Gardens of Iguanas

A lot of people forget, but before it got the "World Famous" part tacked onto its name, the San Diego Zoo in its early years was kind of a scruffy little underdog.  San Diego wasn't the big city that it is now, and a lot of folks wondered if Dr. Harry Wegeforth was crazy for trying to start a zoo there.  Heck, he barely had any money for it.

That might have been his saving grace.  Without heaps of cash, Wegeforth couldn't put up lots of buildings - monkey houses, cat houses, antelope houses.  Instead, he took advantage of San Diego's delightful climate and kept animals outside, which wasn't something very widely practiced in American zoos at the time.  It turned out to be very successful - and much cheaper.  Today, a visitor can explore the grounds of the zoo and see thousands of animals from around the globe without being enclosed within four walls anywhere outside of a bathroom.  Even the Reptile House isn't really indoors - animals are viewed via a wrap-around porch.

And those aren't all the reptiles, either.  The crocodilians, tortoises, turtles, and larger lizards join the other animals outside.  Even many of the smaller native herps are displayed outside in open-topped pens.  I love it.

Relatively few zoos give their reptiles outdoor access, which can be a shame, because few animals can benefit as much from the direct sunlight as reptiles.  Reptiles aren't able to control their body temperature like mammals and birds can (they are often called "cold-blooded" though their blood isn't actually cold), and so can't tolerate cold temperatures as well as other animals.  In most zoos, they have to be kept indoors during the colder months, which for some species and some parts of the US might be... well, every month.  Large reptiles can be a hassle to move, dangerous for crocodilians, inconvenient for giant tortoises, and building a large outdoor enclosure that might only be usable sporadically throughout the year isn't seen as cost-beneficent by many zoos, especially when there are so many other expenses.  As a result, few are typically given outdoor space, usually the biggest, most showy reptiles, and usually only seasonally.  

In places where it is possible to keep the animals out year round, I think the benefits show themselves.  Animals thrive under natural light provided they are warm enough.  In the wild, reptiles spend a lot of time regulating their body temperature in response to constant changes in the weather - clouds moving over the sun, cold fronts moving in - and keeping them outside, instead of under a fixed lamp, let's them recreate that behavior.  It can improve appetite and feeding responses.  Plus, coloration really comes out under the sun.  Visiting Central America, I was astonished to discover that green iguanas are... well... green.

True, we're not building a separate outdoor exhibit for every gecko and skink living in New England or Minnesota, but they can still potentially get some sun, too.  At one small zoo I worked at, I enjoyed catching up lizards and snakes in the summer, placing them in small terrariums, and taking them outside to bask on nice days.  Turtles and tortoises were taken outside and allowed to graze and wander around under supervision.   I just had to make sure that I was with all of the animals the entire time to make sure that there were no escapees.  I can't say I'd be as willing to take the risk with venomous snakes. 

I remember working with at one southern zoo, taking care of some rhinoceros iguanas that spent half the year in a pit in front of the reptile house.  The pit caught the full sun, the rocks that made a mountain in the center (bringing the iguanas to eye-level) were jagged sharp and scorching hot from the sun, and every plant in that exhibit seemed to be some sort of cactus.   I hated that exhibit with a passion, and rarely left it without two or three second degree burns and a butt-full of thorns.  Still, when I was at the bottom on the pit at looking up, seeing that big male rhino iguana worshiping the sun, his harem of females draped on the rocks below him, I had to admit - he looked good out there.  

Direct natural sunlight isn't a cure all, and I've seen some tourist traps down South that kept their reptiles in abominable but outdoor conditions year round.  If I was given the chance to wave a magic wand and send those animals to a life indoors at, say, the Bronx Zoo's World of Reptiles, I'd have done so in a heartbeat.  Still, the chance to have an outdoor life for the parts of the year where it is possible can have great health and behavioral benefits for animals.