The stars of this exhibit used to be capybaras. The howler monkeys and screamers were in with them.
I wonder why the capybaras were phased out? The first time I saw the exhibit there was a capybara family with several babies and they all went swimming in the pond. It was quite cool.
Update: I asked on the Santa Ana Zoo website what happened to the capybaras and got this reply from the zoo: "They've been gone for a couple of years now. We are looking at replacing the Capys, but I'm not sure if they'll be back on the same island, or in a new space."
The latest plan is for the zoo to turn this exhibit into one for Giant River Otters, which I think could be an enormous success. An underwater viewing panel will be installed and this habitat is the first that visitors see when they enter the zoo. Otters are charismatic mammals and it would be great to see the plans become a reality.
