It is a small theater that has a long viewing window of the pygmy hippos underwater and it is not nearly as impressive as the 11 North American attractions (10 zoos and 1 aquarium) that have underwater viewing for Nile hippos.
@DavidBrown: now that you've visited Franklin Park Zoo, is the species line-up for this pavilion the same? What exhibit impressed you the most? What exhibit was the weakest? I personally think that the gorilla enclosure would be great if there was an outdoor component but as it is this zoo joins Brookfield and Buffalo as an infamous trio that all have gorillas with zero outdoor access. Also, the mandrills could surely use a more spacious exhibit with an outdoor section as well.
As of summer 2016 the only change from this map is that there is a Linne's two-toed sloth where the hornbill was.
I was wondering what the original African species inhabitants were where South American species are now. The ocelot exhibit was a leopard exhibit. I know that there were originally bongos, duikers, and forest buffalo in here too. I think that there were guenons where the lemurs are.
I agree that the mandrill space seems too small.
I liked the underwater hippo viewing theater and the nocturnal potto exhibit. The gorilla exhibit seemed pretty good. Size-wise it seemed comparable to the National Zoo or LA Zoo or the San Diego Safari Park perhaps, but it would be much better if they could still go outside.
In Vicki Croke's book The Modern Ark: The Story of Zoos: Past, Present and Future (1997) she writes that "In the $26 million, three-acre African Pavilion at Boston's Franklin Park Zoo, a pair of bongos - large, striking African antelopes with a red coat and white stripes - are confined to an enclosure the size of a living room. A leopard in this pavilion paces in circles in a cramped, rocky habitat." It seems as if the zoo has now scaled down the size of some of the pavilion's inhabitants.
