Entrance Species - Which are in your local zoo?

I have been thinking about this one for a bit and got me thinking.
What are species your local zoos use as entrance species?
What are the pros and cons of those species?
Is there a trend in entrance species, or is it different in almost every zoo?

 

The zoo closest to my home is Scovill Zoo, at the entrance there is an exhibit for the grey wolf. I personally feel like it’s a nice species to have at the beginning of the zoo. It is a small zoo with AZA accreditation, so not too many species are present.

 

This thread already was done...
Entrance Animals

 

I feel this one is still valid, however, as this one is your local zoo instead of zoos in general

My local zoo is Yorkshire Wildlife Park, the entrance species now are bush dogs and sealions.

 

At the phoenix zoo which is closest to me turkey and black vultures are the closet. My fav zoo i have been to (I haven’t been to many) is the San diego zoo and it has american flamingos near the entrance to lost forest.

 

Well since I live in Chicago and where I live is close to Brookfield I just drive their, and since my house it also close to the orange line I can just take the train to go to Lincoln park. For Brookfield the first species are the Amur Lepords, Lions, Tigers, Sloth Bars, and Snow Leopards, For Lincoln park its Lions, Grey seals, Habor seals, and Japanese Macaque

 

Taronga Western Plains Zoo have two primate islands, one for Ring-tailed Lemur and one for Black-handed Spider Monkey. The zoo cafe and viewing of the primate islands is free. Ticketed entry begins after that. It's a nice place people can go for lunch on the weekend, see a few monkeys and not have to pay zoo admittance. The first animals in the paid part of the zoo are African Hunting Dogs.

 

Milwaukee County Zoo has two different entry gates with a species to go with it:

The U.S. Bank Gathering Place (2008) features an older and small, but still decent Humboldt penguin exhibit. The West Entrance (2018) consists of “Otter Passage,” an excellent North American river otter habitat.

I think both animals work well as they are fun and popular to catch visitors’ interest from the beginning of their visit - a nice appetizer before hitting some of the larger exhibit complexes.

 

At the Alaska Zoo the Harbor Seal exhibit is right next to the Zoo’s entrance.

 

Chester Zoo has Asian elephants, you can actually view them and their indoor housing without paying. I think it's a pro to have an iconic species as the first thing you see, to the average folk that is a brilliant start to a zoo day.

 

My local zoo (bioparc valencia) has the Madagascar walkthrough rather near the entrance, which has greater flamingoes and pelicans in a small lagoon area, with the fosas next to them. Flamingoes are rather common as entrance exhibits, making them kinda boring at this point. The fossa, however, are much more interesting as entrance animals, but based on the time of the day you may not see them (not necessarily bad though, but might not appeal to most zoo visitors)

my local aquarium has a more interesting set of entrance exhibits. L’oceanografic Valencia has the entrance building with a small lagoon which is home to some small bonnethead sharks and rays, plus a juvenile sea turtle. The exhibit is rather nice, but I don’t think there’s any railing, meaning people might be able to lean over and touch the sharks, which could cause injuries. The second entrance exhibit is a large bird pond home to a large assortment of waterfowl, which I personally find really relaxing and beautiful.

 

My local zoo is Helsinki zoo and it’s entrance animal is a pair of bearded vultures along side a group of Tadjik markhor

 

Paignton has flamingos, probably the staple of entrance exhibits in the UK.

 

Interesting are they two seperated enclosures?

Is that a huge aviary that holds the Markhor along with them?

So far from all reactions I do notice the pros of (most) entrance species mentioned so far is that the animals are active species, that move around quite a bit.

But what are the cons of the species displayed?

 

Budapest Zoo has Orangutans, African penguins and waterfowl nearby the main entrance.

 

Yes it’s just one is on the left and one is on the right

 

I would say my local large zoo, Marwell, doesn't have an entrance exhibit. Nothing is visible before you enter the zoo or at the point where you pay to go in.

The first exhibit you saw used to be a pond with an island. This used to contain several species of waterfowl with a small primate species (I can remember Squirrel Monkeys and Emperor Tamarins at different times) on the island. This is now just a water feature, it is no longer used as an exhibit.

If you go the way the main paths lead you the first animals you see are penguins on your left and a paddock on your right which currently houses Nyala and Sitatunga. Behind the penguins you can see a large paddock containing Giraffes, Zebra, Blesboks and Roan Antelope.

 

Sorry I meant to say that the markhor live next to the bearded vulture aviary not together. The cons might be that the vultures don’t really move around much and just hang out in their center most of the time but the markhor are all ways active and it’s easy to notice them since they have a group of about twenty

 

Blank Park - Red pandas
Omaha - N/A

 

ZooTampa at Lowry Park has several Macaw species in an exhibit at the entrance, Malayan tapirs are visible nearby, but I would not really as it is an entrance species or habitat.