I was there for the opening ceremony and made appearances on the news and on Lincoln Park Zoo's youtube video. It was so much fun and the exhibits are really nice.
Walter Family Artic Tundra Review!! Today I got to visit the Artic Tundra at Lincoln park zoo for the first time. Let me say, I was impressed. It is a huge improvement over the mock rock island that was the old exhibit. So lets get into this review. The exhibit began as I took the trail behind Penguin cove. I came across the first exhibit. Its small, but nice. A large viewing window panel peeks into the exhibit. A grassy slope comes down towards the glass. The grass stops and becomes gravel. The pool in this exhibit is rather small, but Siku still managed to fully submerge himself while playing with a cantaloupe. Next up is 3 glass viewing areas all under a single structure. The first look out into the bottom half of the first exhibit. The second looks into the ice cave that will definitely give he bears some relief on a hot summer day. The last one in this area looks into the larger bear habitat. This is wonderful! It is very grassy, with the exeption of some well placed mock rock. Both exhibits have chain link fencing that is blocked by some small pine trees. The larger exhibit continues down hill and the diversity in the landscape is great. You can hear a waterfall crashing down through the chain link. This leads to a shallow pond, that leads to the main pool. There is only one viewing area that is not glass, there is a moat that separates the visitors from the bear, but it is bearly noticeable (Get it because bear, BEARly. Hahahaha... I really wish I was funny.) The final viewing area is the underwater viewing that looks into the decent sized pool. Overall, I enjoyed the Artic Tundra. The first exhibit could be a little bigger, but the second yard is wonderful. Not to mention Siku is very active, and the addition of a female gives me hopes for cubs down the road.
Also. Pavel the tiger can no longer be viewed indoors. Why? There was a sign the said this exhibit is closed for a new 30M$ renovation of the Kolver lion house that will increase the quality of life for our cats. The renovation could be happening sooner than we thought.
Which species will be retained in the historical Kolver building (apart from the ubiquitious lions of course)?
Lions are the only species that have been reveled as of yet. They could indeed be the only species in the new expansion.
That's funny Pachyderm Pro. I also went to see new polar bear/penguin exhibits yesterday. I enjoyed the exhibits, and thought they were really nice additions to the zoo. According to the zoo's winter magazine... -The next project for the zoo is replacing the current Gateway Pavilion with a new $8.5 million Visitor Center. Located near the zoo’s East Gate. -Kolver Lion House will be after that. Only a few things have been announced. It will be a 29.5 million dollar renovation. The lions are staying, and will occupying the whole north side of the building. The tigers will be leaving the zoo. Nothing has been announced for the south side of the building. -
A really hope they do more than just bulldoze the wall and give the lions both of the grottos. For 30M I expect much more.
Well 30 million is deceiving, because all of that money won't be going to the lions. It will be a complete overhaul of the entire building. I'm sure the interior of that building is going to be a cash cow, and in my opinion that's where most of the improvements need to be made. Also, the lion exhibit "space" is already to a large extent predetermined by the existing building. In some way shape or form it will be a combination of the existing lion/tiger exhibits. What the zoo does with the design will be key.
I believe the Kovler Lion House is on some Historic Building list (if not the National Historic Register, then something else), so any construction they do on it will be both constrained by that and expensive because of it.
This is correct. Even beyond this, the exhibit's location in the heart of the zoo is extremely problematic as wilson said, and constraining towards expansion. The entire zoo is constrained these days. I hope LPZ is able to keep at least one additional species besides lions. There is one serval and while it may be an elderly individual from what I believe I've heard, they certainly share a similar habitat and would not need as much space as tigers.
Honestly, the outdoor enclosures aren't even that bad... I would personally like to see larger ones, but my understanding is that cats don't utilize much space so it's not really necessary. The really bad part of that exhibit is the inside, where the cacophony of voices bounce off the walls to create a deafening vortex of noise. If they just closed off the inside of the House from the public, I wouldn't have any issues with it.
I do not like the inside of the exhibit as a zoo guest, though I'll admit my inner historian finds the antiquated nature of the house almost charming. I used to advocate removing the lions, tigers and leopards and focusing on small cats so as not to sacrifice the building's character. If LPZ wants to continue keeping lions and charismatic megafauna, as they have indicated, the existing structure cannot do, and closing the indoor portion would not satisfy the existing animal welfare issues, especially when LPZ wants to appear a world-class institution, as it should be. I imagine they will combine the grotto and gut and replace the indoor area, while keeping a nearly identical outside structure of the building for it's historical value. Just hazarding a guess. It would be nice to see Cheetahs or African leopards in Chicago, but I am not hopeful. If LPZ is planning to omit Tigers, a very popular and obviously endangered species, I can't imagine them bringing in any new big cats in it's place. I'm just hoping they can keep something besides lions. It's a shame they can't build an Asian Trail with Amur leopards, Siberian tigers, Sichuan takin, etc. somewhere, but the only location on the existing map would be to gut Hoofed Animals, which would remove a number of other species.
An update on new polar bear Siku. FYI a female will be joining him in a couple of months. I'm guessing Talini as they were to be paired elsewhere. Trainers go nose-to-nose with Lincoln Park Zoo's new polar bear
