This also looks like a massive pool for the otters to swim in, and it seems the whole Grizzly Ridge exhibit is a major improvement to Akron, and looks like it is definitely a serious contender for the best North American exhibit in the US.
This also looks like a massive pool for the otters to swim in, and it seems the whole Grizzly Ridge exhibit is a major improvement to Akron, and looks like it is definitely a serious contender for the best North American exhibit in the US.
Best North American exhibit in the U.S.? Grizzly Ridge might be an impressive set of enclosures but at the end of the day it is around 6 exhibits in a small zoo and there are far better examples out there. North Carolina Zoo has a North American zone that takes 3 hours to tour; Oklahoma City Zoo has a brilliant 8-acre North American section; Woodland Park Zoo has its award-winning Northern Trail; Oregon Zoo's North American section is arguably the highlight of the entire facility; Sedgwick County Zoo, Columbus Zoo and Lowry Park Zoo also have sprawling North American sections with loads of exhibits that take a long time to see. Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum has its entire zoo as a North American section, and the list goes on.
Good point! A medium-sized zoo then, with a solid new addition, but one could see the entire Akron Zoo in the time it takes to tour just the North American section of the North Carolina Zoo.
Considering North Carolina Zoo would a cataloged as a large zoo at around 1,500 acres that would not be a surprised. That would not be a surprise. It also helped that they are a state-owned zoo and get money directly from the state unlike zoos like Akron, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Toledo that get it through levies and donations.