Reptiles at the Brookfield Zoo; Chicago, Illinois

No posts in over a week.  Got busy with the job search, family birthdays and Cirque du Soleil... As to the job search, I've had three interviews over the past two weeks but nothing has panned out.  It might be that my interviewing skills (or lack of them) are holding me back.  I need to focus on the interview aspect of the search.  I might be too chatty.  Well... I do like to talk as evidenced by this blog and by Twitter.  Anyhoo, on to the blog.

We also had the chance to go to the Brookfield Zoo.  A good buddy of mine all the way back from my externship at a certain Hammond agency gave us tickets to the zoo.  Kudos to him, especially with the whole job situation.

Whether it has been zoo tickets from my "Hammond" friend, BBQ dinners from Mom, kayaking with my Aunt and Uncle, pizza and fried chicken from Sister and Brother-in-law, White Sox tickets from friends, gifts from the in-laws in Japan or coffees with Dad, everyone has contributed to make my girls' summer an extraordinary one.  When I'm on my feet again, I owe lots of beers to all.  And I'll definitely go out of my way to help family and friends in need like I kind of am in now.  Oh I forgot to add that cousin paid for my seven-dollar Nathan's hot dog and Sour Patch kids at Cirque too.  Kindness is great.

As you can probably tell from my blog entries about the Gatormen, I'm a big reptile fan.  Accordingly, my visit to the zoo was focused on seeing the alligators, crocodiles, turtles, snakes and lizards that I love.  Sadly there were no big gators or crocs at the Brookfield Zoo, only smaller breeds like Orinoco Crocodiles.  And those Orinoco Crocs were found in the Swamp, an American-themed exhibit where our friends, the American Alligators should have been living!!!

Nope... No Gators here!!!

But there are Orinoco Crocodiles present!!!

The Swamp did have some nice turtles, and man it really did feel like a swamp in the Swamp; the humidity could be cut with a knife!!!

A nice Mata-mata specimen

King of the turtles, the Alligator Snapper!!!

Here's the difference between Crocs and Gators.
 

These guys were running all around in the Swamp, perhaps the inhabitants' dinner?

Sweet, sweet Mold-A-Rama... These guys are two bucks now!!!

That's right I'm two dollars now, four times the amount I was in the 1980's!!!

Beyond the Swamp, our scaly friends can be found in the antiquated Reptiles and Birds House and Feathers and Scales House which are nearly adjacent to each other.  Both of these buildings seem to lack air-conditioning and are right out of the 1920's.  However, the reptiles are quite healthy and very actively moving around.

Treasure can be found behind the windows in the Reptiles and Birds House.

Juvenile Galapagos Tortoises

This Green Tree Snake was one of the most active snakes I've ever seen!

I'm not going to tell you what these two Collared Lizards were doing before I snapped the pic.  The look on the face of the right one tells it all.

A beautiful Caiman Lizard

Not sure about this guy, a Chuckwalla?

They also had some cool bigger guys, a tremendously large python that I couldn't see all of and some large monitor lizards.  Those guys were much less active than the small guys.

I later read on the internet that the African jungle exhibit has a few of a smaller breed of Africa crocodiles.  I'll visit there next time.  All and all I was impressed with the selection of reptiles at the Brookfield Zoo.

There's much more than reptiles there of course, so I recommend that you make it out to Brookfield if you live in the Chicago area.  In particular, the primate facility, Tropic World Africa and Asia, as shown below, is impressive (and air-conditioned).

My two-dollar Mold-A-Rama friend says thank you for reading.