There's Nothing to Do in This Town! Vol. 1: The Louisville Zoo

We’ve all heard it before; some youngin’ who is aching to get out of town and offers up the famous yet insipid line, “There’s nothing to do in this town…” It makes me want to scream at them incoherently because that’s what their bellyachin’ sounds like to me. I am fully aware that this longing for branching out, going to a bigger town is all part of growing up and shedding your youthful image, etc, but to say that there is nothing to do in Louisville is downright asinine. You could do a new thing cool thing every day of the year and never hit the repeat button (although many Louisville adventures warrant a repeat!). I am here to give a synopsis of various Louisville things that I think are worth checking out. Enjoy!

First up is the wonderful Louisville Zoo! If you’re like my friend Amy and hate the zoo, then I guess this post isn’t for you, but I love it! I had actually never before been to a zoo until a year and a half ago when my friends took me there on a special pass to get up close and personal with the Amur Tigers. That day we met Boris (R.I.P. :( ) and Sinda and it got me hooked to the Zoo and I soon after bought a membership.

First things first, I have learned that there are certain times to go to the zoo that are much better than others. Case in point, if you go to the zoo in the middle of the afternoon after all of the animals have been fed then they will most likely be napping and not be that fun to interact with. Therefore, I always suggest one get to the zoo about 10am and try to make your rounds while most of the animals are going through their first feeding. If you get there while they are being fed, then that is the time that the animals are the most active and aggressive and can make for some pretty awesome spectacles. You never know what’s going to happen and that’s part of the beauty of the zoo!

The first thing you should do when you get in the park is to take a left and head toward the Rhinos. This is always my favorite place to start. You’ll pass a big wooden carving of a buffalo which offers up some great photo ops, and soon you will come up on the warthogs on your left. They are sometimes super entertaining when they are rolling around in the mud or being fed. Otherwise, they’ll just be sleeping in the shadows and can be hard to see. The rhinos will be on your right and if you are lucky enough you can catch them while they are walking around. They are such massive animals that they don’t move around an awful lot, but they are beautiful animals that look like dinosaurs. While you are gawking at the massiveness of the rhinos you should do a quick 180 and check out the indoor giraffe exhibit. Without a doubt, giraffes are one of my favorite animals and this is always a special treat for me. One time, my friend Keith caught a giraffe tear! There is only one word I typically can think of when describing the giraffes and that is “majestic.” They are so cool! In that same little exhibit are the Sea Eagles (who usually leave a nice smattering of torn rat carcasses on the ground) and the Rock Hyrax who is a cute little hedgehog-looking guy who is almost always perched at the top-front-right of the exhibit on the rock ledge.

Next you will take the big curve and get the pleasure to witness the deer-family animals which include the super-cool Addax (which have babies fairly regularly), the Bongo (one of whom lost their left eye this summer), and the gazelles. I never even knew that the Addax and the Bongo existed, but they are really cool looking animals with some crazy horns. After the Bongo, you will come up on the ever-popular elephant exhibit! If you’re there at the right time (11am and 4pm) you will get to see the elephant aerobics where young Scotty and his mom Mikki and aunt Punch do their exercises in the yard. It is incredibly entertaining and Scotty does some great tricks that exhibit his sense of humor.

The zebras will be on your left as you keep walking, but they are unfortunately hard to see, so take a little jaunt over to the lions and get a good glimpse of them doing what they do best…sleeping. I’ve only seen them up and about once, but it’s still cool to see them and marvel at how intelligent the structural designs are for these animal habitat recreations. Moving around the loop you will see the dromedary camels on your right who always look a little lonely to me, but you’ve got to hurry to get everything in so walk faster!

Next up on your right you will be tempted to forgo the petting zoo for the sake of cleanliness, but I must admit, that the one time I went in there was one of my favorite times at the zoo ever. Head over to monkey island and make sure to go inside the enclosure to check out the cotton-topped tamarin as he is probably the cutest animal at the whole zoo. The monkeys, if out on the island, will amaze you with their rope swinging and playing sometimes and can be a blast to watch. Many people are afraid that the monkeys could easily just go past the shallow water moat and get out, but in their natural habitat which is recreated at the zoo, there are snakes and various predators lurking in the water under the trees so they don’t even go near the water. I love the instances where the zoo-keepers and designers use the animal’s natural instincts to protect it from escaping, etc.

Next up, the meerkats are always cute with one of them always perched atop the mound on the lookout for predatory birds while the others all nod in and out of consciousness. You are on your way to the amazing gorilla exhibit though so you’ve got to keep moving. On your way to the gorillas, get a good look at the pygmy hippos because they just had a baby last year and he’s getting pretty big. They will be off exhibit soon because of cool weather so get it in while you can. As you walk up to the gorilla exhibit you will notice a very sharp odor once the automatic doors pop open and that is the scent that the silverbacks put out to mark their territory. It can often be a hard smell to stomach, but it hasn’t been as bad recently after the heart-breaking loss of Silverback Frank. Frank was getting old and had terrible arthritis so he was put to sleep a few weeks back. I was deeply saddened by this. Most of the time, if the gorillas are in a playful mood, then they can be the most fun thing at the whole zoo, especially if they are chasing each other around.

After you kill a half hour at the gorillas exhibit, you will wind your way down the hill past the Dippin’ Dots stand and head over to the Alice Etscorn exhibit to check out the Amur tigers. The tigers are so cool and a personal favorite of mine and with the new improvements to their living spaces you might just get to see a feeding of them from just a few feet away. There will always only be one tiger on exhibit because tigers are solitary animals and don’t enjoy the company of each other. Our zoo has two of them, one a 14 year old female named Sinda and Sasha the new 350-pound addition to take over for Boris who died recently of old age at 18 years.

If you don’t have little kiddies with you, then you can pick up the pace a little bit as you pass the various cats and head over to the Islands exhibit and the Herpaquarium. In the Herp is King Louie the rare albino alligator, who I swear has got to be fake because I’ve never seen him move and he’s so strange looking he almost looks plastic. The islands exhibit features the awesome penguins and the sometimes frightening terns, and also has rooms for the orangutan (who is the coolest dude ever when in a good mood) and the Sumatran tiger. Do yourself a favor and ask a zoo helper to explain the advanced tunnel system that was designed for the Islands exhibit. It is a one-of-a-kind feature that makes your zoo experience much, much better. That will about round out your day as you are pretty tired by this point. Later on you can come back and check out a few things like the Wallaroo Walkabout and spend some time in the MetaZoo, but that won’t be a problem because you’ll pick up your You Plus One membership at the front gate for a measley $65 because now whenever you have a friend visit from out of town you can take them to the zoo for a fantastic and unforgettable afternoon where you get to feel like kids and marvel at the wonderfulness of all the animals.

Let me know if you need a zoo buddy sometime.