At long last, here is part 2 of my Puget Sound zoo trip. Enjoy. Woodland Park Zoo Review Woodland Park Zoo sits on 188 acres in the Phinney Ridge neighborhood on the north side of Seattle. Woodland Park Zoo is renowned for being the birthplace of the “Landscape Immersion” movement in zoo design. Most of the exhibits built here since 1976 strive for recreating the animal’s habitat and seamlessly immersing guests in the same environment with a minimum of visible barriers. This is my second trip to the Woodland Park Zoo, the first being in 1998. The Northern Trail is located at the far northern end of the zoo and is in my opinion, one of the finest landscape immersion exhibits out there. This exhibit complex recreates the habitats of the far northern regions of the world, taking you through tundra, taiga and montane habitats. As you start down the trail a tall canopy of spruce, fir and aspen trees envelops you. The first exhibit encountered is a wooded hillside which is home to a pack of Arctic Wolves. As you peer through the trees a herd of elk can be seen grazing the meadow in the background. Barriers between these two exhibits are brilliantly disguised creating an amazing illusion. Next on the trail is a trio of tall netted enclosures housing Barred Owls, Northern Porcupines with Black-billed Magpies, and Snowy Owls. A rest stop can then be made at the Tundra Interpretive Building where a video plays in a small theater and the lobby contains a large wrap around mural of life on the tundra. The next exhibit encountered is home to brown bears, and the barriers are so brilliantly disguised that seeing the bear startled my wife, who wasn’t thinking she was looking at an exhibit yet. The Taiga Interpretive Shelter provides underwater viewing for the brown bears as well as an exhibit of Northern River Otters. Visible behind the otters are rocky cliffs which are home to Mountain Goats and Arctic Foxes. Next you encounter a sod-roofed cabin, which upon entry affords up close views of spectacular Steller’s Sea Eagles. On my previous visit, this housed Bald Eagles and the viewing was open, but they have added light, unobtrusive netting now that the more intimidating Steller’s Sea Eagles are in residence. The trail culminates at a viewing area for the Roosevelt Elk seen earlier behind the wolves. The layered exhibit works both ways, as you can see the wolf pack wandering the ridge above the elk from this vantage point. This entire trail is expertly crafted and by far one of the most believable wild experiences I have ever seen in a zoo. Tropical Asia is a believable Asian rainforest experience. The exhibit is comprised of two zones, Elephant Forest and Trail of Vines. Elephant Forest contains a long and narrow shaded paddock that houses two Asian and one African Bush Elephant. For $5, guests can get an opportunity to “feed” an elephant. It really amounts to being allowed to poke a branch towards an elephant for it to take it from your hands; you don’t have any physical contact with the elephant itself. Buildings in this area believably recreate a Thai logging camp. Also located in this area is a brand new exhibit which recreates a forest clearing for a group of Visayan Warty Pigs. The Trail of Vines begins at a good sized, vegetated, shaded Malayan Tapir exhibit, which oddly enough has nose-to-nose glass viewing. The next Trail of Vines has lush outdoor exhibits for Lion-tailed Macaques, Siamangs, and Orangutans. A small glassed in Indian Python exhibit is located in between the indoor areas for the Siamangs and Orangutans. The outdoor they let the vegetation grow for a year before introducing any animals. I can’t imagine a zoo being willing to let a new exhibit sit empty that long these days. Oddly, I was at the zoo on a beautiful sunny day, and rather than enjoying their lush outdoor yard, the orangutans were sitting in their indoor concrete floored day room. The rockwork in this area is not the best, and is noticeably artificial as opposed to much of the rockwork in the zoo. Overall the Tropical Asia complex is wonderful and the feeling of being surrounded by the jungle is well executed. African Savanna is a classic exhibit. However, this area held some disappointment for me. You start off the trail in the African Village, which is a remarkably well done piece of cultural immersion. The school house looks out into the main larger savanna which is home to giraffes, plains zebras, fringe-eared oryx, Grant’s gazelles, ostriches, helmeted guineafowl, and black spur-winged geese. After leaving the village you are once again thrust on to the main path, temporarily breaking the illusion of being immersed in the African bush. The trail continues again and there are intermittent views of the savanna previously mentioned. A small walkthrough aviary houses a number of African birds, the highlight being some very active and vocal lilac-breasted rollers. A hippopotamus pool is next and the exhibit blends seamlessly with the savanna viewed behind it, making it look like one continuous scene in a classic Hagenbeckian way. Further down the path comes the disappointment. The giraffe barn, which was originally hidden from view by vegetation, is now in full view, and guests are treated to views of chain-link hard-standings. The giraffe barn is on the opposite side of the guest path from the savanna, so there is a spot where the visitor trail is cut off when the giraffes need to move from the savanna to the barn. This area used to be well hidden, but now consists of big chain-link gates that offer no illusion as to what they are. Beyond this, the new giraffe feeding platform forms an amazing bottleneck that when busy cuts off guest access to the brilliant patas monkey exhibit. The patas monkey exhibit also features a seamless view to the savanna beyond. Next is a large, grassy exhibit for African lions. This former cat grotto has been expanded upon to create a large, naturalistic habitat. The artificial rock face of the old grotto is still visible. An adjacent exhibit, originally built for African wild dogs, now houses common warthogs. The blight that has been placed on this exhibit by the giraffe barn and giraffe feeding do not completely tarnish this brilliant and classic exhibit complex. The Tropical Rain Forest exhibit really consists of three separate zones. The first encounted as you enter beneath an artificial recreation of the stump of a fallen kapok tree is Jaguar Cove. Jaguar Cove is hands down the most beautiful jaguar exhibit I’ve ever seen. The trunk of the fallen kapok covers the visitor viewing area providing shelter, and a top to the glass windows that look into the exhibit. The exhibit itself contains a stream and a pond with underwater viewing and lush vegetation. On my visit both cats were out together and quite active and visible making a delightful guest experience. Following the jaguar exhibit you enter the Tropical Rain Forest Building which one the AZA exhibit award when it opened. Inside, effort has been made to immerse the guest in a rainforest, but it largely retains the look of a hallway with views into exhibits along the walls. The exhibits themselves contain quite a bit of genuine plant material making this a better than average animal building. The largest animal in the building is an ocelot, which apparently has access to a rooftop outdoor area that is off exhibit, alleviating the concerns of those who don’t feel mammals should be kept indoors year-round. The exhibit culminates with a walk-through, tree-top level aviary featuring such South American beauties as the white-tailed trogon, spangled cotinga, and blue-gray tanager. Upon leaving the building, guests then encounter a trail past outdoor exhibits for Madagascan and African species. Red ruffed lemurs and eastern black-and-white colobus live on separate, lush islands that are so densely planted that finding the animals is challenging. A second group of colobus live in a glass-fronted and netted enclosure that strikes a better balance between visibility and naturalism. The trail concludes with a pair of lush, glass fronted forest habitats for western lowland gorillas. These exhibits are converted bear grottos, but there is little evidence of this when you encounter it. The exhibits are densely planted and naturalistic but on my visit the gorillas were all hanging out in front by the glass affording spectacular views. The Tropical Rain Forest complex as a whole is very enjoyable. The penguin habitat is impressive. It features a recreation of the Peruvian coast and is home to a colony of Humboldt penguins and a single brown booby. Multiple viewing points allow great up close encounter with the tuxedoed flock. Props are placed around the exhibit that highlight the problems the penguins face from over fishing and guano harvesting. The Temperate Forest is home to a series of fairly basic enclosures for Japanese serow, red panda, crane species, and a walkthrough aviary filled with waterfowl. Nothing too spectacular here, but it is still pleasant. My one complaint about the Woodland Park Zoo is that on a busy day there weren’t enough benches, drinking fountains or restrooms. Most of the facilities are clustered down around the southwest corner of the zoo, so guests up in the Asian Forest and Northern Trail have to work harder for their facilities. Woodland Park Zoo is brilliant and an excellent example of what works with landscape immersion. Woodland Park has been a leader in zoo design since the 1970’s and from the looks of their future plans, they will still continue to push the envelope.
Great review Ituri and almost completely mirrors my 2010 visit. My prior visit had been in 1989 when the elephant exhibit was brand new. The brown bear and river otter exhibits in the Northern Trail were one of the best immersion exhibit experiences that I have ever had. The elephant exhibit, while still adequate I'm sure, seems pretty small by modern standards. I also found the giraffe feeding rather obstructive as the giraffes were cordoned in a small fenced area rather than out in the main savanna. I think that their penguin exhibit may be my favorite that I've seen anywhere. The views of the penguins underwater are fantastic and the immersion details were great.
Thanks David, Some day in the future, I may continue this thread with the Seattle Aquarium and Northwest Trek...
Great review and well worth reading. However, you did not mention the above-average snow leopard exhibit (with poor visitor viewing), the Australian paddock and Aussie side enclosures, the walk-through lorikeet feeding aviary, the Conservation Aviaries with plenty of birds, the all-indoor children's play area Zoomazium (enormously popular in winter), the small but noteworthy Bug World, the Reptile House (around 35 species in the "Day Exhibit"),the Adaptations Building (Komodo dragons, meerkats, etc) or the Family Farm zone. You did provide an overview of the main highlights and that is commendable.
Yeah snowleopard, I didn't remark on most of those things because I didn't feel they warranted comment. the snowleopard exhibit is a good enclosure, but a bad exhibit. Australasia and the Adaptations building is underwhelming. The "Day Exhibit" should be called a Reptile House, and it's alright, but nothing special. The farm was nice and Bug World was interesting. We didn't go into the Zoomazium. Also the bird feeding in Australasia are lorikeets, rosellas, and cockatiels, not lorikeets.
Sorry for the short-comings in my review, and for my poorly thought out responses. I pretty much posted the review I had written back in July and didn't quite feel up to finishing it so posted it as was. Pretty lazy on my part. Thanks for the feedback snowleopard. I really do appreciate it. Also, part 3 of my Puget Sound trip is available here. http://www.zoochat.com/22/ituris-puget-sound-adventure-part-3-a-298533/ Trust me, its actually complete!
