An excerpt from my Calgary Zoo review on my 50 day, 50 zoo/aquarium road trip:
Penguin Plunge – Calgary Zoo has a superstar habitat on their hands, a full 6 years before the giant pandas arrive. This $24.5 million complex opened in February of 2012 and 6 months later there are still enormous lineups that stretch from 30 minutes to 2 hours according to the many signs in the area. The zoo opened at 9:00 and by 9:15 there was a half-hour wait to see the penguins, and chatting with a keeper it seems as if now the lineups are at least a full hour for most of the day but it also reaches a point where many visitors cannot be bothered to wait in the hot sun for such a long duration of time. On my 3rd consecutive day at the zoo I managed to become part of the very first group inside the building, and after that clumps of people are allowed in as there are several staff members monitoring the numbers. There are 46 penguins of 4 different species (8 king, 23 gentoo, 5 rockhopper and 10 Humboldt) and it is the second best all-indoor penguin exhibit I’ve ever seen. Saint Louis Zoo is still #1 but Calgary has deliberately modeled Penguin Plunge on Penguin & Puffin Coast at the American zoo. In both cases penguins swim inches from visitors, and I saw at least 5 visitors actually get splashed by the birds as they were frisky first thing in the morning.
Outside the building are a couple of huge penguin statues and a scenic Humboldt penguin habitat with a trickling pool (that could be a bit bigger), many rocky outcrops and a very large grassy area that I never saw being used. The Humboldts will be brought inside during the winter and placed with the rest of the penguins, as they were back in February. Indoors the setup is fairly basic, with a pathway winding down the middle and an average-sized penguin pool on either side. The rocky backdrops go well with the colourful lighting on the ceiling that mimics the real sky, and the glass windows are perhaps 4.5 feet high all the way along. People are allowed to lean on the glass and it is such an immersive experience that the temptation to reach out and touch a penguin is something that the staff are aware of at all times. It is an awesome experience to see the penguins up close, but at a chilly temperature of 6 degrees Celsius (42 degrees Fahrenheit) it made me shiver in my t-shirt, shorts and sandals and after exactly 12 minutes I left the penguins to their icy water and headed back out into the sunshine. People are willing to line up for an hour because penguins are well and truly superstar attractions!
Snowleopard- You said St. Louis is still #1 with you. (It is mine as well) Since Calgary has similarities to St. Louis, what puts St. Louis above Calgary for you? Just by your pictures, Calgary seems bigger and a little more modern. You could just be a great photographer
Snowleopard- You said St. Louis is still #1 with you. (It is mine as well) Since Calgary has similarities to St. Louis, what puts St. Louis above Calgary for you? Just by your pictures, Calgary seems bigger and a little more modern. You could just be a great photographer
One word: puffins! Saint Louis has a better ambience and entrance area while Calgary has a fairly dull, nondescript building housing its remarkable collection of penguins. Both zoos have Humboldt penguins to see outdoors but the addition of a puffin exhibit is a brilliant masterstroke by Saint Louis. There are no other North American zoos even close in terms of all-indoor penguin habitats because both Calgary and Saint Louis have chilled environments that are quite incredible.
I've seen the Penguin habitat at the St. Louis Zoo twice, and judging by these photos, I'd say they have some real competition with Calgary for #1 on their hands. Puffins or not!
