77. Things to do in Chicago: The Brookfield Zoo

The Shark Deck. Located in the middle of the vibrant city escape of Chicago, Brookfield Zoo beckons nature lovers from all corners of the globe. I was recently there with my family and we had a great day which you're about to hear, and I can't stop thinking about it. Spanning over two hundred acres of picturesque landscapes, the zoo has been a beloved attraction since it first opened back in nineteen thirty four. As you stepped foot into the Brookfield Zoo, a menasherie of wildlife a way to arrival. With over four hundred fifty species hailing from different corners of the world, the zoo offers an extraordinary collection that sure to leave you an awe. From regal lions to playful dolphins, each creature has its own unique story to share. So what we're gonna do here is I'm going to dive in and out of my audio for the day. It was a family thing. I wasn't out recording a podcast, but you I know, I have this podcast, so I like to make sure I get audio on the trips. But I didn't want to spend the day going hold on family. I got to do a narration about the lions here. So I just kind of let the recorder roll to capture natural sound. You're gonna hear a lot of our organic conversations, and I'll do some proper vo in and out to stitch it together. Admission to the zoo is free. You should make a donation to anytime you go to a museum or zy or something. There are a couple bucks in the tip jar will. Yeah. Parking is not. It cost me about thirty five dollars to park for I don't know, four or five hours. But there were four of us, and I was like, you know, if you had told me that parking was free and the zoo was eight nine dollars a person, I would have been like, what a bargain. So I didn't let the park and cost freak me out at all. Plus these things, you know, somebody's paying for the food, So you pay thirty thirty five house to park, it's fine. We started at the Japanese macake, also known as the snow monkey, terrestrial old world monkey species that is native to Japan, the one that you're hearing me refer to. We thought he was holding a cell phone case and we were like, how did he get a cell phone case? But it turned out it was a mirror. Oh, he's looking at himself. Japanese mccox lived farther north than any other non human primate. Little risk of extinctions. Good is it great? Then we headed over to the African painted dogs, which are not hyenas. They're not African painted dogs greeted their packed mats for a daily or troil of nuzzling and squeaking. They are in danger, they're not hyenas. I didn't get to see the dog. It's on the far side. Okay, okay, we'll go this way and then we'll see on the foot. Sure those hyenas. No. We then went looking for the rhinos, and it was like eighty three and sunny when we were there, and the rhinos seem to be inside at least at first. Mom see a rhino. A rhino's African. It's not that hot. Right, he's over here on the rhino. Oh, we found the rhino. Love the rhino. Alright here rhino greedy on two rhinos. Then we headed off to the polar bears. We're okaing the polar bears are not outside. We're assuming somewhere it says they did not hear somewhere. A lot of times they have like a water tank and they're in there. Yeah, there's probably a tank. If you were a polar bear, where would you be in the whole Wait, but penguins or sudden atmosphere, polar bears a northern hemisphere. But they don't go together, these two things. Because he even a Bug's funny cartoon about So we did see penguins, we never found the polar bear. I'm sure he's they were somewhere. Onto the giraffes and if you're a regular listener, once again, I became obsessed with Giraffic Park. Go back and listen to the Field Museum episode for some Giraffic Park references. But I brought it up again because I'm a one trick pony, not a giraffe. Giraffes are awesome. How awesome is that? Isn't it's so funny with the skyline in the backgrounds. Love the drafts about you see through the tons of growth? Now I didn't Yeah, where don't go? I don't know. I think about super easy for draft to hide Pemi. Yeah, how do we lose it? There is? Oh, it's bad. It was in the corner of foot Where were we when I got obsessed with graffic Park? I think that was in the museum. Yes, they left, they walked. I guess I got they could run fast. It's back fab that's so cool. Yeah. So I have all these files that are just labeled new recording, and my memory gets a little fuzzy. I think from there we headed to habitat Africa. Anyway, that's the stories I'm telling it on the podcast today because that's the order I put the files in. So next up we found the Diana monkey and some birds and a crocodile. Diana monkey. I like their black and white coloring. To watch them jump a home high scary crocodile, and they move so quickly when they move. I just always picked back to Australia and all the croc signs Madagascar kissing cockroach. Oh this looks so cool with the red. Look at how big they are. Oh I love this. There's some serious Indiana Jones vibes. Wow, this is awesome. Dropped did anyone else? No, it's dropping the top onto this little shelf here, the little babies are here. And then these look like the ginomics hire hanging out. This is great, alright, what am I looking? Hippo? Now what he's underwater? It almost looks like a movie, like a movie of a hippow like. One of the things we had a lot of fun was watching the African painted dog run some laps. African painted dog. That's amazing. Wow, I guess he looks happy. But love the ears, right almost, those big ears are cool. And then it was afo the bird house. I love the birds the birdhouse. Here's one here, the green one. Oh, green bird's pretty. It's a green broadbill. I cold like him. I love the one done. Then oh that's cute too, was one branch slower? Oh wow, it's great. White's pretty if you them? John back here so you can here white and brown, two of them on the ground. Like this yellow. I like this yellow and blue. Yeah, and this guy's blue. Oh here in the bird house, hurts fight around as about my wife. Yeah, we love it. You love it. How you doing time in the free Yes, it's awesome. You look happy to be here, happy to be It's nice. The fifteen species, and here are fifteen the bid. Wow, look at that guy season festivore. We can tell often by their sharp, long beats, yell. You've got to look for fish in the water. They're very naughty. I feel like they're the most likely to poop on you or dive back your Yeah, they are are doing out on the walls, kind of ports the back of the wall as the west. Then yeah here because they're fighting grounds. That's a goody so cool looking. A lot of speakings, I mean, anything come up with that night have a great I like the golden breasted scarlet. Now I like the crested wood partridge. It's like me. So we went back onside. We had to figure out where to go next. We landed at the seal pool mail. Keep in mind, you've heard like three minutes of audio, but at this point in the day, we're like three hours into the zoo and I'm having a blast. I've really cut this down because otherwise you're just going to hear us walking around on a lot of silence. So some of these things you hear, even on this presentation might sound like it was twelve seconds, and then it might have been two three minutes. We did the drafts okay, so you want to look back rat wave and I guess we do. The penguins yeah, I think he did. Yeah, so I think keeople on the budge okay, covid or steal pool I saw, I saw, Yeah. I was like, what are these? And now I see their plans. The seals don't seem to be out today. I need a seal Did they walk around one one under? No? I really saw where did he go under? Under? So this is a solid I feel it. No, he went under? Is there one on that side? Maybe I hear them, I hear them. He here, Maybe he went under. So we noticed on the far side of the seal pool there was a lower level that had clear glass, you know, like a like an aquarium unders the way. Oh cool, Yeah, he went to where we were, was avoiding us. Yes, oh look this one like cool. I think he swims upside down. Wow, that's cool to come right now you like that? That was super cool at the bottle level of the cooler seal pool. That was awesome. Got some good bits. Yeah, we didn't left the seals. We went looking for the lions. And at this point my daughter, just in casual conversation, warned me about some kind of local bird that attacks humans. And she was like, no, take it seriously, because there were signs warn us against it, and I of course made fun of the signs and all this will matter later. Can you tell what's going to happen? They seriously come down. They seem nice. Wow, what a cool haul. Yes see any lions? Oh I think I just saw. I'm gonna guess they'll be where a lot of people are. Is this a family tree of the lions or is this donators? Donors? Donors is the word. Yeah, those are the donators. It's funny. Yes, we gotta go down into the room bottom limit. I wouldn't find you work the lion cares. Yeah. This is like looks like a speech train stations. Yeah, yeah, yes, yes, but it's got that like nineteen tens twenties kind of vibe. They're like a big bank building. Maybe. No, it does feel like a train station, it really does. I bet you. There's a plaque somewhere and there was a blacke Okay Lion House nineteen twelve, located one of the country's oldest in municipal zoological parks. Lionhouse blends both the grammy scale public architecture of the Classical style with the innovative prairie style developed by scot Art texts nearly twentieth century. The building has excellent brickwork and terra cotta ornament. Unique The lion was apes in a grand interior with a vanted tile ceiling and innovative construction technology at the time. All right, it's a classical style, but it was non a translation. Beautiful, super high ceiling. It's still gonna go find some lions, all right, we didn't see a lion. Snakehouse. Were in the snakehouse. Snake house it is. Where's the boa It's not that big? Oh, okay, that's amazing. So the snake house is pretty cool. You know, a lot of walking around the dark going, oh do you see see I think event in the corners. I spared you that audio. But the snakehouse is really cool. Then off to the apes. Okay, let's go see they got attacked by a bird. Yeah that guy. Yeah, those are the birds. Almost, yeah, those are the ones. Yea almost, I got attack. The attack. What did we like? We like, right fast the back of my head. He felt it d right there too, So I think you're very beautiful. I think we got all right. After the bird attack me and we were on our way to see the gorillas. I was really taken in by this next animal because the sign there explained that the animal had become functionally extinct, like over one hundred years ago and they're only left in zoos, And it was just this beautiful animal with big antlers, and it just struck me like, uh, you know, cool that it exists at all, but how sad the overall story, and it was really taken away by it. It stuck with me for quite a while. It's quite a few pictures and just just felt bad for the species. No wild population wish a fewer given in European zoos in the mid eight two hundreds, every rydal that feared lodge a lot today sent it for the European population. So beautiful, isn't it? Harry David's do your barely escaped extinction after Trina's last remaining herd dot out makes you know ones which existed only in fran zoos wow or beautiful animal flung islands. One of the highlights of the Brookfield Zoo is the Tropic World Exhibit. Picture yourself being transported into a lush tropical rainforest where you can observe at rangutans, guerrillas, and monkeys swinging through the treetops. It's an immersive experience that allows you to appreciate the studying, beauty and biodiversity of our natural world. I enjoyed the gorilla that was just chilling on the hammock. There's an actual hammock up between the trees in the exhibit, and one guy was just chilling out there. Some fun facts. The males are five and a half feets, all the women four and a half feet salls. The males way up to four hundred pounds, females to twenty five. In the wild, he leaves herbs, shrubs, and other vegetations and fruits at the zoo. Monkey chow apples, oranges, bananas, greep, sweet potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, green beans, spinash, kale, parsley, or romaine let us. I think I paid chopped to sixteen dollars for exactly that today, although mine didn't have any monkey chow. And while putting this episode together, I learned that the body of Jojo, who is a four hundred and eighty five pound silverback gorilla who died in twenty twenty two, will become cataloged in to the Field Museum's manimal collection and made available for scientific study. A spokeswoman for the museum said Jojo will be added to our collection so that scientists can study as remains to learn more about how guerrillas evolved and might be able to help protect them. The spokeswoman does not believe JoJo's body will be placed on public display, but if you hit the Field Museum, you will see Bushman. And I saw Bushman, a Western Lowland gorilla who died in nineteen fifty one at the zoo. Jojo was forty two when he passed away. The median life expectancy for male gorillas and managed care is thirty two. Following his death, the zoo posted a Facebook message that read Jojo was very smart and learned new behaviors quickly during husband try training sessions. He was known for keeping order in the gorilla group by quickly breaking up squabbles, and often showed his gentler and patient side when interacting with his offspring. If you want to learn more about the Field Museum, I covered that in episode sixty nine, and I'm sorry I missed this one. This one opens June twenty third, so that's this week. If I scheduled the episode correctly discover some of nature's most colorful creatures. Butterflies. I did butterflies down in Key West, and he hear me talk about that in the Key West episode, and I did them in Australia. Butterflies are awesome. Do the butterflies observes. These species native to North America, fly around the pond, up into the skyland some flowers, and possibly land on you. Butterflies exhibit caution. Extra four dollars if you're an adult. Absolutely do that. And I kind of want to do this one if I can get back in town. Zoo Brew that's coming up on August twenty six, twenty twenty three. Enjoy bears and beers, lions and loggers, ant eaters and ales, a good job copywriter all at the Zoo Brew. Zubrew is twenty one and over only. They made that quite clear. Don't bring your kid. Your kids not getting in. You can be like, but it's just a baby. They're not letting just a baby in, but he's only five. They're not letting the five year old in twenty one and over only a beer tasting event. Looks like there's a ninety five dollars ticket that includes all day admission to the zoo, eighty plus beer and drink samples, some FAQs. Can I bring my baby? No? I pay a better walk around the zoo. The event takes place in the pavilions. Attendees are allowed to leave during the venturing regular zoo hours, which are nine thirty six, but must remain in the event area after the closing six o'clock You brew samples, must stay with it in the event area. Could you bring food? Yes? So that's Zoobru August twenty six, twenty twenty three. I loved the Brookfield Zoo. I hope to get back there. Other episodes about Chicago and this Feed Episode one titled things to Do in Chicago. Episode sixty nine is the Field Museum and Sue the t Rex, And episode twenty four is me driving from basically New York City, New Jersey anyway out on I eighty West to Chicago. So if you're curious what that drive is like, and I've done it many times now, it's a lot of fun. So that's episode twenty four sixty nine and episode one travel is back. All right, enough with the negativity. Hi, I'm Johnny Mack, host of Five Good News Stories, that's a podcast twice a week. Every episode a curate five heartwarming, uplifting news stories from around the world, showcasing the best of humanity, tales of kindness, fun animal stories, courty items in the news, and you know what, more often than not, something about McDonald can't explain why. I'll bring you a range of stories that will leave you feeling hopeful and optimistics. Start your day in a positive note. The number five good news stories it'll make you smile to'll start your day on a good note. Five good news stories. Wherever you get your podcasts