 The only exhibit at the entrance is the that of the Black-tailed Prairie Dogs, Cynomys ludovicianus.

 And it's spring so there are babies, too!