Photo TR: A Tour of Chicago's Zoos

People ask me all the time: "Dave, I'm planning a trip to Chicago and I want to take the family to a zoo. I don't have time to visit both of them, which one would you recommend we check out." OK, this has never happened, but if it does I've made a trip report that I can refer them to. First we'll go outside the city to visit Brookfield zoo, then we'll meander back to the North side of town and check out Lincoln Park Zoo & Conservatory.

The following pictures were taken over the course of several visits within the last 2 years. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to ask. Now on to the photos...

Photo TR: Brookfield Zoo

We're just West of Chicago in the cozy suburb of Brookfield, IL. This is the map of the zoo. It's the kind of thing you post first when you don't take an entrance shot.

They have a really nice carousel here, If I remember right it cost $5 to ride.

I like the anteater best I think. It's an under-appreciated animal in my opinion. Yes indeed, I do like a good anteater... We spent at least 5 minutes just checking out the carousel. I'm not an insect fan, but it's good to see that they didn't leave them out.

We started with the aardvark first. Can you kids guess what the last picture will be? Though similar, the aardvark is not closely related to the anteater and therefore does not inherently earn my respect and admiration.

This used to be the lion house. Now it is a 2 part exhibit called Fragile Kingdom. This entrance is for the desert area. It features, you guessed it, desert animals.

This meerkat...

Lives comfortably with these here porcupines and the rest of the meerkat family.

We like this guy...a lot. We'll try to come back later when he's awake.

Here's the opposite entrance, Fragile Rain Forest. The big cats live outside of this building.

This clearly fragile otter makes his home in the Fragile Rain Forest, along with some binterongs (also known as bearcats, they can be identified by their overwhelming Nacho Doritos smell), some medium sized felines and a few reptiles.

There's some insects in here too.

I don't like them anymore than you do, trust me.

This is Tropic World, a gigantic, enclosed, artificial rainforest environment. This building is massive, I can't stress that enough. This is just one of 3 equally large rooms, each depicting a different continent. Do you see any animals? Neither do I.

You could fit Joker's Jinx and Poltergeist in this building, effectively turning them into dark rides. See any animals yet?

Rumor was before his departure, Shapiro wanted to send those rides to the Columbus or San Diego zoo's but most people think Brookfield deserves them more. However, this anteater clearly is not happy about sharing his space with a launched Premier.

Tropic World concludes with Gorilla Island. There is no glass barrier between you and the apes, so it's best to avoid eye contact. If the signs are any indication, poo flinging is not uncommon.

Moving on to Pinniped Point, home to many precious, poignant, Pinnipeds.

Like this guy! The underwater viewing area provides some great photo opportunities.

This is a life-size statue of Olga the walrus, the parks ambassador for many years. It's a shame there are no more Walrus here, but as I understand they are insanely expensive to feed.

You can view these giant fish from underwater, or pay to watch them put on a show.

These lazy Australians just lay out in the sun all day.

I do not know the name of this bear. However if it's anything other than Ditka, Singletary, or Urlacher I'll be really disappointed. They have since built a new enclosure for the bears.

A small crowd was gathered around this polar bear because he seriously looked like he was contemplating jumping to his death. True story.

Then came the inevitable feeling most of us get at zoos. That while amusing to us, the animals are essentially imprisoned. Buzzkill.

I know a hungry, hungry, hippo when I see it and this fine specimen has assumed the position.

The indoor pachyderm enclosures offer close up views. Thankfully, this is the last of the their old-style concrete and steel animal houses open to the public.

Name that meme.

This is my girlfriend, Erin. She likes rollercoasters and pinball. She also has three pet donkeys at her house. So, yeah...She's pretty cool.

Here's one of the newer exhibits. Its a fancier building with Sea World aspirations.

This building houses some large aquariums and interactive exhibits. It concludes with this penguin/seabird area.

Its spacious and immersive, but I still prefer Lincoln Parks penguin exhibit. Both are equally stinky.

These Mold-a-rama machines are all over the zoo. The smell of these makes me feel 9 years old again.

The indoor giraffe enclosure brings you terrifyingly close to these dangerous even-toed ungulates. There was no zoom used on this photo, they are really that close.

It doesn't take long to realize that they love to lick stuff.

Brookfield Zoo has always been proud of their Okapi's. And why not, look at that thing.

The children's zoo is a small up-charge. It's not much, I think $2.50. It has the usual farm animals and if you like goats you're in business. There are many, many goats. If you don't like goats I say skip it.

I don't really like goats.

Bonus points for representing the Wegies. The best cat of all the cats...combined. I am biased.

Back at the Fragile Desert, this little guy has awoken from his slumber.

This is the last zoo picture. Did you think it was going to be a zebra? You're hubris has gotten the best of you again!

For a drink before or after the zoo I highly recommend Brixies on Ogden Ave. in Brookfield. They have pinball, an extensive beer list and free bacon on Mondays.

That does it for Brookfield Zoo, stay tuned for Lincoln Park Zoo & Conservatory. Thanks for reading!

For a drink before or after the zoo I highly recommend Brixies on Ogden Ave. in Brookfield. They have pinball, an extensive beer list and free bacon on Mondays.

Brixie's is run by a very good friend of mine! I'll let him know you like it!

Nice P:TR, I love the Brookfield Zoo, was the Great Bear Wilderness open when you went? We were peeking through the fences when they were building it and some worker came up to us and gave us a guided tour of the new exhibit! They always have great customer service, and I usually prefer to go to Brookfield than the Lincoln Park zoo.

Brixie's is run by a very good friend of mine! I'll let him know you like it!

I just wish I lived closer, It's the only place I know with a CSI pinball machine. Awful show, great game.

was the Great Bear Wilderness open when you went?

It was not. I'm looking forward to checking it out. I always thought that, as the logo of Brookfield Zoo, the bison deserved a better habitat.

Photo TR: Lincoln Park Zoo and Conservatory

Chicago's second zoo is located lakeside, about 10 minutes North of downtown. While not as big as Brookfield, it has a charm all it's own. Admission is free and the ipod clad joggers generally give it more casual feel. Along side the zoo is the Lincoln Park Conservatory, a series of interconnected greenhouses housing hundreds of exotic plants. Children may quickly grow bored of the greenery, however, I highly recommend a quick stroll through.

Unfortunately, due to an accidental memory card deletion, this report is not as thorough as I would like. It should still give you a good idea of what Lincoln Park has to offer. Not included in this report are the childrens zoo and gorilla/ape exhibits. Not being a fan of large primates, I find the gorilla building to be quite odd. It's kind of like if your library had a plexi-glass gorilla enclosure built inside of it. But I digress, as mentioned I am not a gorilla person. Lincoln Park also boasts a very nice polar bear exhibit with underwater viewing, unfortunately no bears were available at the time of our visit.

The entrance to the zoo has this ornamental ironwork archway. Though you can't tell with this awful picture. They also have a carousel located underneath the tent in the background.

The large cats are the first exhibit you see when you walk in.

They pace around, they sleep, repeat.

Many of the zoos exhibits have underwater viewing. The underwater hippo and polar bear viewing areas are especially nice.

In the middle of the zoo they have a large sea lion/seal exhibit. This area used to really draw a crowd, although at the time of my visit there were only 2 seals on display.

They have some marsupials here as well. If I remember right this is a wallaroo.

Much like Brookfield Zoo, the giraffe exhibit can bring you extremely close to the animals.

Extremely close.

This African habitat is one of the newer exhibits here. Standard zoo stuff really.

Here is the conservatory, which just like the zoo, is free to the public.

Inside you'll find hundreds of plant species, some koi ponds, fountains, and interesting smells.

Lets not forget this is Chicago, so of course there is a sausage tree. I'm guessing by the smell this one is Polish sausage, but I didn't ask and the specific type wasn't posted on the sign.

They have a whole room filled with orchids of various types. I looked for vanilla but I didn't see it, although it's probably in there somewhere. Regardless, this was a great place to get my macro-mode on.

Here's a manly plant for manly men.

There's quite a few WTF plants here that you probably never knew existed.

Maybe this is where the bad smell is coming from.

Wrapping up the conservatory tour, here's one we all know about but rarely see.

Back to the zoo, this underwater hippo enclosure offers some great views.

The penguin exhibit has underwater viewing as well. I like it a bit better than the one at Brookfield.

They have puffins too, and who doesn't like a puffin.

My personal favorite is this spider habitat. Although the webs are set back 10 feet or so, there is no glass between you and the spiders.

Signs assure guests that the spiders will not leave their area, although I didn't see anything to stop them if they wanted to.

Here's a rhino, nothing special I know. So early in my TR career and I'm already using cheap filler shots.

So that's it for the zoo, here's a shot of the skyline from the parking lot. Yep, that's Chicago.

The best thing Lincoln Park Zoo has going for it is the location. There's hundreds of great places to eat just a short jog away. My favorite is Shiroi Hana on N. Clark St.

Thanks for reading!