« Washington, DC | Main | Lincoln and the Holocaust Museum »
July 09, 2004
National Zoo
The Smithsonian National Zoological Park or the National Zoo is a part of the Smithsonian Institution, the world’s largest museum and research complex. The Smithsonian includes 16 museums, including the National Zoo. It's a 163-acre zoological park set amid Rock Creek National Park in the heart of Washington, D.C. It is home to more than 2,700 individual animals of 435 different species. Their best known residents are the giant pandas, Tian Tian and Mei Xiang.
As a parent of two six year olds, I have ofcourse become somewhat of a zoo critic. This zoo isn't bad at all, they have the usual residents - tigers, elephants etc. What distinguishes this zoo is their research and care of two giant pandas. These pandas are truly amazing and everything in this zoo is being done to take real good care of them. Still, the National Zoo doesn't come close to dethroning our all time favorite zoo - the Bronx Zoo. The Bronx Zoo dwarfs the National Zoo in terms of physical size and number of residents. The congo section alone which house the gorillas is already about a fourth of the zoo in Washington.
Posted by ernie at July 9, 2004 07:48 PM