Lunching and Schmoozing

Timing is interesting when you visit a zoo. We strolled across the mill pond bridge and entered Trevor Zoo, next door to and affiliated with Millbrook School, in late morning. The turtles and tamarins had just gone on lunch break. They didn’t leave their cages, but they turned their backs on visitors, in order to consume their meals in privacy.

This was mildly annoying to the family member with the new digital camera who itched to snap photos of the ring-tailed lemurs.

And of course, after lunch, the natural thing to do is take a nap. That’s how the rabbits, chinchillas and great horned owl were occupied. The red-tailed hawks, on the other hand, were still eyeing their lunch, tastefully presented beneath them on a boulder.

Most of the critters roused themselves — and some even showed off — on a second pass-by. (Except the lemurs, who apparently had an urgent need to count the rings on their tails and cared little about looking cute as they did it. Something akin to watching an accountant enter expense numbers in a ledger.)

A cageless blue-eared pheasant greeted us on the path and offered to answer questions. (White-tailed deer? In the North America section. Restrooms? I use that bush over there.)

Trevor Zoo is a delightful facility established in 1936 by Frank Trevor, the first biology teacher at Millbrook School. He loved wildlife. And the zoo, which now has some 150 species, was a way to give students and the public first-hand exposure.

Trevor Zoo doesn’t have larger species — rhinos or giraffes or lions or the like. But it has a good sampling of smaller mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians from five continents and Central America.

Everyone in our party, which ranged in age from 15 to five times that, had a favorite animal.

For the daughter, it was the splashing, diving otter.

For the mother, it was the shy red panda.

For the grandmother, a least favorite registered high: the corn snake.

I took a shine to the Chinese water dragon, behind glass in the Zoo Education Center. It made solid eye contact and was curious about my cap. What was it thinking?

And what was the American rhea thinking? We walked the path along the edge of the enclosure for rheas, alpacas and guanacos. Grass was tall. We peered over and saw, at the end of a stone wall, a disembodied head. A big bird head. Unmoving. Feathers nearby.

Good grief! Had an impolite raptor killed an ostrich and eaten all but the head?

We edged around the wall to look closer. The playful rhea sat up, extended its neck and looked straight at us. If birds smiled, this thing smiled.

The rhea had mushed down behind the wall, coiled its neck and rested its head on the stones to peek at passersby.

It was having a blast, playing Gotcha!

We were surprised the vultures were unpenned. They flew and landed as they wished. The American turkeys were also free, but as they require nearly as much runway as a 747 to get up the speed to flap over the fence, they weren’t going anywhere.

The facility is nicely organized. Buildings house species too delicate to be let outdoors.

Except for the marmoset at cage-cleaning time, the animals are quiet. (The marmoset, in case you didn’t know, provided the sound model for our home-installed, shrieking smoke detector alarms. Only it is far louder.)

Admission to the zoo is $5 for adults, $3 for children and seniors. It is open daily (including holidays), 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is on Millbrook School Road, on the north side of Route 44, 6 miles east of Millbrook village or 4 miles west of Amenia.

If you go at your own lunch time, take a picnic meal and sit on the broad porch of the education center, which overlooks the pond. The white-naped crane may not move, but the ducks will amuse you.