Take a break from the holiday hubbub and visit your National Zoological Park just off Connecticut Avenue, in northwest Washington. The daily programs don’t stop, most buildings and exhibits are open and entrance is FREE.
If the weather is a little chilly you might want to ‘come in from the cold’ and visit the Amazonia Habitat Exhibit. This is the largest and most complex exhibit built at the National Zoo to date—seven years in the making—the exhibit opened in 1992. Experience the tropical warmth and humidity which makes it possible for hundreds of plant species and dozens of animal species to thrive. Rainforest flora here include 50-foot-tall trees, spiky bromeliads, tropical vines and exquisite orchids. The most visible animals are fish and birds. There are other species but they may take more patience and deeper searching to see them. There is a cascading waterfall, the perfect place to take a moment for contemplation.
Finish up your visit in the Amazonia Science Gallery, the 8,000-square-foot education gallery. The gallery includes exhibits, ongoing learning activities and research stations that look at biological processes that take place in the Amazonian tropical rainforest.
A visit to any exhibit in the National Zoo would be an educational and worthwhile activity—everyday should be Visit the Zoo Day. But for the ‘official’ Visit the Zoo Day—on a late December day—some tropical warmth sounds too inviting to pass up.—Polly Lasker, photo and video by Polly Lasker
An Arapaima in the Amazonia Habitat
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