Pittsburgh Zoo - Pier Town

July 2008. Fictional town near the aquatic mammal exhibits.

In early 2007 l visited and one of there new polar bears had started to show sterotype behaviour. He had never shown this before. Was he still doing it in late 2008?. The tunnel was not open to the public. I was lucky to be shown through by a very generous staff member. [ I think they were feeling guilty for there gorillas!!]

Only the polar bear enclosure was open while l was there

I thought a very well presented set of exhibits. Of course could have been bigger. I belive Reynolds the manufactures of the perspex donated or gave at cost all they required.

I gave a long review of this zoo in the thread "Snowleopard's Epic Road Trip" and I wasn't overly impressed with the new Water's Edge set of habitats. A ton of cash was spent on the recreation of the fictional fishing village, but the sea otter pool was disappointing, the walrus pool was empty (and only now has sand tiger sharks) and the polar bear habitat was mainly concrete and water. I didn't notice any stereotypical behaviour on land, but the bears were swimming in the same repetitive direction in their pool.

What is in the buildings, a gift shop or restaurant of some kind?

The middle building the white one has a big room where you can have bday parties but trainers usually use it to observe the polar bears cause theres a window looking out onto the polar bear exhibit.