Then you should ask, say,
@Pleistohorse and others who have actually been to "darn good" Alaska Zoo and other zoos in Alaska before falling for a fallacy of composition.
I mean, I guess it wouldn't be wrong for me to say that a full blown African Savannah exhibit like in many zoos wouldn't be suitable for a zoo in very cold place to be built.
Yep. Maggie, the African Elephant, and Annabelle, the Asian Elephant, before her, were not really suited for life in Alaska. The Alaska Zoo went to great expense to try and accommodate Maggie’s needs at the end, but really couldn’t. I was part of the police escort that led Maggie to the airport where a USAF cargo aircraft flew her down to California. The last I saw Maggie was a few days before she left the Alaska Zoo. She, no kidding, trumpeted as she was being loaded into the aircraft...and true story, I took my step-daughter to the zoo when she was about five (she always called it “going to see Maggie”) and I caught her trying to hide a peanut...a single peanut...in her pocket. I made her leave it in the car and when we saw Maggie that day, the Elephant extended her trunk towards the kids viewing her and my daughter turned around and gave me the most withering look! I do wish that the facility Maggie retired too allowed some sort of visitation. Especially for Alaskans who remember Maggie. My kid is probably among youngest of those who really do and she is now twenty.
I believe the Alaska Zoo does have some reptiles behind the scenes that they use for school visits. Probably with a tropical species. The popularity of the traveling Reptile Zoo that visits Alaska every August makes me wonder if the Alaska Zoo wouldn’t want to invest in a high quality Reptile House type exhibit...the chance of losing power and heat midwinter (or the expense of heating anyway) I guess needs to be considered.
That’s said, I’ll take advantage of the fact you all didn’t say “exclusively tropical” and throw you a curve ball...Alaska has one animal where the bulk of the world population does indeed live in the tropics...the Alpaca in montane, yet tropical Peru! Then we have the Amur Tiger, which probably really should be counted with all the other mainland “subspecies” and in that case the bulk of the wild population lives in the tropics.
Then we have:
Black-tail Deer (a subspecies of the Mule Deer), which as a species can be found in southernmost Baja California, the tropics, and has been introduced to Hawaii.
Coyote (well documented to be on the verge of entering South America from Panama).
Red Fox (tropical Arabia, India, and the Upper Nile Valley in southern Egypt and northern Sudan...to say nothing of Australia...where the species enters the tropics from the south!)
The Great Horned Owl and the Peregrine Falcon.
Grey Wolves (the Arabian and Indian Wolves of course range into the tropics...and in North America the species once existed as far south as Mexico City). So did Brown Bears....
Black Bears (still inhabit the mountains of Mexico and range right down to the Tropic of Cancer...heck, were there a land bridge...or even a continuous island chain...between Florida and Cuba the Black Bear would cross right down into the tropical Caribbean). So would the River Otter....
So not too bad a representation by Tropical or Sub-tropical animals at The Alaska Zoo (which is a much loved institution here in Anchorage and the surrounding communities).
They've been selling shirts with a logo on them, so I'd hope they have something tangible if they're doing that much!
(I refer of course to the one in Nevada; no offense to the fine folks in Las Vegas, New Mexico, which I am sure is a charming small town).
