Entrance Exhibits

Cameron Park Zoo, Texas has an island for Lar Gibbons at the entrance. There is also a lemur island nearby.
 
gentle lemur said:
Interestingly enough, in earlier years Chester put bears by the entrance too. The original entrance was where the staff car park is now, just in front of the current staff entrance, so the first animals you saw were the wapiti (in the current bongo paddock, which also included the crane aviary if I remember correctly) and the sun bears in the round enclosure where the bushdogs are now.
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This reminds me of the excitement I always felt as we drove past the zoo on arrival, the first thing you saw through the perimeter fence from the road was the wapiti paddock but when I was going to the zoo as a child the first things you saw once through the gates were the aquarium and orang utan house and adjoining aviary. The sealions, not far away, were always noisy and that I think adds to the first experience of a zoo, the first sounds you hear.
 
zoo entries response

here in sf ,our entry village(admissions ,rest rooms,gift shop,educationcenter) are melded with the african savanah. in fact there are a couple viewing areas outside of the paid area. i consider it one of the highlights of the zoo
 
Well, My Local Zoo Is Chester And That Is Really A Grand Entrance Although I Like A Nice Peacefull Entrance, Paignton Still Has Flamingo's At Their Entrance, Which I Think Is Nice, Aswell Newquay Zoo, When I Arrived I Saw Tortoise And Mara, Which Was Also A Nice Entrance

Although If I Owned A Zoo I Would Have Scarlet Ibis Near My Entrance, A Cheap Smaller Version Of Flamingo's. hehe
 
I forgot to mention my all-time favorite entrance exhibit. Cascade Crest at the Oregon Zoo. Spectacular way to begin your zoo experience.

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Sorry, it is the first exhibit in the Great Northwest section of the Oregon Zoo. It houses Rocky Mountain goats and is visible before you go through the zoo entrance.
 
Taronga Western Plains Zoo's entrance redevelopment will allow the public free access to the spider monkeys, B & W Ruffed Lemurs and Ring Tailed Lemurs. The public will be able to access to zoo's gift shop and cafe without having to pay to enter the zoo and it will also give local kids access to the brand new playground.
 
For one of the worst First Impressions, I would have to nominate Dudley Zoo. I'm not talking about the old, and no longer used, Tecton entranceway. I think it would be a great idea to restore that for its original use. No. I'm talking about the funfair. As you enter Dudley Zoo you have a choice of turning to the right or the left. Turn to the left and the first exhibit you come to is a nice, but pretty standard, one for flamingos. Turn to the rightas you enter, however, and your first impression of Dudley Zoo is a noisy, garish funfair, with carousel rides, Dodgem cars and similar trappings. Nothing to do with animals at all. It just reinforces the erroneous, die-hard belief that zoos exist only as places of entertainment for kids. I strongly believe that fairground rides should have NO place in a modern zoo.
 
zooman64 said:
For one of the worst First Impressions, I would have to nominate Dudley Zoo. I'm not talking about the old, and no longer used, Tecton entranceway. I think it would be a great idea to restore that for its original use. No. I'm talking about the funfair. As you enter Dudley Zoo you have a choice of turning to the right or the left. Turn to the left and the first exhibit you come to is a nice, but pretty standard, one for flamingos. Turn to the rightas you enter, however, and your first impression of Dudley Zoo is a noisy, garish funfair, with carousel rides, Dodgem cars and similar trappings. Nothing to do with animals at all. It just reinforces the erroneous, die-hard belief that zoos exist only as places of entertainment for kids. I strongly believe that fairground rides should have NO place in a modern zoo.[/QU

@zooman,
I have nothing to say to you apart from you are absolutely 100% correct!
This is a horrible eyesore on what is otherwise a collection that is trying it's best to improve on very little money, and in my opinion doing a good job of it too.
What's more this 'funfair' takes up a fair amount of prime space, and it's also on flat land which is something Dudley has little of.
I'm also not sure it has anything to do with the zoo at all and doesn't make them any money (if anyone knows better please correct me), so what is it doing there and why dont they kick the damn thing off the site.

I also dont see that it's that widely used so there are youths working the rides glaring at you as you walk past.

Now that I got that off my chest, on a side note when the zoo is busy one of the original Tecton entrances is sometimes still used which is nice to see.
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At Durrell (Jersey Zoo), the first exhibit is a cloud forest enclosure for Andean Bears, Ring-Tailed Coatis, Howler Monkeys and a lone female Asian Short Clawed Otter. Inside the entrance itself there is work on a fish tank and a small Maclays Spectre Stick Insect enclosure.
 
An outstanding entrance isn't necessary to me. If the rest of the zoo is good, that's good enough for me. I partly feel this way right now as it's Buffalo Zoo's next project. Out of all the renovations needed to be done at the zoo, I hardly think the number one priority is an area geared towards humans and not their animal inhabitants. I rather they start to remodel Polar Bear exhibit as they desperately need it. However, I read in an article that they need to move the entrance in order to give the Polar Bear exhibit more space. But the article also stated one of the gift shops in that area will remain there and be turned into a restaurant.

But I do admit it's nice to have a welcoming entrance that sets a certain tone. Whether it's geared towards tourists with zoo employees taking your photos and shops all over (Columbus Zoo), or a main area that has paths leading off in different directions where you can pick where to start. I think I had a similar thread about this awhile back about how certain animals have an impact regarding where they are stationed at the zoo. At the Buffalo Zoo, the elephants are right at the entrance. However, at the Seneca Park Zoo they are at the back of the zoo (saving the best for last). I'm not sure which way I like it as both have their advantages. You can get out of the way of seeing a main attraction animal, but being at the entrance everyone might be in that location. However, if there's another route to take you can always return to this area later in the day when you leave. And I do like to see a main animal because it builds up the anticipation. Regardless where the animals are located, I still get so impatient and flustered at new zoos when viewing an exhibit. I will want to spend time seeing an exhibit, but something in the distant always catches my eye and I feel I need to see that right away. It always depends on what the animal is doing.

I feel like I've been rambling, but I look forward to reading everyone's opinion.
 
The Cincinnati Zoo's exhibit for their herd of elephants, Asian Elephant Reserve, is located directly outside the new entrance complex and is the first exhibit seen by most visitors. Before they closed the Safari Camp entrance down to the general public (Now that entrance and parking-lot is generally only used for school, church, and other such groups),the first exhibit visitors would see entering the zoo would be Lemur Lookout, an exhibit home to the zoo's group of Ring-tailed Lemurs.

As far as entrance exhibits and entrance complexes go, I don't really care all that much. It's nice when a zoo has an outstanding entrance complex that brings on a feel of quality and pride and sets an overall tone to the zoo. It's still okay to me if a zoo's entrance is a little disappointing, but the rest of the zoo is nice. It's sort of like the saying, "Don't judge a book by it's cover." The Columbus Zoo was a good example of this before their new entrance complex opened just a few years ago. The new entrance was just built inbetween the openings of Asia Quest and Polar Frontier.
 
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I really enjoy when the zoo is set up like this. I suggest more zoos go this route. Ones that come to mind are Maryland zoo's Big Prairie Dog exhibit, Cape May County Zoo's Snowy owl exhibit, Philadelphia zoo's Spider monkey exhibit with Rare Animal Conservation Center and Treetop Trails and Akron zoo's Humboldt Penguin exhibit.
 
Beardsley Zoo's first exhibit is an average aviary home to 1.1 Andean Condors. Once the juvenile condor grows a little more, he'll definately be a more impressive specimen. Condors aren't the most exciting animals, but visitors seem to like seeing these large birds.
Maritime Aquarium's first exhibit is home to 7 female Harbor Seals, and while too small for the seals, the exhibit is home to one of the most popular animals in the facility and gets guests excited for their visit.
Mystic Aquarium's first exhibit is home to 2.2 Beluga Whales. These are the superstars of the aquarium and have the best exhibit for any species, and is the perfect way to start off your visit.
 
The Lisbon Oceanarium first exhibit is th Central Tank. There´s a wall with a famous line of a Portuguese Poet and then we see this:
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Lisbon Zoo has a free area with some exhibits like Nile Crocs and Bolivian Squirrel Monkeys. The first exhibit after the ticket area is the Grevy's Zebra to the right and the Dolphinarium to the left.
 
Fota Wildlife Park has meerkats and grey cheeked mangabeys.
Madrid Zoos first exhibits can be viewed from outside the zoo (caso de campo)
 
kiang said:
The nearest exhibits to the entrance at Edinburgh are the Patagonian sea lion pool and of course, the Chilean flamingo aviary.
At the HWP, the first species to be seen is the forest reindeer (the only ones in the UK), followed by the reserve for yak, kiang and bactrian camel.
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The sea lions have gone and the enclosure has been converted for a group of meerkat.
 
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