Tim & Deb with SPZ docent Maureen Whalen. Photo taken by Shelly Marra
BY DEB AND TIM SMITH
With the advent of spring, it becomes time to once again turn our thoughts toward the great outdoors. One local attraction that we’d like to put on your radar is the Seneca Park Zoo. We originally connected with the Seneca Park Zoo when we were writing our previous book Crowning the Animal Kingdom which featured contributions from zoos and aquariums in all 50 states and 107 foreign countries. Seizing upon our obvious interest, they asked us to come in for an interview and a tour, an opportunity we were excited to accept.
In October of 2024 we were privileged to spend an afternoon with the historical guru of the Seneca Park Zoo. That would be Maureen Whalen who has been a docent at the zoo for 19+ years and is also the author of the book A History of Seneca Park Zoo. So at this point we want to share the highlights of what we learned and present some perspectives that will hopefully enhance your next visit to the zoo. At this point please allow us to take you on our virtual tour in order to provide you with an overview of what you will be experiencing on your actual visit.
VIRTUAL TOUR ~ Start by keying in 2222 St. Paul St. into your GPS and heading for the expressway. Depending on where in Sentinel-land you’re starting from, you’re looking at about a half-hour drive. Upon arrival, grab yourself a parking spot and head for the main entrance. Once you’re inside, you’ll be looking at a playground straight ahead of you, with the gift shop off to your left. As you progress through your Seneca Park Zoo adventure, you will find the facility divided into five major components which we will outline for you next.
GENESSEE TRAIL AND CREATURES FROM THE RIVER’S EDGE ~ Let’s move on past the playground and the first critters we’ll encounter will be in the Creatures From the River’s Edge exhibit. It was in 1993 that the Genessee Trail opened as the SPZ’s first landscape immersion exhibit, the type which attempts to recreate the animals’ natural habitats. This exhibit was built with $2 million of Society-raised funds and $500,000 of County funds.
In this exhibit, on the left-hand side of the path, you’ll find the outdoor habitat of the river otters in a reconstruction of their natural environment. In January the zoo welcomed three river otter pups born to Ashkii and Gary – two girls and a boy. Adjacent to the otters there is a building with geckos, Panamanian golden frogs, two Burmese pythons, and three lake sturgeons.
COLD ASIA ~ The next exhibit we’ll encounter will be Cold Asia where we’ll find the Amur tiger, snow leopard, grey wolves, and red pandas. Ground was broken for this exhibit in 2017 and it opened in 2018. One fairly new and very cool story from Cold Asia is one we’ll call “First Time Panda Parents” and it goes like this…
The date was Sunday, July 17, 2021 when the Monroe County news release went out updating the status on the red panda cubs which had been born back on June 20th. As they passed the one-month mark, it was reported that the cubs were still weighing in at a little under a pound each, 0.84 and 0.77 pounds to be precise. They were kept out of public view in their nest box until they were three months old.
The mom Starlight was a 4-year-old who had come to Seneca Park from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in 2018, and dad Willie was a 6-year-old who had come from the Knoxville Zoo in 2020. This event marked the first time in the zoo’s 130-year history that it served as the birth site for baby red pandas.
ROCKY COASTS ~ As we proceed down the path, the next exhibition area we’ll encounter will be Rocky Coasts which opened in 1997, as the largest improvement to the Zoo since the construction of the Main Zoo Building in 1931. It is an area dedicated to animals of the polar and temperate coastal regions of the world, including African penguins, California sea lions, snowy owls, sandhill cranes, two Canada lynxes, and the zoo’s polar bear. The exhibit includes an underwater viewing area which places visitors close to the sea lions and the polar bear swimming behind large glass windows.
Inside this viewing area is a beautifully stocked 560-gallon tropical aquarium, climate controlled precisely to 79.8°. Here’s one other thought to keep in mind for Rocky Coasts. One of the coolest attractions of the SPZ experience is to watch the sea lions being fed as the trainers incorporate some significant sea lion showtime shenanigans into their presentation. During the season from Memorial Day through Labor Day their keepers will demonstrate their feeding/training during scheduled times for guests to see.
A STEP INTO AFRICA ~ Housed within this SPZ exhibit are the only three African savanna elephants in New York state, South African lions, olive baboons and African goats. Included within the exhibit are a replica Maasai hut, a Dig Zone for uncovering casts of fossils, interactive learning tools, and a stationary safari bus from which the zoo’s three African lions can be viewed in their naturalistic settings.
Another unique feature of the lion exhibit can be seen if you look up the hill to the right of the safari bus. Laying on the ground is a prone zebra possibly leading to patrons’ fear that one had escaped from its enclosure and fallen prey to one of the lions. Fortunately, there’s signage which dispels that fear by sharing that it is all a visual prop to create the illusion that when the lions are fed here, it appears as if they are eating an actual zebra. While some of the patrons may fall for it, we are personally going on record as saying we don’t think the lions are buying it for a minute!
One point of interest on this exhibit… When it opened in 2012 it brought lions back to the zoo after an absence of 25 years.
ANIMALS OF THE SAVANNA ~ At this point we enter the SPZ’s final exhibit. Ground was broken in 2017 for the 5-acre Animals of the Savanna exhibit which opened the following year. Here you will be taken to the Dark Continent of Sub-Saharan Africa where the last group of animals you will encounter will include a white rhino, African birds, naked mole rats, Masai giraffes, and plains zebras.
LOGISTICS ~ If you are looking to plan a family outing, here are the financials you’ll need to know. First off, you should purchase your tickets online as that will save you a couple bucks a piece. The admission cost online is $12 for adults (age 15-61), $11 for seniors (ages 62+), $9 for Youth (Ages 4-14), with children 3 and younger free. Add $2.00 for each level if you purchase tickets at the gate.
Another option, if you’re looking for a more adult-oriented experience, would be the spring opening event billed as “Birds, Bees & Brews.” Held on May 9th, this is a tasting event featuring local brews, including cider, beer, mead, coffee, and kombucha.
The $65 advance tickets include tastings from all vendors, an exclusive 5 oz. tasting cup, and 2 drawing tickets. The event runs from 5:30 to 8:30 with last entry at 7:30. Guests must be 21 years old to attend.
STORY HOUR ~ We are going to close with what Maureen Whalen compiled as her best-ever SPZ animal stories…
* Our three African elephants are affectionately called the “Golden Girls.” To keep them limber, their keepers have trained them to do yoga; they do a lovely downward dog.
* From 1931 until 1997, the California sea lions were housed directly across from the elephants at the far northern end of the Main Building. Any kind of noise was amplified at that end of the building and it could get especially loud when five sea lions would start barking. Genny C and Lilac hated the noise so much, they would pick up their poop and throw it across the aisle at the sea lions.
* Zoo guests love to see the polar bear in the water swimming. As an enrichment activity, and to entice the polar bear into the water, the keeper will sometimes throw a large ball with holes into which fish have been placed, into her pool. But our current polar bear, Anoki, like her mother Aurora before her, only goes into the water when she feels like it. Instead, Anoki will stand on the edge of the beach, put her paw in the water, and make waves until the current carries the ball over to her on the shore. By the way, Anoki appeared in a 2003 Super Bowl commercial for Pepsi when she was residing at the Albuquerque, New Mexico zoo.
* She’s not the only “actor” we’ve had at the zoo: one of our male orangutans in the early 2000’s, Lowell, was a favorite among zoo guests – he liked people because he was raised by people and had been a movie actor.
* Zoo staff carry radios attuned to the county-wide channel through which they can easily communicate. One day the sound of heavy breathing came over the channel. Was an employee in distress? Was this an obscene call? No! A keeper had misplaced his radio and it was picked up by Yukon, Aurora’s mate and Anoki’s father. He was carrying the radio around the habitat in his mouth and everyone now was hearing him all over the county.
*As she approaches her 20th birthday (making her one of the oldest Amur tigers in the world), Katya, born here at the Seneca Park Zoo, suffers from some age-related ailments such as arthritis. The zoo vet has been using a laser to treat the condition and Katya likes it so much that when she sees him approaching with the equipment, she runs to the fence to greet him.
* Many can relate to having a cell phone fall out of one’s pocket, but when it happens in an animal enclosure and that animal is a spotted hyena, the phone doesn’t stand a chance. Lou, our hyena, who was the oldest spotted hyena in the world when he died in 2019, was trained by his keeper to bring any foreign object he found in his yard to her and exchange it for a food treat. His keeper’s cell phone fell out of her pocket and when Lou heard it ringing, he went and picked it up. Now remember, spotted hyenas have the strongest recorded bite of all carnivorous mammals. Lou brought the phone to his keeper, but after being crunched in those powerful jaws, it was in pieces. She was able to gather the fragments, and fortunately the sim card, and, of course, Lou got his treat. When she explained to her cell company what had happened to her phone, they were incredulous.
