When compared to the children´s zoo at nearby Lincoln Park Zoo, this new children´s zoo at Brookfield seems to be somewhat disappointing in the exhibit quality and species selection, though the animal ambassadors shows may hold some nice surprises.
Definitely an ugly exhibit. But like Gulo gulo mentioned, I appreciate the barrier between the visitors' space and the trees. The birds can come and feed if they want to, and they're not going to get a stick of seeds shoved in front of their face every 5 seconds by an impatient child.
Are there really just budgies in here? Why then is the exhibit labelled Parakeets on the map? Are they called parakeets in America?
yes, parakeet is a common American name for budgies. (It was even used as such in Red Heat where Schwarzenegger thought Belushi was insinuating that owning a parakeet was effeminate. Movie reference at no additonal cost ). They used to be commonly called lovebirds too, although that seems to no longer be the case.
Now that is an excellent example of wasted space & money. A house devoted completely to species that can be freely observed in pet shop, in the same array of its domestic varieties. And setup is atrociously sterile - no substrate, no vegetation, all creativity input was making curved fence and painting those ugly stick-trees on the walls. This madness could be made into a nice Australia house - with several bird species, koalas, smaller roos on the ground, and terrariums in visitor area.
Everyone calling this exhibit a waste of money is not understanding the concept of this exhibit and Children's area. This exhibit is in the Children's zoo section which requires an additional fee. The targeted audience of this exhibit could not tell you if these birds were common or very rare, all they know is they get to feed the birds and have no barriers between them and the birds. This exhibit seems like it will draw more visitors to this section of the zoo which will bring in lots of money. I know this is not a great exhibit for zoo nerds, but this is a great exhibit for making money off of the general public. So, in exhibit quality terms this is a bad exhibit, but in financial terms this is a potentially great exhibit.
I take the point, but you could say the same about a display of jukeboxes, pinball machines and one-armed bandits Alan
