Continuing through the tour of Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo, we come to the exhibit area that many visitors consider the crown jewel.
Northern Trail is an excellent representation of the larger animals of the Pacific Northwest. The trail opens with its newest exhibit, a pair of meshed-in habitats for Canada lynx, while down the trail gray wolves pad through a wooded yard (these appeared to be generic gray wolves, and I'd be interested to know if at any point Seattle plans of swapping them out for the endangered Mexican subspecies, which is the primary focus in AZA zoos). A grazing herd of elk appears as a living backdrop to the wolves, but are safely separated by a moat from their predators. It's one of the best, more convincing examples of a predator-prey exhibit that I've seen, all the more impressive because of its age.
Further along is the standout exhibit of the trail (and perhaps the rival to the gorilla exhibit for best in the zoo), one of the finest grizzly bear habitats I've ever seen. The bears can be seen from multiple vantage points, but the boundaries of the yard are hard to identify. The yard has varied terrain (you may see a bear on a hilltop looking down at you, and find yourself wondering about its jumping abilities), grassy slopes, and a deep pool. Underwater viewing of the bears is followed by underwater viewing of North American river otters, with an excellent, craggy habitat of Rocky mountain goats (a species seldom seen in zoos outside of their native range) as a backdrop. The regions theming weakens a little at the next exhibit; one would expect the towering flight cage to house bald eagles, but instead its Asian counterpart, the Steller's sea eagle, abides here (though to be fair, Steller's sea eagles do sometimes pop up in North America). The trail terminates at another view of the elk meadow before looping back. If this section has one weakness, it's that I feel it would benefit from the inclusion of more small animals - small mammals, birds, herps, fish - to round out the very impressive habitats of local megafauna.
More cold-weather species can be found in the Temperate Forest. This area double-functions as a children's zoo, with an attractive barnyard and an insect house. There is also a small, separate building that acts as a breeding center and lab for rare Polynesian tree snails (Partula), the only exhibit of these beautiful, imperiled little invertebrates that I've ever seen. Maned wolves, red pandas, and southern pudu can be found along the trail, but the real focus her are the birds. There are several species of cranes, a flamboyance of Chilean flamingos, and several stand alone aviaries, some of which are lined in a row of densely planted bird habitats. One of the zoo's most famous exhibits is the enormous waterfowl aviary, where a host of species from across the northern hemisphere dive and dabble in a beautiful marsh, while visitors watch for a nearby boardwalk. The exhibit is especially attractive in the months when the male birds are in their breeding plumage and courting the females, or chasing rivals.
A few other exhibits round out the zoo. There is a small Australian area, consisting of a yard of wallaroos and emus, with some adjacent exhibits for kookaburras, tawny frogmouths, and other Aussie birds. There is a good snow leopard habitat and an excellent Humboldt penguin pool with underwater viewing. Reptiles and amphibians have been scarce at the zoo for many years, ever since their old building burned down years ago. At the time of my visit, a few herps - most notably Komodo dragons, were on display in a long building alongside with meerkats and fruit bats. That exhibit has since been renovated into a (small) reptile house of tropical Asian herps, as befits its position in between the two halves of the tropical Asian area. New exhibits are planned in the future for tree kangaroos and keas, as well as the red pandas, in the near future.
Woodland Park Zoo has had a history typical of many American zoos in its constantly changing fortunes. At some points in recent years the zoo has been in excellent shape, adding fantastic new exhibits (only the Bronx has won more AZA exhibit awards) and reaching new breeding successes. In other years, it seems like it's barely getting by in the face of civic indifference. Such oscillations can be difficult for planning and building momentum, and while the zoo is still a very respected member of the zoo community, it no longer seems to be quite the trend-setter it once was. Still, its older exhibits have aged remarkably well, and it has earned a place in zoo history for helping to break the mold on what a zoo could and should be. Combined with its great collection and beautiful campus, it was one of the US zoos that I'd been most excited to see for quite a long time. 'll look forward to seeing the new exhibits as they come online and see if they meet the excellent standard set by their predecessors.
No comments:
Post a Comment