Overview of Magic Forest

April 2009. The emu enclosure is in the foreground, and there are a few other animal exhibits and bronze sculptures scattered around the pathway.

Is it just me, or is there an uncanny feel of "artificiality" about what we see here in snowleopard´s - as always - excellent pictures from this zoo?

To me, it is as if this would have been a picture from forumuster miniturezoo954s brilliant future project, his miniature zoo, you know? If so, I would have commented something like "great job, it looks almost real". Almost (real) being the key operative word here....

Having been there and having taken these pictures, snowleopard, do you understand what I mean?

And all those damned statues? I think I find them pretty uncanny, too! The money that was spent on them could have been put to better use....

Strange, it does look like a sculpture lol. I know what you men exactly.

The sheer number of bronze animal sculptures all over the zoo (the most of any zoo in the United States) overwhelms the images of the actual animals in cages. The Cougar Mountain Zoo only contains about 35 mammals and 50 birds, and so with a grand total of 85 animals it is obviously nothing to "write home about". The Magic Forest section of the establishment is probably the best part, as the alpacas, african crowned cranes, swamp wallabies and emus all have disappointing but not overly terrible enclosures. The cages for the star attractions (tigers, cougars and lemurs) are all awful, and I agree with the feeling of artificiality in the place. Having posted a few hundred photos from the nearby Woodland Park Zoo last week it is interesting to compare a truly great zoo with a tiny and uninspired collection.