This was added in August of 2011, and is home to brothers Chief Joseph, and Tecumseh that were born in 2009. This is connected to Night Hunters and is also phase II of Cat Canyon that will open on June 30.
This looks to be a great addition to the zoo, and hopefully Cat Canyon can revitilize the entire feline area of the establishment. The verdict on Night Hunters from ZooChatters has been mostly negative (simply a reworking of the old Cat House with similarly small enclosures) but I have a feeling that Cat Canyon will be a massive improvement.
I feel that the zoo is moving in the right direction under Thane Maynard, and things are really starting to improve. Giraffe Ridge has blossomed into a quality habitat, and the neighboring flamingo yard is also quite nice. The newest exhibits, this Cougar exhibit and the Galapagos Tortoise exhibit which opened on Thursday, are both pretty solid. Hopefully Cat Canyon and Africa will follow suit and be solid additions to the zoo as well. Improvements and renovations have also been made to many of the other, older exhibits around the zoo in addition to all of the new exhibits being built: e.g. the Reptile House will be receiving a long overdo renovation this winter.
Yes, Night Hunters is still rather disappointing overall, but I would say it is, in most cases, an improvement over both the former Cat House and the Nocturnal House (And in my opinion any improvement at all over either of those exhibits is welcome). For example, the common vampire bat enclosure consists of two parts, a forest and a cave, and is absolutely massive for the animals it holds, the aardvark/Garnett's galago/Indian flying fox, Burmese python, fennec fox, and binturong enclosures are all vastly larger than their previous enclosures in the Nocturnal House and Reptile House, the enrichment is far superior than in the previous exhibits (both Nocturnal House and Cat House), the fishing cats now have a nice fishing pool, and wood chips and sawdust have also been added to many of the enclosures' flooring to provide softer, more natural substrate. I've never seen the animals of either previous exhibit more active than after Night Hunters opened.
However, on the other hand, a lot of the enclosures have remained unchanged and have no outdoor access. Though most of the enclosures are on the small side, the bobcat, caracal, and Eurasian eagle owl enclosures, as well as the outdoor Siberian lynx enclosure, are all far too small. Again, however, all of said enclosures only hold single animals; I don't quite see the cats being replaced, and the owl is taken off exhibit periodically and allowed to fly around behind the scenes.
To me in many ways Night Hunters comes off as a "quick fix" merely meant to give the animals improved conditions in the meantime until something better could be thought out and funded. The educational aspect is wonderful, and it is an improvement over the previous exhibits, but all-in-all it is still disappointing.
As a longtime Cincinnati Zoo patron, I feel that the zoo has a very bright future. So many positive changes have been made in just the last 10 years that I cannot imagine what it will look like in the next 10 years.
