Visit to Washington DC Smithsonian Zoo ... Amazonia Exibit

[JeffreyRichard]

Spend Thanksgiving in Northern Virginia with my sister/family and we wnet to the zoo on Friday. They have an Amazonia exhibit ... one of The Best exhibits I've seen in a zoo/public aquarium! The whole thing was in an enclosed building, two levels, with a sign as you enter that states (paraphrase) "Wild animals are loose ... please be quite and use caution". The bottom floor had a half dozen large (5000 gallon plus) tanks ... the first has a broad shallow tanks with rays, tetras, arowanas and wild discus (blues it appeared). In the other tanks were river turtles, pacus, piranas, large plecos and redtailed cats. The "trail" lead upstairs where it crossed back over the tanks on the lower level ... birds (macaws), monkeys and sloths were seen around us ...

HIGHLY recommend tanking in this exhibit if you can ... I could have spent all day there (it was our last stop and unfortunately everyone else was hungry ... wimps ...). The best thing about this zoo ... "Don't cost nothin"" (J. Belushi, Animal House, 1978)

Sorry, no photos (too dark for my inexpensive digital camera)

Jeff

[Moon]

A very similar display at the Vancouver Aquarium that I visited in September of this year. All fish and no birds. I was amazed at the size of the red tailed catfish and pacu.

[hboute]

I live about 10 minutes away from the zoo and visit it frequently to have a look at Amazonia, it is a unique place!