The destination was the Salisbury Zoo in Salisbury,
Maryland. A place I have never been before. A Zoo that was once called by
someone from somewhere "America's Best Small Zoo". It's an intriguing
notion. It does not have the best website for a zoo of any size; although
it is colorful, it doesn't provide a zoo map and that's important to me as a
spacial, visual processor. This one is from the zoo and I photographed it off
of a placard. One major disappointment not explained on the website was the
seasonal closure of the Ocelot Gift Shop, the ESBA Education Center and the new
Morgan Visitor Center. They are only open from sometime in April to October
31st!
Thankfully, the restrooms were still open!
While the map makes it look like the zoo sits on the edge of
a lake, you'll notice in subsequent photos that it sits in the flood plain of a
little creek. The opposite side is flanked by a residential street that
separates it from a traditional, slightly up-scale subdivision of single-family
homes. The park along the creek extends in both directions beyond the zoo's
perimeters. During the neatly 2 hours I spent exploring the zoo, I never once
encountered a single zoo employee or volunteer. Near the very end, I notices at
a distance a young women carrying a stainless steel bowl of veggies who was
probably a keeper on her way to feed some animal, but she was too far away to
engage or identify for certain. I was pleased to see a handful of visitors of
all ages and relationships including several black and hispanic families. For a
little zoo in a little community on the far side of the bay, it left me with
the impression that they take advantage of their zoo.
And it's FREE. Which was one of the motivations for my
visit, given the other expenses and time to get there. As to it's collection,
it is exclusively fauna of the America's. And like any visit, some of the
animals are out and about and some are not. So I will continue the sharing in
subsequent posts.
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