Well, there I was, sort of stranded in Rochester. I’d dropped my wife off at Strong Hospital for surgery, but what with coronavirus and all, they won’t let you in until she’s back in a regular ward, which in this case meant about eight hours. So since movies, museums, and malls were pretty much out, considering my goal of avoiding the virus as much as possible, I needed something else to do. So I went to the zoo.

Think about it. It’s outdoors, it’s interesting, and it’s easy to maintain your social distance. You can whip right through if you like, or idle along if you prefer. Perfect destination for times like these.

You can learn a lot at the zoo. I learned that I am only of passing interest to snow leopards, and a subject of wary watchfulness for gray wolves. Red pandas, on the other hand, think I’m fascinating.

Nowadays, as with most places, admissions are capped to maintain proper distancing. So it’s smart to call ahead and book your arrival time, but I had no trouble arriving around 10:30 on a Thursday and buying a ticket at the gate.

Seneca Park Zoo, like many another, is constantly rebuilding and reinventing itself. That can be a little annoying in some ways, but I like to see thinking and improvement going on. Right inside the entrance a new Tropic Adventure Zone is under construction, soon to form a habitat for animals from the Congo, Borneo, and Madagascar – all creatures that don’t suit our climate at all, and so need highly-specialized habitat. (Old-timers may miss the 1931 Main Building, but better lives for the animals has to be the goal.)

The Cold Asia Zone is already in place, for animals that enjoy a climate roughly similar to ours. It was here that I met the pair of snow leopards, pacing their rough habitat just as they would in the mountains of central Asia.

Right next to them were the red pandas, who at least at the time of my visit were far more active, even a little hyper-active. (The zoo web site says that red pandas spend 13 hours a day foraging.) They were each constantly tracing his or her preferred route through their habitat, including climbing uprights and walking branches. Each time they passed me, though, they stopped to visit for a minute or so, peering through the glass at the strange visitor from another planet. The pandas and the leopards are both endangered species.

The Rocky Coasts area is home to penguins (African black-footed), sea lions (California), and polar bears. ALL of them like the water immensely. I was reading some label copy stating that the polar bear likes hanging out by the window lookout, and was wondering just what location they meant, when I looked down and saw her pacing back and forth almost under my feet. You’d think it would be hard to miss a polar bear, but I almost managed it.

Giraffes and zebras are sharing the African savanna habitat, just as they do in the wild. Zebra feeding stations are, unsurprisingly, at ground level – zebras are grazing animals, after all. But giraffes are browsers, and THEIR feeding stations are on the second floor of an adjoining building – which makes perfect sense, but still looks like something out of a cartoon.

Of course I stopped in to see the river otters, they being some of my very favorite animals… I love to see them sport and play. The otter would swim to one end of his tank, then flip onto his back and zip over to the starting point – every time. And the sea lions were doing the same. Perhaps it’s a Rochester custom.

Anyhow, if you’re looking for something outdoors to do – try the zoo! And there are also zoos in Buffalo (Buffalo Zoo), Syracuse (Rosamund Gifford), and Binghamton (Ross Park). I’ve been to them all.