When I bought my first guide to US zoos in the 1990s, the Kansas City Zoo barely warranted mention. It was one of the largest cities in the country to not have one of the biggest and best zoos, to hear the book tell me. My, what a difference a few years can make. By the time the next edition came out ten years later, Kansas City was recognized as one of the fastest-growing and best zoos in America. That growth has only continued into the present day. When I paid my first visit this year, an enormous section of the central part of the zoo was a gaping crater, where construction of a world class new aquarium was in progress.
The Kansas City Zoo is located in Swope Park, just next to the beautiful Starlight Theatre. (Nonsequitor - Kansas City is famous for its abundance of beautiful fountains - its nickname is "Paris of the Plains" - so I was very surprised not to see any at the entrance of the zoo). Upon passing through the impressive entry gates, visitors are greeted by exhibits of North American river otter and trumpeter swan (Kansas City breeding the later species for reintroduction into the wild). Across from these is one of the newest exhibits, the Polar Bear Passage. Bears can be viewed either at ground level from the outdoors or from within a viewing building, where theater-style seating faces the 140,000 gallon pool. This is the best example present, but one thing I really appreciated about Kansas City Zoo was the seating opportunities at many of its exhibits, which encourage visitors to stay a while and watch the animals, rather than just pass through. When I walked through, one of the bears was playing with an enrichment object underwater, and it was fun to spend some time admiring it - the seating allowed many visitors to all have good views of the bear, instead of jostling for space at the front of the glass.
The Arctic gives way to Southeast Asia next with a beautiful exhibit for Bornean orangutans, Orangutan Canopy, which replaced the old (but visually-striking) Great Ape House. Visitors can see the apes at tree level, ground level, or in their indoor space, with video narration about the animals provided by mounted TVs. There are also life-sized statues for photo ops. Orangutan Canopy blends into Tiger Trail, with habitats for rhinoceros hornbills, lion-tailed macaques (once very common in zoos, these endangered monkeys are now rarely seen), and, of course, Sumatran tigers. Like the orangutans, the big cats can be seen on two levels, either from the ground or at the top of their sloped hillside habitat. Francois' langurs and red pandas swap access between a climate-controlled indoor exhibit and another outdoor exhibit, the monkeys having the outside exhibit in the warmer months, the pandas in the cooler ones. Red-crowned cranes occupy a nearby marshy yard. Compared to many of the other exhibits at Kansas City, I found the individual habitats of Tiger Trail to be somewhat "meh" - not bad, but lacking in imagination and a little difficult to really appreciate the animals in, especially for photography.
Perhaps the best that Kansas City Zoo has to offer - at least in this half of the zoo - is Australia. After passing through a small snake house (which, to my disappointment, was a mix-match of snakes from around the world, mostly featuring common zoo species such as kingsnakes and Burmese pythons - I had hoped for an Australian reptile house), visitors enter Australia. The entire exhibit is one massive walk-through habitat with a giant mob of red kangaroos - about twenty, I'd guess - and you could never be sure where they would pop up - grazing in the distance, lolling by the edge of a pond, or hopping across a trail. Set within the exhibit were a beautiful walk-through Australian aviary, featuring black swans, straw-necked ibises, silver gulls, and tawny frogmouths, among other species, yards for dingoes and emus, and the absolute best exhibit for Matschie's tree kangaroos I have ever seen - a towering exhibit with indoor and outdoor spaces (I've seen plenty of big cat or primate exhibits that were nowhere near as nice). Australia terminates in a sheep station, with small habitats for kookaburra and pythons, as well as a yard for dromedary camels, a species which many people might not associate with Australia, but which is feral in the Outback. At the end is a restaurant and rest station, where guests can sit in rocking chairs on the porch and admire a grassy lea grazed by the kangaroos.
More domestics can be seen in the KidZone children's zoo, including the best goat enclosure I've ever seen, with bridges carrying the goats over the heads of visitors from one yard to another. Non-domestics can be seen in the area, too. The Discovery Barn is a two-level playhouse with slides and climbing structures that takes visitors past habitats of macaws, radiated tortoises, squirrel monkeys, and other small animals (including highly endangered Wyoming toads, one of the only amphibians on display in the whole zoo). It's a fun, interactive little building. Outside, there is a lorikeet feeding aviary, a yard of Chilean flamingos, as well as a (pretty bland, not even underwater-viewing) pool of California sealions. The main attractions of this section are two habitat buildings. The Tropics is a reimagining of the original Kansas City Zoo building (like many city zoos, this zoo was once one building that housed everything). Tucked away inside are habitats for many rainforest animals from around the world, mostly small and medium-sized primates such as Mona monkey, blue monkey, and cotton-topped tamarin, but also Cape porcupines, capybara, and stingrays, among others. The most innovate exhibit is the white-cheeked gibbon/Asian small-clawed otter exhibit, which is on either side of the pathway. The gibbons go overhead the visitors to get from one side to the other, while the otters swim underneath the glass-floored walkway. Even with the renovation, though, The Tropics is only so-so, and I wish the exhibits could have outdoor access.
Much, much more impressive is Helzberg Penguin Plaza. Humboldt penguins have an indoor-outdoor exhibit, which can be opened up into one large habitat by opening up an entire wall of the building. Inside, the lobby of the building houses aquariums for a few cold-water fish and invertebrate species before presenting a large, beautiful habitat for gentoo, rockhopper, and king penguins. The birds can be seen above the surface at first, with the path than ramping downwards and around, leading past underwater viewing.
Other small exhibits in this part of the zoo have been removed to make way for the construction of the aquarium, mentioned earlier. Tomorrow, we'll take a look at the other half of the zoo, which makes up the African section.
No comments:
Post a Comment