Zoo Review: Akron Zoo, Part I

Lost among the mega zoos of Ohio - Columbus and Cleveland, Cincinnati and Toledo - the relatively diminutive Akron Zoo could easily be overlooked.  It opened its gates in 1953 as a Mother Goose-themed children's zoo managed by the city, later privatizing and diversifying into a full-fledged zoo.  Though still a fairly small zoo - easily knocked out in a half-day - it has grown considerably in recent years, adding new and innovative exhibits which have helped this small facility carve out a niche of its own.

Directly inside the entry building, an imposing structure of wood, stone, and glass, is Penguin Point, home to a flock of Humboldt penguins.  It's an attractive, fairly simple exhibit, part of an unofficial water-bird complex that starts off the visitor experience.  Also included is a lagoon of waterfowl, including trumpeter swans, as well as a yard of Chilean flamingos.

Perhaps the most unique exhibit complex - though one which is starting to fade, it seems - is Legends of the Wild, which opened in 2005.  The exhibit area was based around the concept of animals in the role in legend and myth around the world, and features a diverse cast of species, including snow leopard, white-naped crane, ring-tailed lemurs, and Andean condors.  The respective animals are paired with signage that tells the story of the animals from their home countries; among the indigenous peoples of the Andes, for example, the condor was considered a messenger of the sun (which helps explain its role as the national bird of several South American countries).  It's a refreshingly unique take on exhibit design in an age where everything seems to be geographic in focus, and I was aware of no exhibit complex like it in the country.  When you visit as many zoos and aquariums as I do, uniqueness is always something to be appreciated and sought after.

This was the exhibit area that I was the most interested to see, but I will admit, the theming felt a little weak, diluted by changes to the collection over the years (which is strange, because the neat thing about this theme is that it should free a zoo up to work with a wide variety of species, free from geographic or taxonomic constraints).  Some of the exhibits seem a bit dated and are in flux; what was a jaguar exhibit when I visited last year, set next to a capybara exhibit in a predator-prey display, is now in the process of being repurposed for another species, yet to be announced (the jaguar exhibit wasn't great, but it's still an unfortunate loss for the area, few species being a better example of the role of animals in legend than jaguar).  The area includes two buildings - one for the lemurs, one nocturnal building for bats, snakes, frogs, and slow loris).

Outside Legends is Komodo Kingdom, the largest indoor exhibit in the zoo.  For a zoo of such small size, Akron has a surprisingly large aquatic collection, including jellies, an electric eel, and small sharks.  This was explained to me as being a result of the closure of the Ohio SeaWorld park in nearby Aurora, OH; many of the staff, I'm told, took jobs at Akron Zoo and brought their aquatic expertise with them.  As the name would suggest, the building houses an indoor habitat of Komodo dragons, along with Galapagos tortoises and several smaller reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates (not enough that I'd call the building a true reptile house, but still the nexus of their small collection), as well as a small South American rainforest mixed species exhibit, with small primates and birds in the trees over fish and turtles.

In the next post, we'll look at the additional areas of Akron Zoo.

Akron Zoo