Not many American cities can boast of two zoos; Tucson,
Arizona is one of the few that can.
With so much emphasis placed on its world famous Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, it isn’t surprising that the more conventional city zoo is often
overlooked. While it’s not as unique as
the Desert Museum, nor as massive as the Phoenix Zoo (about an hour and a half
to the north), the Reid Park Zoo is certainly still worth a visit. It features an impressive collection of
animals in attractive, naturalistic habitats, with more expansion and
development coming in the near future.
At 24 acres, the zoo is of a relatively modest size,
especially compared to Phoenix. Most of
the animals can be seen along one of three trails. Upon entering the zoo, most visitors will
take a looping path to their right, leading onto the Tropical Trail, which
features animals from Latin America. The
first habitat displays Andean bears.
Andean bears are one of the most arboreal bear species, and their
habitat is well provisioned with trees and climbing structures, as well as a
small pool. Continuing up from the
bears, there is a series of yards, blending together as one landscape, for some
of South America’s largest land animals.
Capybara, giant anteater (the zoo’s logo), Galapagos tortoise, and
greater rhea are found here, as well as Baird’s tapirs. The tapir habitat includes a pool with
underwater viewing, and given how warm Arizona mid-days can be, it’s not
unusual to see the pig-like mammals bobbing in the water at eye-level with
visitors. These exhibits curl around a
walk-through aviary, one of two in the zoo, that houses South American birds,
including scarlet ibis and blue-crowned motmot.
Exiting the aviary, visitors may encounter jaguar, as well as a pool of
giant pacu fish.
Rounding out the Tropical Trail is one of the zoo’s newest
habitats, the Temple of Tiny Monkeys. In an indoor-outdoor habitat, a troop of
squirrel monkeys swarms through the branches.
The squirrel monkeys are an interesting addition to the trail because,
apart from the aviary, they are one of the only really “rainforest” additions
to the trail. Most of the other species
featured on the trail are grassland, scrub, or mountain species, which makes
sense when you think of the climate that the zoo is working with and the
benefits of being conservative with water.
It’s a position that the zoo seems to be possibly rethinking in regards
to some of its planned future expansions, but more on that later. I sort of wish that the zoo had decided to
more boldly go all-in on the non-rainforest South America. Many visitors are under the impression that
South America and the Amazon Rainforest are interchangeable, and it would be
great to explore some of the many diverse other ecosystems that make up the
continent, such as the Pampas and the Chaco (both arid regions that look very
similar to Arizona).
Expedition Tanzania, the
sprawling African area, takes up the majority of the land at the Reid Park Zoo. The trail starts with three very different
African carnivores. Spotted-necked
otters, something of a rarity in American zoos, splash about in their pool,
while meerkats stand sentry in a desert yard next door (I would like to point
out at this time that meerkats, though African, live thousands of miles away
from Tanzania – as do some of the other African animals featured in this
trail. I sometimes get exasperated by
the lackadaisical approach that zoos take towards geography with their
exhibits). Across the path is a habitat
for lions. The lion exhibit, like the
jaguar exhibit on Tropical Trail,
didn’t particularly wow me. It was by no
means a terrible one. I just felt that in terms of space, complexity, and viewing
opportunities, there was the potential to do something better. But perhaps that is something that the zoo is
considering as part of its master plan.
Some of Africa’s largest herbivores can be found here as
well. Giraffes occupy a spacious yard,
equipped with a feeding station. Across
the path, white rhinoceroses share a habitat with tiny Speke’s gazelles, while
Grevy’s zebras and ostriches share a yard next door.
The stars of Expedition
Tanzania are the African elephants, several of which can be seen in a
sprawling, pool-fronted yard. The
elephants of Reid Park are, in their own way, a triumph of the zoo over animal rights
activism (or, you could prefer to view it as, a victory for animal
welfare). In 2006, there was a small but
vocal campaign called "Save Tucson Elephants", which was lobbying the city to
send the zoo’s two elephants to a sanctuary.
Instead, the city, emboldened by public support for the zoo, decided to
double-down on elephants. The result was
a spacious new habitat and a big, beautiful barn, capable of housing a good-sized
herd of elephants, including a magnificent bull. I was given the opportunity to explore the
barn, and while I can’t post any pictures here, I will say that I wish that
Reid Park had followed the lead of Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, Cleveland MetroparksZoo, and many other facilities in making their new barn at least partially
accessible to the public – I think visitors really do benefit from gaining an
understanding as to how much work goes into keeping zoo elephants happy and
healthy. Back outside, the public area
includes a training wall for the elephants, allowing keepers to safely perform
husbandry demonstrations via protected contact, as well as several cool
interactive educational devices (including a life-sized elephant backside,
which kids show a predictable – if weird - fondness for spanking).
I like to think that this exhibit is a reminder to
government and non-profit administrators that the answer for criticism from zoo
folks isn’t to drop a species or an exhibit just because of public disapproval.
(especially in regards to elephants).
Sometimes, it pays to face your critics and renew your commitment to
your animals. I’m not saying that
phasing a species out of a collection because of welfare concerns is never the
right decision – elephants and marine mammals both require tremendous
commitment in terms of resources and space, and not every facility is capable
of meeting those challenges. Sometimes,
however, it is best to stick with it, and this was one of those cases. The Reid Park Zoo habitat easily ranks as one
of the best elephant exhibits I’ve ever seen, and the improvement for the
elephants is obvious too. In 2014, a
female calf was born here, the first African elephant ever born in Arizona.
We'll continue the review of Reid Park Zoo tomorrow!
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