Every day, we in Chicago encounter the teeming masses of humanity-in their cars, on trains or buses, in high-rise office buildings.
We see so many people that sometimes we lose track of the other animals that inhabit our area. We`re not talking just about the wildlife pent up in our zoos or aquariums. We don`t mean just the pigeons or squirrels that share our sidewalks. We don`t even refer to the occasional deer, coyote or kangaroo (remember him?) that invades the city limits.
Instead, we`re looking at other animals of all varieties-and representations-that we might see every day, even if we don`t notice.
So grab your pith helmets and let`s head out on an urban safari. You won`t need a gun, but it might not hurt to pack your camera for this tour of the many facets of Chicago`s wild kingdom.
Real things
STRANGERS IN PARROT-DISE: Years ago, Central American monk parrots somehow found their way to Hyde Park. They nest at East End Park, 53rd Street and South Shore Drive. The late Mayor Harold Washington, who lived nearby, said the birds were his lucky charm and that he would never lose an election as long as the parrots nested near his home. They remain in the park, even after a June storm destroyed one of their nests.
RODEO DAZE: Plaza Garibaldi, 28th Street and California Boulevard, hosts Mexican rodeos during the spring and summer. Occasionally, the animal life becomes wildlife, as when three bulls escaped from the plaza last June.
GENTLE AS LAMBS: Lambs Farm, Interstate Highway 94 and Illinois Highway 176, Libertyville (708-362-4636), is a self-sustaining residential and vocational facility on a former farm site, run by adults with mental handicaps. The farm, open to the public, has a petting area with llamas, goats, pigs, ponies and the title creatures.
MAN`S BEST FRIENDS: The David Lee Animal Care and Control Commission, 2741 S. Western Ave. (312-650-1400), which contains the city`s pound, has lovable dogs and cats available to worthy owners.
MAN`S MORE UNUSUAL FRIENDS: Bernie Hoffman`s Animal Kingdom, 2980 N. Milwaukee Ave. (312-227-4444), has dogs and cats-but also such out-of-the-ordinary pets as ferrets, pot-bellied pigs, tarantulas, giant hissing roaches, and jerboas, desert rodents ”discovered” by Operation Desert Storm troops.
ELK HAUL: Yes, Virginia, there are elk in Elk Grove Village. A fenced-in reserve near Arlington Heights and Higgins Roads allows passing motorists to see but not herd.
FOR THE BIRDS: You won`t find live animals at One Touch of Nature, 5208 N. Clark St. (312-561-3300), a store that sells high-quality prints, etchings, books and toys with a North American wildlife theme. But you will find a blackboard that announces upcoming birdwatching hikes and other nature events. The right stuffed
Today`s walking, flying or swimming creature may be tomorrow`s meal for somebody higher up in the food chain. Then again, it may be preserved and viewed by future generations of Homo sapiens. Chicago has tens of thousands of such ex-beasts, some preserved from a few days ago, and some from several eons back.
BIG DEAL: The legendary Bushman is the biggest name star at the Field Museum of Natural History, Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive (312-922-9410). But he`s only one of a cast of thousands of stuffed animals that include sheep bagged by Kermit Roosevelt (a son of Theodore) in Asia, a Yucatan tree snake, a rainbow of butterflies, and skeletons of several dinosaurs.
STICKER SHOCK: Porcupines, skunks and other native Illinois animal life can be found at the Chicago Academy of Sciences, 2001 N. Clark St.
(312-871-2668). The academy also features a variety of animal-related programs aimed at young people.
ROCK AND ROLE: An off-the-beaten-path treasure is Dave`s Down to Earth Rock Shop, 704 Main St., Evanston (708-866-7374). Buy trilobites or other fossils on the main floor, then examine them in their prehistoric settings at the small museum in the store`s basement.
Looking good
No, it`s not true that they built a statue of a pigeon in Grant Park and old generals came from miles around to perch on it. But dozens of other varieties of birds and beasts have served as inspirations for area art. And this doesn`t even include commercial animals, such as the bee on the Busy Bee restaurant, the goat on Billy Goat Tavern, the giant crab in front of Cy`s Crab House, the burros on any number of burrito stands, a metallic
representation of dogs shooting pool at the Dog House pub or those gorilla balloons that seem to advertise everything under the sun.
LION DOWN: They`ve endured football helmets, baseball caps and evergreen wreaths every Christmas, but the Art Institute lions remain among our city`s most beloved landmarks. These lions, created by renowned animal sculptor Edward Kemeys, have been a fixture since 1894 and are not to be confused with purple and pink lions atop a former car dealership in Evanston.
BUFFALO HOME: Kemeys takes credit for another animal masterpiece, a pair of bison originally displayed at the World`s Columbian Exposition of 1893. They now reside at Division Street and Humboldt Boulevard in Humboldt Park.
TAKING STOCK: A hundred years ago, Chicago was ”Hog Butcher to the World.” The only reminder of the famous Union Stockyards today is the stockyard gate, complete with sculpture of a steer, at Exchange Avenue near Halsted Street.
MOO AND OINK: Strangely enough, the building at 1008 N. Western Ave. is now a medical office. But steer and pig sculptures on the building hint that it might have been a butcher shop, the animals carved there to indicate its business to illiterate immigrants.
HIGH SOCIETY: Chicago even has a polished giraffe-a sculpture made from chrome bumpers, one of several animal sculptures made by artist John W. Kearney. The giraffe can be found at the Museum of Science and Industry, 57th Street and Lake Shore Drive. Others who appreciate bumper animal art may enjoy the Kearney simian located in front of the Hull House Uptown Center, 4520 N. Beacon St.
STORK-RAVING MAD: Actually, storks are playing with, not fighting, a handful of cherubim in Lincoln Park. ”Storks at Play,” a fountain designed by August Saint-Gaudins, is near the Lincoln Park Conservatory, on Stockton Drive between Webster and Belden Avenues.
FLYING HIGH: Chicago probably has more eagles than Yellowstone National Park, if you count the decorations on or inside local buildings and monuments. One such stately bird watches over Logan Square from atop the Grand Army of the Republic monument in the middle of the square. Patriotic merchants and artists made the American eagle a common emblem in years past.
EAGLE EYED: Native-born Americans aren`t the only ones who display the eagle as their national bird here. Poles honor it by placing it atop the Copernicus Foundation building at 5216 W. Lawrence Ave. Mexicans also display the eagle in many locations, including atop a laundry at 2751 W. Cermak Rd.
TAKING A GANDER: Which are more lifelike, the Canada goose sculptures by William H. and David H. Turner at the Chicago Botanic Garden, Interstate 94 and Lake-Cook Road, Glencoe (708-835-5440), or the nearby birds? The Botanic Garden also features sculptures of great blue herons and one titled ”Seven Birds” by Gregory Glasson.
HORSE SENSE: Another famed Chicago landmark is in Grant Park overlooking Michigan Avenue at Congress Parkway-Ivan Mestrovic`s lifelike statues of horses being ridden by a pair of American Indians, the Bowman and the Spearman.
BUTTERFLIES ARE FREE: At least, it`s free to look at them on a wall mural if you drive south on Western Avenue past Augusta Boulevard. The pair of titanic lepidopterans overlooks a park district play lot.
WABBITS, ETC.: Cartoon art is a staple at the Circle Gallery of Animation & Cartoon Art, a newly opened gallery at 736 N. Michigan Ave. The gallery regularly sells original cels of Bugs Bunny, Tweety and Sylvester, Daffy Duck, other Warner Bros. cartoons and various other animated classics.
FISH EYED: A metallic fish sculpture hangs over a former hardware store at 2108 N. Damen Ave.
GIVE A HOOT: A large, decorated owl watches from the roof of a Wicker Park Victorian home at 2152 W. Caton St. (which also has interesting lizards sculpted into its facade).
PICTURE THIS: Where in Chicago can you find a lynx, polar bear, walrus, crowned crane, prairie dogs, mountain goat and Martha, the last passenger pigeon? At the Special Species Gallery, an art project by the West Town Community Art Center. This imaginary menagerie is a series of murals on Hubbard Street between May Street and Racine Avenue, just north of the Chicago & North Western viaduct.
MOOOVING TRIBUTE: What discussion of famous Chicago animals would be complete without Harmilda, the Harvard cow that has been the symbol of that northwest exurban community for decades? The milk festival mascot (Harmilda is short for Harvard Milk Days) was embroiled in a controversy involving an Illinois Department of Transportation plan to move her from her post at the intersection of Illinois Highways 14 and 173 (Biggins and Ayer Streets). Harmilda still reigns but has been moved about 20 feet.
Beastly business
And then there are some things that simply don`t look like real animals, no matter how you squint.
TROPICAL INTEREST: Artist Alexander Calder named it ”Flamingo,” which is the only reason most of us connect the gigantic Dearborn Street steel sculpture with the stately bird. It`s between Adams Street and Jackson Boulevard.
TEENAGE TOTEM: Thunderbird, grizzly bear, raven, frog woman and salmon decorate a sculpture designed to look like a totem pole at Lane Tech High School, 2501 W. Addison St. ”From Ignorance to Wisdom” is the pole`s theme. SNAKE GUISE: Few murals in Chicago are more colorful than the one featuring a Mexican mythological creature outside a shoe store at the corner of Spaulding Avenue and 26th Street.
EQUATIC: ”Sea Horses,” an award-winning work of quasi-mythical animals by French sculptor Marcel Loyau, forms the base of Grant Park`s famous Buckingham Fountain.
ON GUARD: A concrete gargoyle at 4414 N. Maplewood Ave., standing guard over a lit fountain, is chained to the building. Perhaps it`s to keep him from eating neighborhood children. Or perhaps it`s to keep neighborhood children from carrying him off.
CHECKOUT TIME: Don`t even think of sneaking out of the Chinatown branch of the Chicago library system without paying your overdue book fine. Two husky dragons protect the building, at 24th Street and Wentworth Avenue, from lawbreakers.
