A photographic celebration of the city of Tucson, AZ
A spring trip to the Reid Park Zoo in Tucson, AZ inspired this post. See also my first post about this zoo.
1 This is Tuari, a baby Grevy’s Zebra. His name comes from TUcson ARIzona in honor of his birth city. He will be transfered to another zoo when he is old enough to be away from his mother. For now we get to enjoy his antics as he grows up.
Although there are no running rivers in Tucson anymore, we still have many bridges that span the dry riverbeds and the large washes that feed them. The expansion joints under these bridges provide an ideal habitat for several bat species that live here during the warmer months. Every evening, at sunset, thousands of bats emerge from under these bridges to eat their fill of insects throughout the night. Below are some images of one such emergence from the Broadway bridge over the Pantano wash.
1 Thousands of bats emerge from under the bridge near Broadway and Pantano on the east side of Tucson, AZ.
The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is located about 15 miles west of Tucson. One of the first naturalistic zoos in the nation, it also has features of a museum and botanical garden. The Desert Museum focuses on the plant and animal life of the Sonoran desert and is one of the most visited attractions in Tucson. Below are a few of the animals that you might see on a trip there.
1 A Desert Bighorn Ewe stands at attention in her enclosure at The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum outside of Tucson, AZ.
Many years ago what is now the Reid Park Zoo in Tucson, AZ, was a series of square concrete cages housing the typical assortment of animals – lions, tigers, monkeys. The zoo has come a long way, with all animals in much larger areas designed to be more like their natural habitats. Where possible, animals are grouped together as they would be in the wild, such as the zebras and ostrichs. There are plans to expand the zoo to provide even more area for the animals to roam.
1 One of the giraffes at the Reid Park Zoo in Tucson, AZ gets up close and personal with the camera.