The old polar bear pool at the Frozen Tundra exhibit has been refurbished as an interim animal activity and exercise area using recycled furniture and materials. Plans to convert the Frozen Tundra exhibit into a coastal exhibit for sealions have been shelved for now because of the pandemic. The Animal Playground will be used mainly by the animals that appear during shows (and are otherwise off display) such as coatis, raccoons, fennec foxes and parrots, as well as domestic dogs and goats. No activity schedule is available yet.
@Fargusno I would too of course. But "garbage" is a very strong word to use. The polar bear exhibit has been sitting empty for over 3 years and this Animal Playground project is meant to be a low budget, temporary and practical re-use of the space until such time when resources allow the coastal exhibit to be built.
This looks like it involved quite a lot of time, money and effort, just like... A sea lion exhibit.
Yeah, couldn't they just keep the crowds waiting a bit longer to do the job first instead of investing all those resources on something most will find underwhelming?
@JigerofLemuria there are a number of factors to consider. Cost wise, the Animal Playground is a lot less expensive than the planned sealion exhibit. The plan is to convert the old freshwater polar bear pool into a saltwater pool - the water treatment and filtration systems will not be cheap. There will also be quite a bit of remodeling to adapt the enclosure and dens to suit sealions. So my estimate is that the sealion exhibit will cost well over a million dollars. I estimate the cost of the Animal Playground to be in the tens of thousands. No heavy construction was needed, just some power tools to assemble the structures which cost next to nothing as they are mostly made of salvaged materials. You mentioned "waiting a bit longer". This wait might be more than 2 years before work on the new sealion exhibit would even begin. The Covid pandemic has led to delays in the Zoo's major new projects. At the start of 2020, there were 3 major projects lined up - a new children's zoo, a new Asian elephant exhibit and the sealion exhibit. The completion of the children's zoo has already been delayed by about 2 years, and this will have a knock-on effect on the other projects. One final point that many Zoochatters seem to forget or overlook - we don't represent the majority of zoo visitors. The average zoo visitors aren't too obsessed with exhibit settings. They are more interested in seeing the animals active and the Animal Playground is entirely activity-based.
