Thurs, August 12: Bronx Zoo

 6:30 am: Early wake up

I woke up early this morning to say goodbye to my cousin Emily and her boyfriend Casey. They are leaving for Switzerland! I also had to plan out the subway route to the Bronx Zoo, where Val had arranged for us to meet with the staff veterinarians and Wildlife Conservation Society bigwigs.

7:30 am: Leave for Zoo

The subway took about an hour to get me from Brooklyn to the Bronx but I think I am starting to get the hang of the system. 

9:00 – 9:30 am: Meet Group at Zoo Entrance

We made a plan to meet at the Zoo’s main entrance. Unfortunately the Bronx Zoo has 3 main entrances! I got there early and talked my way into the park an hour before they opened. From there I set about trying to find my classmates. By 9:30 I had not found anyone and I had no phone to try to contact the other envirovets so I went to the wildlife health center on my own. None of them were there. I let the veterinarian meeting us know what was going on and then returned to the park to find my classmates.

At about 10:15 I asked to borrow a phone and began trying to contact the others. While I was on the phone Amelie and Cedric ran up to me and apologized for being late. I could not reach David or Thalita. 

10:30 am – 1:00 pm: Tour of Wildlife Health Center

By 10:30 I decided that it would be impossible to find the others in such a large zoo and that we should go begin the tour. Dr. Bonnie L. Raphael, DVM, Dipl ACZM gave us a brief history of the zoo and WCS before showing us the hospital. The facilities were impressive. Midway through the tour David arrived! He had gotten lost on his way to the zoo.

Near the end of the tour we got to watch as the team worked on a fruit bat suspected of having cardiomyopathy. 

1:00 pm – 4:30 pm: Free time at Zoo

While we explored the zoo grounds we miraculously found Thalita. The Bronx Zoo is quite large and we spent a long time checking out its exhibits. One of the highlights was seeing the Kihansi Spray Toads that we had heard so much about while in Tanzania.

Eventually everyone started to leave. First we all said our goodbyes to Thalita as she had to go catch her flight back to Brazil. After we visited the Gorilla exhibit it was time to see David off. It was then down to me, Amelie, and Cedric.

5:00 pm: New York Exploration

I made plans to meet back up with the couple but first I had to go try to see the Empire State Building. Sadly, I made a wrong choice on which subway train to ride and instead decided to check out the World Trade Center site. From there I walked to the waters edge and saw an Irish heritage monument and then caught a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty before heading back to the apartment.

8:00 pm: Dinner

I met back up with Amelie and Cedric for dinner. We sampled a Mediterranean restaurant near Emily’s apartment and then spent the remainder of the evening exchanging photographs.