Zoo Review: Chattanooga Zoo at Warner Park, Part II

Continuing with the tour of Chattanooga Zoo at Warner Park, we come to native section.  

Situated along the Tennessee River, Chattanooga has a long history as a transportation hub, both by river and by rail.  The history of the later is celebrated in Walkin' the Tracks, a train-track themed exploration of Tennessee's wildlife (with a few outliers, like prairie dogs).  White-tailed deer, wild turkey, and coyotes are among the species hat can be seen here.  The theming is especially prominent in the Cougar Express (someone had fun coming up with that name, I'm sure), a train car which serves as a viewing building for the zoo's mountain lion exhibit.  The train car also serves as an education center with graphics about the most wide-spread cat of the Americas.  I was struck by the similarity of this exhibit to a very similar set up I saw years ago at Elmwood Park Zoo in Pennsylvania, that one focused on American bison.

Chattanooga proved to be a much more expansive zoo than I expected; I thought I'd actually be done at this point, before then coming across the Deserts and Forests buildings, a complex of two animal houses that hold the reptile, amphibian, and small mammal collection.  The buildings are fairly similar to one another, roughly circular in shape with small exhibits on the periphery, a larger central exhibit in each one.  I was surprised by the variety of species seen here, with the reptiles including pancake tortoise, desert horned lizard, and bushmaster.  Mammals were also well-represented with meerkats, rock hyrax, genet, and a very small naked mole-rat colony, among other species.  The walkway between the two buildings passes an outdoor habitat for Komodo dragon.

The final geographic area of the zoo is Corcovdo Jungle, which displays animals from Latin America.  A subsection of this area is La Selva Amazonica, a pavilion with indoor and outdoor habitats for several species of tamarins and marmosets; this was perhaps the greatest number of species of these small primates that I'd seen in a zoo for quite some time, especially in a zoo this small.  Nearby is grassy habitat for giant anteaters, with the path then looping down a winding trail past black-handed spider monkeys, prehensile-tailed porcupine, capybara, and jaguar.  I was especially surprised by the exhibit for kinkajou; not that I saw the animal, but these small, nocturnal mammals are often just kept as educational ambassadors, and it was a nice surprise to see a well-furnished exhibit for this species, as opposed to the off-exhibit holding I more often associate them with.

Chattanooga Zoo has expanded its footprint rapidly in recent years, with ambitious plans for more exhibits in progress.  Recent years have seen considerable renovations and improvements.  It lacks many of the "ABC" animals that many visitors go to zoos in search of - bears, rhinos, zebras - but still has a diverse, well-rounded collection.  Better to have a smaller collection that the facility can manage than to cram in as much megafauna as possible, as other facilities have tried.  Some of the exhibits (particularly some of the smaller ones, such as the raptor displays along Walkin' the Tracks) were not particularly impressive, but I don't know if I can say I saw anything truly bad.

There is quality work going on behind the scenes as well.  The zoo is small but still manages a substantial conservation involvement, as well as participation in local wildlife rehabilitation programs.  All in all, Chattanooga is an enjoyable little zoo, easily paired with the Tennessee Aquarium for a full day of quality time among interesting animals.