African Adventure trail map

The Fresno Zoo's African Adventure complex opened in October 2015. It is a multi-acre addition added to the zoo and consists of several individual exhibits and visitor amenities. Animal exhibits include a giraffe savanna (with ostriches and addax also as I write this), an elephant savanna, and a multi-species savanna with white rhinos, several antelope species (eland, greater kudu, wildebeest, springbok), plains zebra, and (according to the sign) some bird species including pink-backed pelicans. There are lion, meerkat, agama/pancake tortoise, and cheetah exhibits. There is a large visitor services complex overlooking the savanna exhibits with a food court, shop, African cichlid aquarium, restrooms, meeting room, and large sitting area.

There are two trails surrounding the savanna, one that ends at the giraffe feeding area and one that ends at the elephant exhibit with an overlook of their large swimming area.

One flaw of this expensive new complex that will irk zoo enthusiasts is that all visitors must back-track along the same pathways not once but on two occasions...a major pet peeve of mine. Does anyone know if there are long-term plans to make the African section a single continuous loop?

snowleopard said:

One flaw of this expensive new complex that will irk zoo enthusiasts is that all visitors must back-track along the same pathways not once but on two occasions...a major pet peeve of mine. Does anyone know if there are long-term plans to make the African section a single continuous loop?

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Yes, the lack of a loop does require a lot of walking. I was taking a quick tour of the complex and definitely felt the amount of movement needed to see everything. That said, the whole complex is quite spectacular and the effort needed to see everything is worthwhile.

I don't see how they could turn this pathway into a loop because both trails end at major animal exhibits with the main savanna between them.

DavidBrown said:

Yes, the lack of a loop does require a lot of walking. I was taking a quick tour of the complex and definitely felt the amount of movement needed to see everything. That said, the whole complex is quite spectacular and the effort needed to see everything is worthwhile.

I don't see how they could turn this pathway into a loop because both trails end at major animal exhibits with the main savanna between them.

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Future developments (at least on the right hand side of the area) could be accomplished through a loop path returning to the lion exhibit zone, eliminating most of the backtracking. As mentioned, the area to the right is slated to be a wetland habitat for hippos etc.

A similar "mini-loop" could be developed on the other side, but apparently there are legal protections for the existing "gardens" in that zone that will make any changes difficult to get approval for.

The original idea was to have two smaller loops, bringing guests through the food/retail hub four times in a complete visit. Very clever.

reduakari said:

Future developments (at least on the right hand side of the area) could be accomplished through a loop path returning to the lion exhibit zone, eliminating most of the backtracking. As mentioned, the area to the right is slated to be a wetland habitat for hippos etc.

A similar "mini-loop" could be developed on the other side, but apparently there are legal protections for the existing "gardens" in that zone that will make any changes difficult to get approval for.

The original idea was to have two smaller loops, bringing guests through the food/retail hub four times in a complete visit. Very clever.

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Thanks for the insight, reduakari. I did see open space to the left of the giraffes that I wondered might be used for gorillas at some point. Early stories about the Fresno Africa expansion mentioned that bringing gorillas back to the zoo (gone since the early 1990s) might be possible at some undefined point in the future. An African tropical forest complex would make a logical Phase 3 of the Africa development once the African wetland exhibits are built. Hopefully they could overcome whatever legal barriers there would be to development of that space.