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Thursday, October 17, 2019

Zoo Review: Reid Park Zoo, Part II


Continuing from where we left off...
Outside of Expedition Tanzania and Tropical Trail, most of the remaining exhibits at the Reid Park Zoo are located in two unincorporated zones.  Grizzly bears are among the most popular animals in the remainder of the zoo, occupying a habitat just down the trail from the elephants.  Their habitat is a former polar bear exhibit, and it’s not hard to imagine why the zoo made the decision to switch out bears (I’ve seen polar bears in warm climates before, including San Diego, but Arizona might seem like a bit of a stretch, even for me).  Because of the former nature of the habitat, the exhibit is equipped with a deep pool, which I’m sure that the bears enjoy on hot days.  There is also an underwater viewing gallery, which can let visitors get inches away from swimming bears.   Like most grizzlies in US zoos, the bears on display here were animals that were removed from the wild after they were deemed nuisance/problem animals, and the exhibit places a heavy focus on explaining bear-human conflict.  One of my favorite parts came when I was looking off the other side of the path towards the giraffe exhibit, when I noticed something swaying from a tree branch – a bear bag.

Down the trail from the bears are habitats for Aldabra tortoises, ring-tailed lemurs, and great hornbills, as well as flock of Chilean flamingos wading in a picturesque millpond – including a millwheel.  There is also a second walk-through aviary, this one more eclectic in its selection of tropical birds from around the world.  These exhibits are grouped around the Brown Family Conservation Learning Center, which houses classrooms and the education department.  The building itself is impressive, especially if you notice some of the many green features built into it, such as solar panels and rain collection.  The public space has some educational displays – as well a handful of small reptile and amphibian displays – though I really feel like it could have utilized more exhibits, both animal and interactive.   Visitors will be the most drawn to the one wall of the building which serves as a viewing window into a habitat of lion-tailed macaques.  These beautiful black monkeys, which lion-like gray manes and tail tufts, are far less common than they used to be in zoos, and I hadn’t seen any for quite some time.  It was a great exhibit with indoor and outdoor viewing opportunities and plenty of climbing options for the monkeys.

On the other end of the zoo is a second cluster of assorted exhibits, featuring black-and-white ruffed lemurs, American alligators, and grey-crowned cranes.  Serviceable – but plain – habitats for white-handed gibbons and tigers are found by the entrance.

The tigers and gibbons are some of the animals who will be benefiting from the next phase of the zoo’s very ambitious master plan, which will introduce a new Asian area to the zoo.  Besides new habitats for those two species, the plans call for a new Asian aviary (perhaps siphoning the Asian species from the aviary outside the Conservation Center, leaving that one as a pure African aviary?), small-clawed otters, and flying foxes.  The almost non-existent reptile collection will be bolstered by a new reptile house, starring Komodo dragons. 

The next phase will renovate and expand parts of the African area, followed by renovation and expansion of South America.  New animals slated for inclusion are African wild dogs and hippopotamuses.  I was a little surprised by the hippos, though I don’t know if I really should be.  Other zoos in the southwest have hippos – Denver and Albuquerque come to mind – but those are existing exhibits.  I wasn’t sure what the environmental impact would be in terms of water usage in building a brand new, state-of-the-art hippo exhibit in the Sonora Desert.  That being said, given all of the green elements that Reid Park Zoo has incorporated into other structures it’s built (and how far our ability to conserve and filter water for exhibits has come), I’m sure the zoo has taken this into account.

A very unique feature of the zoo which is not well-known is its leadership in the field of zoological oncology – the treatment of animal cancer.  A special partnership with the University of Arizona Cancer Center allows the zoo to use different therapy methods to treat animals.  As zoo animals continue to live longer and longer lives (Reid Park just bade farewell to a 23-year old jaguar, the oldest in an AZA facility at the time), their caretakers are confronted with new medical problems that animals in the wild would not live long enough to suffer from.

Reid Park Zoo is smaller, more manageable, and (depending on your tastes) a little less theme-parkish than the Phoenix Zoo.  It’s a nice place to stroll around for half-a-day to see some very interesting animals in (mostly) natural exhibits.   New habitats, such as those for the African elephants and squirrel monkeys, have been very impressive, while also being built in an environmentally responsible manner.  Furthermore, with its eclectic collection of animals from around the world, it makes a fitting companion to Tucson’s other animal care facility, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, just a short drive away.

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