The Zoo Review: Zoo Review: John Ball Zoo, Part I

Upon his death in 1884, Michigan pioneer and politician John Ball bequeathed 40 acres of land to the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan. That land became the city's main park, and quickly became home to a small collection of animals, which later formalized itself as the John Ball Zoo. Today, the zoo is one of the largest in Michigan, which is fairly impressive considering how many of the largest species are absent from it - there are no giraffes, no rhinos, no elephants. The zoo does maintain a very impressive and diverse collection spread across several attractive exhibits (with some older hold outs of past styles of architecture still in evidence), and continues to grow and develop rapidly.

Immediately inside the main gate is the zoo's newest exhibit, a flagship exhibit for pygmy hippos. It's not often that the relatively-diminutive cousins of the common hippos are stars of their own exhibits, and this habitat is easily one of the best I've ever seen for the species. It features two components - and indoor habitat (for the hippos, anyway - visitors view from the outside), with underwater viewing - and a grassy outdoor yard, which also has a pool. White storks are also found here. Early plans called for the hippos to share their habitat with sitatunga, a marsh-dwelling antelope from Central Africa, but early attempts to introduce the two species ended poorly, and plans for future attempts were halted.

Past the hippos are two other African exhibits, these holding species that are certainly better known among the public. The Lions of Lake Manyara and The Chimpanzees of Mokomboso Valley are each some of the better exhibits that I've seen for their species. The lions can be viewed from an observation tower, which is helpful for spotting the cats when their sprawled out in the vegetation of their yard. The chimpanzees have indoor and outdoor enclosures, and while their dayroom is perfectly acceptable, the sight of them climbing and foraging in their outdoor yard is much preferable. An Africa area is rounded out with a wooded yard for bongo, red river hog, and southern ground hornbill, with a smaller (but very attractive) habitats for meerkats and von der Decken's hornbills nearby, as well as a paddock of camels.

Tucked away near the entrance of the zoo, just down the trail from the hippos, is the zoo's small Aquarium. Realistically, it's mostly an indoor habitat for Magellanic penguins (accompanied by a few other aquatic birds), as well as two other tanks, one displaying a native stream habitat, the other a northwest Pacific coast kelp forest. There's been talk of Grand Rapids developing a separate aquarium, and it will be interesting to see if that happens and what it means for the zoo's building. Immediately next door to the aquarium is Frogs and Friends, a room-sized amphibian house which displays a variety of species in attractive exhibits that highlight the zoo's involvement in Amphibian Ark and conservation breeding programs, particularly for the Panamanian golden frog.

More herps - as well as some small mammals - can be seen in Natural Treasures, a winding hallway that is lined with glass-fronted habitats, mostly of reptiles, but with a few small mammals, amphibians, and invertebrates as well. It's perhaps one of the zoo's weak points, as the exhibits tend to be fairly generic, though most of them are at least of decent size. Adjacent to the building are outdoor habitats for Grand Cayman iguanas, tortoises, and spider monkeys, all of which also have indoor exhibits (the indoor spider monkey exhibit is perhaps the low point of the building, though the adjacent outdoor habitat is fairly spacious and pleasant. Still, considering the climate of Michigan, I'd perhaps have opted to invest more on the indoor space, knowing how much time the monkeys must spend inside).