Entrance - Gift Shop and Cafe

This cafe and gift shop opened in 2012 and Calgary Zoo is one that I know very well as I visited the facility 3 times in 2012 (on 3 consecutive days!), 3 times in 2016 and then twice in 2017. I even had a 5-page review with accompanying photos published in Zoo Grapevine/International Zoo News magazine. However, what did you think of the zoo @geomorph ? Calgary is neck-and-neck with Toronto for the status of Canada's #1 zoo.

I had a great time at the zoo and enjoyed it, especially Canadian Wilds and its magnificent goat and sheep exhibits. There is a nice selection in the zoo of rarely exhibited hoofstock: Muskox, Rocky Mountain Goat, Dall's Sheep, Alpine Ibex, Siberian Musk Deer, Japanese Serow. It is interesting how much of the zoo's land is devoted to Prehistoric Park and Dorothy Harvie Gardens, both well-kept assets but with no live animal exhibits except for the butterfly conservatory. The zoo is in need of a third African building with a more comprehensive selection of birds, reptiles, and amphibians if you ask me. Its been 9 years since I visited Toronto Zoo but I think it must still be superior to this one.

@geomorph Prehistoric Park, which I think opened in 1986, has seen better days. When the zoo had animatronic dinosaurs in 2016 that part of the zoo was tremendously popular but it will eventually be completed demolished. In its place will be species such as Sichuan Takins, Amur Tigers and Japanese Macaques.