New Exhibit sign

Just a sign of the new exhibits being built.

What is the penguin walk exhibit? Do the penguins wander across public pathways at certain times?

Is that a walk-through owl exhibit? What species of owl are they going to put in there? Some species seem like they could take off somebody's face if they were harassed or otherwise upset.

Calgary Zoo in Canada has a walk-through Rocky Mountain Aviary in its Canadian Wilds zone that has these 4 species: rough-legged hawk, great grey owl, barred owl and snowy owl. It is however highly unusual to see birds of prey in a walk-through habitat.

Non-breeding, unpaired, non-territorial, unimprinted, untame owls & birds of prey should be fine in a walk-through. Unless they start eating each other. Eating smaller predators is a common strategy for bigger predators; you eliminate the competion AND get lunch. European Eagle Owls eat a lot of sleeping Buzzards in some places.

At the NEW Zoo in Wisconsin they have a bald eagle in their walk through aviary with a bunch of ducks.

Skansen have a walk through owl aviary too.

Zoo Doue have walkthrough vultures. South Lakes has a mixed walkthrough aviary containing some vultures and Andean condors

I am sure this is not a walk-thru exhibit. There used to be a horseshoe shaped 'alcove' of smaller Owl aviaries with a public pathway round the central area. I'm presuming these aviaries have simply been enlarged on the same site so that fewer species than previously are now kept, and that public viewing is similar as before.

Absolutely spot on, that's exactly what's happened, and they look pretty good in the flesh.

The illustration is a little misleading and, having seen the aviaries last week, it appears to show the viewing area themed with fake trees and canopy. Twycross could add them at a later date I suppose but, in my opinion, this wouldn't add anything and be a waste of valuable resources.

In terms of the other two illustrations the Coati/Bushdog enclosure seems to be making good progress towards the illustration (which I think exaggerates the size a little) and the Penguin enclosure is not far off completion and, I'm sad to say, looks as underwhelming and pointless as the illustration.

Just an educated guess really but it seemed fairly obvious to someone familiar with the Zoo.

Does the Penguin exhibit just involve them crossing a path through a passageway visitors can presumably lean over to get closer to them? Is that the idea?

Of course all these three are revamps of existing exhibits rather than brand new but that's not to say they can't be effective.