Eastern Woodlands profiles the wildlife found from Maine through Georgia along the Appalachian mountains. Among the first exhibits encountered are a pair of raptor habitats, one for red-tailed hawks, one for common barn owl. The motif of exhibiting barn owls in a barn is one that I've seen at many zoos before - I mean, the name begs for it - but Hershey's was the best that I'd ever seen. It wasn't crammed into a building as an artistic afterthought, as I so often see, but was large, spacious, tall (allowing the birds to get up high above visitors to feel secure) and had natural light and air flow. It might have been my favorite exhibit there. Also featured in Eastern Woodlands are enclosures for river otter and bobcat and pens for wild turkey and white-tailed deer. The largest habitat in the section is Black Bear Encounter where black bears can be viewed from an enclosed educational center which fronts a deep pool with underwater viewing. I kind of got the impression that the exhibit was built mostly with the pool in mind, as the rest of the enclosure was kind of meh. It wasn't a bad exhibit, per se, just one that I feel like could have used a little more furnishing, especially climbing structures. Also, the terrain was a little awkward - so much of the land was built around the pool that it seemed like the entire habitat was one steep hill.
Next up is Big Sky Country, dominated by a large paddock home to pronghorn and sandhill crane. I was surprised not to see American bison, that quintessential Great Plains zoo animal - the paddock was so huge I assumed that it was built for them. I later learned about a flooding disaster some years ago when the park did have bison; one drowned and the other was euthanized to save it from drowning when they couldn't be evacuated. I wonder if that had anything to do with their absence. Northern ravens, black-tailed prairie dogs, and small raptor exhibits accompany the pronghorn paddock. Along the perimeter is a hillside yard of American elk, as well as an enclosure of puma. It was a fairly decent puma exhibit with lots of rocks for climbing and sheltering (there's a picture of the habitat at the bottom of this review - if you look carefully, you can see the cat). If I had one issue with it, it was that it would have been great to have a viewing window for at least a section of the exhibit front - I have few pictures of ZooAmerica, largely because it was so hard to photograph many of the animals for exhibits.
The final section of the zoo is Northlands, depicting the boreal forests of Canada and Alaska. A towering flight cage of bald eagles is the centerpiece of this area, with smaller aviaries for snowy owl and peregrine falcon nearby. Grey wolves (not the Mexican subspecies, which the subject of a conservation breeding program and are the gray wolves most often seen in AZA facilities) have a large wooded yard - like the puma exhibit viewing can be a problem, but there are high vantage points from elsewhere in the park where you can observe them from over the tall fence. I was less-impressed with the North American porcupine and Canada lynx exhibits, which struck me as a bit small and plain - though the lynx did have kittens at the time of my visit, so the enclosure can't be all bad. Porcupines are one of those animals that I often feel like gets enclosures that are small and unimaginative, just a wooden pole sticking up in a small pen.
Northlands was home to the one animal I was most eager to see here, and the one it took me most of my visit to finally spot - American marten. I'd never seen one of these beautiful arboreal weasels before, and I wasn't willing to leave without spotting one. I had to circle by several times before I did see one in its enclosure, a tall, mesh structure built overlooking the visitor pathway. The exhibit was spacious for an animal that size and the animal was beautiful, active, and very engaging. Again, I just wish it had been possible to get a clearer view. Considering how mustelids such as martens are some of the species that are most susceptible to COVID, a solid barrier between them and human visitors would have been extra appropriate.
ZooAmerica provided a larger, more complete collection of American wildlife than I had expected, especially for what is essentially a plus-one to a candy factory theme park. Most of the enclosures were decent, and the ones I disliked weren't horrible, and could probably be renovated or replaced without too much expense and effort. There's enough pockets of space that there could be more development, putting up a few new habitats or replacing current ones. Conservation was highlighted appropriately and the grounds were pleasant. I would definitely be interested in coming back to see the buildings when they reopen after COVID. Until then, I was just glad to drop a little support for a nice, small-town zoo during what has been a rough year for our profession.
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