Future Plans

July 28th, 2014.

So I wonder if the three projects on the left (2015,2016,2017) have been completed? I plan to visit Yellowstone in September 2018 so hopefully I will be able to post an update.

Here is my 2014 review of this facility:

Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center – This is a truly superb facility but one that is very tiny and necessary to leave within an hour. A pair of bald eagles, a great horned owl, a peregrine falcon and two empty aviaries is all recent additions and other than that area there is a discovery center (taxidermy displays and information on bears in all directions), a single bear habitat, and a “living with bears on easy street” zone with no live animals that is also new. There are 8 bears that rotate through the single long enclosure and it is quite a system as at times a single bear is on display (probably a surly male that does not get along with others) while a maximum of 5 bears can be seen on another occasion. There is an 8-page free guidebook and a separate sheet listing all of the bear rotations as every hour there is some kind of rotation policy in effect as bears are coming and going all day long. There is a desperate need for a second exhibit but that is due to occur in 2024 at the earliest. The big push at the moment is for a Riparian Habitat consisting mainly of a river otter display but also incorporating fish, reptiles and amphibians and that building will add a lot to the small zoo. The wolf habitats are excellent and the two largest ones are seen via a naturalist’s cabin that offers up massive viewing windows. While I was there a number of the wolves howled back and forth for 10 minutes and their enclosures are quite impressive. A ground squirrel exhibit will open in 2015 and those little critters are the “meerkats of North America”.

@snowleopard the bear exhibit is actually opening sooner than 2024 and according to the staff there during my last visit there the bear exhibit is excepted to open between 2021 or 2022. And as for the Riparian Habitat is opening spring 2019.

Yes it seems the idea shown here of Phase 1 and Phase 2 for riparian has been abandoned and the entire project is now under construction in one phase (photos in gallery from my recent visit September 2018). It will open either late spring or early summer 2019.