Pittsburgh Zoo - Map

July 2008.

This zoo is definitely split into two easily distinguishable parts. On the right hand side from top to bottom are the excellent aquarium, the decent but flawed Water's Edge exhibits (polar bear/sea otter/sand tiger shark) and the huge, 7-acre children's zoo. That entire section of the zoo happens to be the most recent developments, while the left hand side is much older and also not as pleasant to visit. The bear grottoes at the top of the map are horrendous, and the so-called Tropical Forest (loads of primates) in the top left corner is also tremendously disappointing.

The original zoo was a very large building with two wings that was located at the site of the Africa Savanna and Tropical Forest. From this building, new developements created over several decades (bear pits, children's zoo, aqua zoo, underground zoo) radiated along the edge of the ridge on the right side of this map.

Is the aquarium good? How does it compare to the Omaha Zoo aquarium in size and quality?

Omaha's aquarium is much better both in size and scope, and interesting enough will be (or already is) undergoing a renovation even though it opened in the 1990's.

An excerpt from my 2008 review: (my penguin comment at the end came before the opening of Woodland Park's exhibit, as well as my visits to Omaha and Saint Louis...and those are perhaps the 3 best penguin exhibits in all of North America...and Sedgwick County and Indianapolis also have great penguin habitats)

Aquarium - this building opened in 2000, and my wife and I can always tell within minutes whether an exhibit is new or not in any particular zoo. The new structures stand out from the antiquated buildings, and this aquarium is imposing as it sits atop a hill and looks down on the rest of the zoo. Inside there is a fantastic sea dragon tank that greets visitors at the entrance, and it is the largest tank I've ever seen for those intriguing creatures. The two-story shark tank is brilliant, the amazon tank (the old home of Chuckles the river dolphin, who is now honoured with a portrait on the nearby wall) is excellent, and all the other tanks are well done and are full of great graphics. The only flaw is the tiny penguin exhibit, and I'm fairly convinced that there are no decent penguin habitats in any North American zoos.