Monday, July 28: The Denver Zoo - Tropical Discovery

[mistressofmuses]

My favorite part of the Denver Zoo is the Tropical Discovery building. It houses most of the reptiles and amphibians at the zoo, as well as the fish. There are a few other animals in Tropical Discovery as well, but for the most part it's my cold-blooded friends.


I was very taken with the teeny tiny mushrooms on the branch. (And of course, the teeny tiny frogs.)


Vietnamese mossy frog. It sure is!

25 more pictures:

Spotted ray. :) And a spotted fish.


Posing nicely for a closeup.


Monkey frogs. They look so serious!


Golden frogs. They're very endangered in the wild, so glad to get to see them here.


So cute!


I love how unique all of their markings are. None of them look the same!


King cobra. :)


Intense eyes.


Gaboon viper. This one made me laugh, because Alex was looking at it and then said "It's weird that he has his head under a leaf." I looked for a second and said, "Wait, his head is the leaf!" Camouflage be camouflaging!


A few resident mammals. Capybaras! (They are very friend-shaped.)


And a monkey!


One of my favorites. It looks like a little dragon!


Upside-down jellies, and the prettiest opal fish.


Not a "good" picture, but it made me laugh. The instant I got my camera up, he spun to look at me, haha.


Such a stunning pattern on this guy!


Pretty angel.


I know lionfish are pests, but damn they're pretty.


Clownfish and anemone.


Nice big eastern diamondback.


Absolutely massive alligator snapping turtle. This guy standing up like this is between four and five feet tall! (Shortly after this there were several kids who came up and were very excited to get their pictures taken in front of the turtle.)


Boreal toads! :D They're native here, but very endangered in Colorado. The Denver Zoo does a lot of conservation work with them, and has done several big releases of captive-bred populations into the mountains.
(I shared that field note at Roxborough where someone said they'd seen a boreal toad on the trail there (cute!), but they're rare enough it seems more likely they saw a woodhouse toad.)


This is Maple. She's a baby pancake tortoise! Another endangered species, and it was quite exciting when she hatched this year.


Komodo dragon! SO BIG!


Serious side-eye.


Lake Titicaca frogs, my beloved weirdos. (Extremely endangered, glad this is one of the few facilities that has a breeding population!)

I'm glad we spent a decent amount of time going through. The way we typically loop through, this building comes toward the end of our visit, and we often have to rush through the last bits of it as we approach closing time. It was nice to do it toward the beginning... even though it wound up being most of the day!

Hopefully we'll go back fairly soon to catch the things we missed on this trip.

Comments

[spikedluv]

I can't believe you even spotted that mossy frog!

So many beautiful colors!

I'm glad you said how big that snapping turtle is, because I couldn't tell from the pic. (They need to put ruler markings on the aquarium thingy. *g*)

[mistressofmuses]

The mossy frog is SO well hidden!

There certainly are a lot of colorful critters. I love them!

I definitely wish they had a little yardstick in the corner to compare the turtle to! But the top of the aquarium tank there comes up about to my shoulder.

[umadoshi]

So many wonderful critters, but especially SNAKES. *^^*

[mistressofmuses]

Such a great array of critters. All the snakes make me very happy!

[olivermoss]

Critters and mushrooms! That mossy frog is very well hidden.

The monkey frogs are kinda scary looking. I always forget how big komodos are.

[mistressofmuses]

Many wonderful critters! The mossy frog is extremely well hidden. I certainly wouldn't notice and try to eat them, ha.

The monkey frogs are very big and look very intense.

The komodo dragon is SO big! They seem like, unreal-y big.

[boujee_redneck]

I absolutely love how vibrant and pretty some of your frog pictures are! (And oh my goodness they're so tiny and cute haha!)

Random question, but does the Denver Zoo have axolotls?

[mistressofmuses]

Thank you! I love how many different frogs there are.

Alas, I do not think they have any axolotls. :( I would be thrilled if they did!

[scarlipswolfwife]

I LOVE ALL OF THESE! Frog butts! And I love the kissy-face fish that's a little blurry!

[mistressofmuses]

I'm glad you like them! :D So many frog butts. That fish made me laugh!

[adore]

That Vietnamese mossy frog camouflaged SO well. Gorgeous.

[mistressofmuses]

Definitely some of the the most impressive camouflage I've ever seen!

[omens]

Ahhhh I loved these pics! I usually don't spend much time in this kind of habitat because, like you said, it's usually at the end and I'm usually already too sweaty for it. It's so warm in there!

Love the lake titicaca frog, he's got :3 face. Another friend shape! The monkey frogs look like they're melting! And dang, I'm glad you included how tall that snapping turtle was because I would never have guessed by the picture, it looks like just a lil guy in a lil tank :D

[mistressofmuses]

Thank you! Yeah, unfortunately with it at the end of the trip, it's like saving some of my favorites for last... but then running out of time to enjoy them! (And yeah, on a hot day, the warm and humid inside section can be a bit much. It wasn't terrible this time, but sometimes it's rough. Though in the winter at least it feels nice!)

The lake titicaca frogs are wonderful! They have SUCH a :3 face.

They really need to put some yardsticks on the corners of the snapping turtle's tank for scale! He is so much bigger than he looks!

[re_vised]

Nature is incredible! The camouflage animals have - even ones you think don't, like cats, are so impressive and cool.

Haha those monkey frogs are not impressed, and could you please stop? Thanks.

[mistressofmuses]

How well certain animals are camouflaged is absolutely astounding!

The monkey frogs look so deeply unimpressed with everything. Just, so done with it all, haha.