“Brookfield Zoo Celebrates Kecil the Orangutan’s Fifth Birthday” by S.M. O’Connor

The Brookfield Zoo celebrated the fifth birthday of the orangutan Kecil (pronounced “Ka-cheel”) on Friday, January 11, 2019. The Chicago Zoological Society (C.Z.S.) announced, “To celebrate, animal care staff decorated his habitat with bamboo, banana leaves, and orange gourds that resembled the shape of balloons in Tropic World: Asia. Kecil was a little shy making his entrance with the crowd of guests and staff who were on hand for the occasion and sang ‘Happy Birthday to You.’ He eventually made his way out and was able to enjoy several of the five little frozen cakes made of monkey chow, chopped fruit, yogurt, and pineapple juice. Bamboo sticks that served as candles topped each cake. Staff also prepared a flavored ice cake filled with some of his favorite nutritious foods and topped with the number five. However, Kekasih, Kecil’s foster sister quickly retrieved it first.”

Since his birth on January 11, 2014, Kecil has had several foster mothers. At 6 months old, he arrived at Brookfield Zoo after his biological mother at another accredited North American zoo did not provide the proper care he needed, and the optimal level of bonding was not achieved with his first foster mother.

At Brookfield Zoo, Maggie, an experienced foster mother, provided Kecil the care and attention he needed. He also was able to have ‘play dates’ for social stimulation with then 8-year-old Kekasih. However, two years later Maggie, one of the oldest female orangutans in an accredited North American zoo, died at the age of 54. In May 2016, Brookfield Zoo’s pregnant 35-year-old Sophia took on the role of Kecil’s third foster mother and provided him protection and comfort. Kekasih, Sophia’s daughter, was also part of the new family group. When Sophia’s new baby was about 9 months old, animal care staff began observing social tensions in the group, and permanently separated Kecil and Kekasih, who are still together. The two are very playful like siblings. However, when Kecil needs comforting, Kekasih is able to fill that role as well.

Due to the dedicated staff in the zoo’s Primate Department and his foster mothers, Kecil has adjusted well. Because he arrived at Brookfield Zoo at a young age and has had such an unusual upbringing, he holds a special place with his caregivers as well as with guests.

“Kecil is a very engaging orangutan,” stated Nava Greenblatt, lead primate animal care specialist for the C.Z.S. “We are proud and happy he has adapted so well to his home here at Brookfield Zoo.”

Those interested in helping care for Kecil, can participate in the C.Z.S.’s Animal Adoption program. A variety of donation packages are available, starting at $35. To adopt Kecil and for further information, visit www.CZS.org/Adopt-Kecil-Orangutan. To learn more about Kecil, go to www.CZS.org/Kecil.

Figure 1 Credit: Chicago Zoological Society Caption: Kecil enjoys his birthday cake on his fifth birthday, on Friday, January 11, 2019, at the Brookfield Zoo.

Figure 2 Credit: Chicago Zoological Society Caption: Kecil enjoys orange gourds that resemble balloons at the Brookfield Zoo on his fifth birthday: Friday, January 11, 2019.

Figure 3 Credit: Chicago Zoological Society Caption: Kecil enjoys orange gourds that resemble balloons at the Brookfield Zoo on his fifth birthday: Friday, January 11, 2019.

Figure 4 Credit: Chicago Zoological Society Caption: Kecil (left) and his foster sister, Kekasih, enjoy a birthday cake at the Brookfield Zoo on his fifth birthday: Friday, January 11, 2019.

The C.Z.S. is a private, non-profit organization that operates Brookfield Zoo on property that belongs to the Forest Preserves of Cook County (formerly called the Forest Preserve District of Cook County). The Website is www.CZS.org. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (A.Z.A.) accredits the Brookfield Zoo (as well as the Lincoln Park Zoo and the Shedd Aquarium).

The Brookfield Zoo is located in west suburban Brookfield, Illinois, about fourteen miles west of downtown Chicago. The address of the North Gate Main Entrance is 8400 31^st Street, Brookfield, Illinois 60513. This is on 31^st Street, west of 1^st Avenue (and thus the Des Plaines River).

The address of the South Gate Main Entrance is 3300 Golf Road, Brookfield, Illinois 60513. This is west of Riverside Brookfield High School. It is within walking distance of the Hollywood Stop on the Metra’s B.N.S.F. Railway, which runs between Chicago and Aurora.

The Field Museum of Natural History in March, 2018

The Field Museum of Natural History’s entrance pavilions are at opposite ends of Stanley Field Hall, which has a north-south axis. The two porticos (porches) are each reached by two successive flights of stairs.

Both porticos of The Field Museum of Natural History are flanked by two small porches, which each have two caryatids (columns in the shape of maidens). On the facade, the wings are adorned with a colonnade of attached fluted Ionic columns. The building’s fluted Ionic columns have volutes (spiral-scroll-shaped crowns).

Each portico of The Field Museum is tetrastyle in antis with double-ranked fluted Ionic columns capped by volutes. An entablature crowned by a pediment rests atop the columns. The continuous frieze in each case is relatively plain. The wave-themed acroteria that crown the pediments are borrowed from the Palace of a Fine Arts, which housed The Field Museum until 1920 and now houses the Museum of Science and Industry.

The Field Museum of Natural History isn’t “just” a museum. Visitors can watch scientists at work through windows at the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice DNA Discovery Center’s Pritzker Laboratory.

Mrs. Charles (Laura) Schweppe, a daughter and co-heiress of John Graves Shedd, the former partner of Marshall Field I who succeeded him as president of Marshall Field & Company, and who, under the guidance of Stanley Field founded the Shedd Aquarium, donated an exhibit of 100 bronze sculptures by Malvina Hoffman to The Field Museum. They represent every race, nation, and tribe in the human family (more or less). On January 9, 1933, the first group, Unity of Man, went on display.

In addition to the four figures Henry Hering (1874-1949) made for the corners of Stanley Field Hall, he also made the twelve plaster round lion head shield escutcheons that line it. These are replicas of the marble round lion head shield escutcheon he made for the pediment of the facade of The Field Museum of Natural History.

Christmas at Chicago’s Union Station

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a POLAR EXPRESS display in the Great Hall of Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a closeup of the THE POLAR EXPRESS steam locomotive mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is the headlamp of THE POLAR EXPRESS steam locomotive mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This Union Station Company rail car loaded with super-size gifts is part of THE POLAR EXPRESS mock-up in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This is a Christmas tree in the Great Hall of Chicago’s Union Station.

Credit: S.M. O’Connor Caption: This Christmas tree in the Great Hall of Union Station in downtown Chicago has emblems of Amtrak, Metra, and historic railroad companies whose routes they now operate like Burlington.

Cinemas sculptor Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965) Helped Design

This is the Pickwick Theatre Building, an Art Deco movie palace and office building erected in downtown Park Ridge, Illinois in 1928.

The architects were Roscoe Harold Zook and William F. McCaughey. Sculptor Alfonso Iannelli, who also worked on the Adler Planetarium, contributed to this building.

In recent years, the Vlahakis family, who’ve owned the building for 50 years, have been able to turn the building into a multiplex by adding smaller theaters around the original auditorium. The latest one, with a screen four times the size of the one in the auditorium, will open in time to screen INFINITY WARS in May, if all goes well.

The Catlow Movie Theater is a cinema that opened in downtown Barrington, Illinois in 1927. The Tudor Revival style of architecture is not confined to the facade of the cinema. As with the Pickwick Theatre in Park Ridge, Illinois, sculptor Alfonso Iannelli (1888-1965) played a role in the design and decoration of The Catlow Movie Theater.