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Idaho Falls Zoo at Tautphaus Park Tautphaus Park Zoo Review

Discussion in 'United States' started by Ituri, 14 Jul 2010.

  1. Ituri

    Ituri Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    Tautphaus Park Zoo Review

    The Tautphaus Park Zoo is located in Idaho Falls, Idaho. It is open in the summer from April through September. It is under 10 acres, but is a very nice zoo for its size. The zoo is divided into several geographic exhibits and one taxonomic exhibit. I will describe these sections traveling through the zoo in a mostly clockwise direction.
    The first section is called “Little Asia” and consists of a mixed species exhibit of Reeve’s muntjac, mandarin duck, and demoiselle crane, an aviary with azure-winged magpie, Baikal teal and Temminck’s tragopan, and a couple small wire cages with white-crested laughing-thrush and Prevost’s squirrel.
    The next exhibit is technically part of the disjointed North America section. The North America section, while physically connected is viewed in several small chunks around the perimeter, so its not really a cohesive visitor experience. The first section encountered is called “Gator Bayou” and houses a small American alligator. The zoo sources alligators yearly from a nearby alligator farm and gets new individuals every year, that way they don’t ever outgrow this smaller exhibit space.
    The taxonomic exhibit is called the “Primate Discovery Center”. This complex has three large indoor exhibits paired with three large outdoor exhibits. Two different species are rotated through these sets of exhibits on different days. The first set houses ring-tailed lemurs rotating with red ruffed lemurs, the second set has de Brazza’s monkeys rotating with eastern black-and-white colobus, and the last set houses white-handed gibbons rotating with white-cheeked gibbons. Three additional smaller indoor exhibits house cotton-top tamarins, Goeldi’s monkeys and Colombian boas. There is no attempt at making it look like a rainforest, but the exhibits are spacious, clean and well furnished for an overall pleasing effect.

    The next geographic area is called the Patagonian Realm. The first exhibit in this small area is an aviary for guira cuckoo, Patagonian conure, and elegant-crested tinamou. The next exhibit is a large paddock for guanaco and greater rhea, with a small area sectioned off for Patagonian mara. Adjacent to this exhibit is a flock of Chilean flamingos. The exhibit ends with a walkthrough aviary with several South American birds including roseate spoonbill, cattle egret, cinnamon teal, Chaco chachalaca, blue-and-yellow tanager, scarlet-headed blackbird, rufous-crowned sparrow, saffron finch, red-crested cardinal and Picui ground dove.

    The next area viewed is part of the disjointed North America section and is a nice river otter habitat with a large waterfall and underwater viewing with an aviary for golden eagles overlooking it.
    From this area, you head into the central, “Land Down Under” exhibit, which is divided into a New Guinea and an Australian section. This area is the most heavily themed area in the zoo, and the path is covered in lava rock fines giving the earth that red tone that people often associate with Australia. Plants in this area are chosen to mimic the arid outback with Russian Olives standing in for Wattle Acacias and tall upright willows mimicking Eucalyptus. Native Australian art is displayed on the walls of this area. The first section focuses on animals of New Guinea and has a large yard for New Guinea singing dogs, and an aviary with metallic starlings, Nicobar pigeon, and a pheasant-pigeon. The Australia part begins with two aviaries housing tawny frogmouths and laughing kookaburras. A walk-into wallaby yard houses Bennett’s wallaby, emu, black swan, and Radjah shelduck. A brush fence serves to keep the animals off the visitor path, but the wallabies can and occasionally do hop right over it. This area is also home to the restrooms “Dunnies” and the concession stand “Lolliwater Hut”.

    The next area visited is Africa, and it begins while still on the lava rock path of Australia. The first exhibit is called Malawi Marsh and houses East African crowned cranes and sacred ibis. Next door is an interesting layered exhibit which has red-flanked duikers and silvery-cheeked hornbills in an aviary adjacent to the path, with an aviary behind it for southern ground hornbills, and behind that is the first view of the Grant’s zebra paddock. So visitors look through the duiker exhibit to the ground hornbill exhibit and the zebra exhibit beyond. A small exhibit area off the path has glass viewing into two separate exhibits for servals and mona monkeys. The servals here were imported from Africa and are very important to the gene pool. Two kittens were born this year and supposedly on exhibit, though we did not see them. Next is a large open pit exhibit for South African lions. I feel it is a tad on the too small side, but it is at least well planted and nicely furnished. They recently renovated the underground nighthouse area to make it more conducive to breeding. Next up is the main view into the aforementioned zebra paddock. A small family herd is here, and our visit revealed a fuzzy brown colt. Nearby is a set of aviaries with an impressive mix of African birds. There is a pair of binoculars and an identification card mounted to the exhibit railings. Birds include spur-winged plovers, Cape thick-knees, green woodhoopoes, lilac-breasted rollers, bearded barbets, red-and-yellow barbets, white-bellied go-away birds, white-cheeked turaco, superb starling, crested francolin, Taveta golden weaver, white-headed buffalo weaver and snowy robin-chat. One aviary has a large kopje structure, which houses a small group of rock hyrax. Nearby is an interpretive area themed to a researcher’s tent.
    The next section is called “Asian Adventure” and is nicely themed with prayer flags and bamboo railings and shade structures. The first exhibit encountered is a mesh snow leopard enclosure. This exhibit is thickly planted and viewing the cats can be challenging. The next exhibit is for Amur tigers. This exhibit is pretty much identical to the lion exhibit. You then cross a wooden bridge over the canal to view the rest of the exhibits. The newest exhibit houses a couple of young, playful sloth bears. This exhibit has kind of a jarring look when compared with the other exhibits at the zoo. Viewing is through black chain link fencing and the night house is immediately adjacent to the viewing area and very visible. Site constraints have necessitated the design of this enclosure, but it is certainly not the prettiest exhibit at the zoo. Also in the area is a well planted mesh enclosure for red pandas, a large paddock for Bactrian camels, and a mesh aviary for red-crowned cranes.

    The next exhibit area is the Children’s Zoo. This area features domestic animals and has a petting yard with goats and sheep, a round chicken-coop like structure for pigeons and rabbits, several small yards for domestic yak, Sardinian donkey, llama and alpaca, and Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs. All but the yak can be petted through the fence if the animal allows it. Another chicken coop houses Dominique chickens, and a play area near the canal reveals a small exhibit of domestic call ducks. The Children’s Zoo is nice, but I feel several of the paddocks are too small for the inhabitants.
    Up next, is a couple of tortoise yards (this is one of only a couple exhibits that don’t fit the geographic or taxonomic theme). Side by side exhibits for Aldabra and African spurred tortoises have nice lawns and pools to cool off in.
    Next is an exhibit complex called “Mayan Ruins”. It consists of three aviaries with a solid back wall that is vaguely reminiscent of Mayan ruins. The first aviary holds military macaws, the second an interesting mix of prehensile-tailed porcupine and crested caracara, and the third houses scarlet macaws. Adjacent to this exhibit is a small amphitheater that the zoo uses for animal demonstrations. When we were there an animal handler was just leaving this area with an augur buzzard, a species I have not often encountered in zoos.

    Adjacent to the “Mayan Ruins” is “Penguin Cove” this exhibit is an indoor/outdoor exhibit for African penguins. There is no underwater viewing, but the water is always clear and watching the penguins swim is still a treat. The indoor section has artificial rock walls and is pleasantly designed.

    The next area is the remainder of the North America section. The first exhibit encountered is the “Idaho Pond” for various waterfowl including large tundra swans and American white pelicans along with various ducks. Pellets can be purchased to feed the ducks. North America and the zoo are finished off with exhibits for turkey vultures and white-nosed coatis.
    A diverse collection and nice, simple exhibits make Tautphaus Park Zoo one of my favorite small zoos.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: 9 Sep 2012
  2. siamang27

    siamang27 Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for the review! It seems they have a lot of birds that are uncommon in zoos, and a lot more bird exhibits than most smaller zoos do. I'm also surprised they have 2 species of gibbons, most smaller zoos either have none or only 1.

    Did you see the Crested Francolin? I didn't even know any were in US collections.
     
  3. Arizona Docent

    Arizona Docent Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    They sure have a lot of different geographic and themed areas for a zoo that is less than ten acres.
     
  4. Ituri

    Ituri Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    @siamang27 - The former director of the Tautphaus Park Zoo (now the director of Abilene Zoo) is a bird enthusiast and made sure nice aviaries were a priority. I did in fact see the crested francolin, however I was unable to get a good picture.

    @Arizona Docent - Yes, but most of the themed areas are in fact very small and consist of one or two exhibits.
     
  5. geomorph

    geomorph Well-Known Member 10+ year member Premium Member

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    Thank you for the detailed and illustrated review! It sounds like a good South American bird collection!
     
  6. Ituri

    Ituri Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    Thanks, glad you enjoyed the review. Their South American bird collection is quite strong, as is their African one. This was the first time I had ever seen Chaco chachalaca before.
     
  7. DeydraOZ

    DeydraOZ Well-Known Member

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    I'm really hoping I can visit this zoo in September. Last time I spent time in Idaho was Spring break, and the zoo was closed which makes me sad.
    Super psyched to see hornbills, magpies and New Guinea singing dog!
     
  8. snowleopard

    snowleopard Well-Known Member 15+ year member Premium Member

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    Tautphaus Park Zoo is one of a trio of tiny Idaho zoos (Boise and Pocatello are the other two) that can each be toured in about 2 hours or less. Today I uploaded 40 photos from Tautphaus Park into the ZooChat gallery.
     
  9. Milwaukee Man

    Milwaukee Man Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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