Very good though this exhibit looks - and it does - I'm getting a bit of the 'London's Gorilla Kingdom' feeling about it, in that I cannot see how it cost that much money. Of course, I'm only judging from photos so it's hard to judge, but even allowing for the filtration systems and suchlike it seems an extraordinary amount of money. Compare costs to (for example) Chester's Realm of the Red Ape which cost about (if I'm remembering right) £3m (or nearly US$5m at today's rate) and involved a great aircraft-hangar of a building as well as two landscaped paddocks with tilting climbing poles and suchlike.
One thing that's particularly hard to judge from the pictures is scale - what kind of area does the penguin exhibit occupy?
I am, too, often astonished by the numbers quoted when it comes to the costs of new American zoo exhibits. Sometimes I simply cannot comprehend that they are THAT expensive (and financial controller happens to be my occupation... ).
The link posted here is a 13-page document that gives an incredible number of details on the Humboldt penguin exhibit at the Woodland Park Zoo. The entire area is 17,000 square feet, and it is easily the biggest and best penguin exhibit that I've ever seen. This particular photo shows only a small portion of the whole area, as the visitor pathway winds in and around at least 6 viewing windows of varying sizes. There is a deep section to the pool (seen in this photo) and some extremely shallow areas where it would be possible for a long-armed individual to reach in and perhaps touch a bird. The exhibit is modeled on a Peruvian coastline, and the attention to detail is rather impressive. Woodland Park has a long history of award-winning animal habitats, and whenever the zoo opens a new exhibit it is usually amongst the best of its kind.
