Continuing our tour of the Los Angeles Zoo, we turn our attention to the three excellent exhibits for great apes. Campo Gorilla Reserve, Red Ape Rainforest (for orangutans), and Chimpanzees of the Mahale Mountains each rank as one of the best exhibits I've seen for great apes of their species. Each offers several vantage points for the animals in spacious, well-furnished yards. The orangutan exhibit is completely mesh-enclosed, making viewing and photography for difficult than it is for the two African apes, but given the value of mesh for climbing, I can hardly fault it. The chimp exhibit is the most dramatic of the three, with a rocky cliff background that the chimps can climb, giving them a commanding view of much of the zoo. Other primates can be found nearby in some of the many roundhouses, including colobus monkeys, sifakas, gibbons, and mandrills. Also nearby is perhaps the best single-species monkey exhibit I've seen, a huge, jungly habitat for Francois' langurs, which visitors view from the windows of a tree house high above the forest floor.
Elephants of Asia dominates the center of the zoo, a sprawling complex that explores the cultural significance of Asia's largest land mammal across the continent. Elephants, including the famous Billy, who was born here, can be observed foraging, dustbathing, or splashing about underneath a waterfall. The exhibit is viewed from several overviews scattered around the perimeter of the exhibit, which can actually make seeing the elephants fairly difficult, since you have no idea where they will turn up. I had to do several checks around the habitat before I finally saw an elephant, and it was late in the day before I finally laid eyes on Billy. I enjoy a degree of uncertainty and variability at zoo exhibits, plus I had time to kill, so it was no major issue for me, but I could imagine it being frustrating in other circumstances.
Much of Los Angeles Zoo lacks theming, apart from a roughly geographical sense which has become diluted over the years. A herd of Masai giraffes anchors a nebulous African area, which also features yards of bongo, okapi, and red river hog, as well as more roundhouses of birds, primates, and small mammals. Continuing along the top of the zoo, more Asian and South American animals begin to appear, including snow leopards, markhor (in a concrete mountain reminiscent of the bighorns'), takin, maned wolf, and mountain tapirs (with the death of the last animals at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, Los Angeles is the only holder of this rare Andean ungulate). There are more roundhouses, including some for birds of prey, such as Stellers sea eagle, Eurasian eagle owl, and Andean condor. Tigers are the stars of this section in a moated grotto. It actually amazed me how many of the most common zoo animals Los Angeles lacks these days - tiger, rhino, hippo, bears of any species. Most of those animals inhabited this area of the zoo, a series of moated dens dating back to the earlier days of the new zoo, when natural was simply synonymous with "bar-free," and could stand for an upgrade.
In contrast, one of the relatively newer sections of the zoo is Rainforest of the Americas. Many zoos have rainforest buildings, but Los Angeles again takes advantage of its climate to keep species outdoors. Along a densely planted trail visitors can encounter howler monkeys, toucans, jaguar, Baird's tapir, and a hillside aviary for imposing harpy eagles. The stars of this section are the giant otters, which occupy a large habitat dominated by a winding water-feature. Starting at the top pool, visitors can hurry down the path from one viewing area to another, following the animals as they make their way to the bottom of their pool. There, the visitor can also encounter various South American fish and reptiles in a covered viewing area.
Two enormous walk-through aviaries are nearby, large enough to allow birds the size of white storks the ability to fly. A children's zoo, featuring some small animals and a goat petting area, rounds out the experience.
Los Angeles has ben working diligently over the past several years to replace some of its oldest architecture and outdated habitats with newer ones, and the results - LAIR, Rainforests of the Americas, Elephants of Asia, and the trio of ape exhibits - have been very impressive. A new masterplan has been released which, while highly ambitious, will continue to advance the zoo's ability to provide exceptional animal care. If anything, the zoo suffers from its close proximity - and the inevitable comparisons - to the San Diego Zoo, but even compared to its famous neighbor, I feel that the Los Angeles Zoo has a lot to recommend itself as a great zoo in its own right.
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