The lush foliage hides the fact that this is an outdated grotto that has done a terrific job of disguising sun bears over the years. In a few days the sun bears at the zoo (1.1) will be off exhibit and later sent to Virginia Zoo on the opposite coast of the United States. The hope is that with the warmer weather the pair will breed, and Woodland Park is preparing this part of the zoo for the 2-acre Asian Tropical Forest zone. A decision was made to maintain sloth bears in the collection and phase out the sun bears, and considering the fact that during my past 15 visits to the zoo I'd estimate that I had a clear image of a sun bear on perhaps 2-3 occasions then the animals will not be missed and this exhibit will be completely overhauled by 2014. On the zoo's website it even lists one of the reasons why the choice was for sloth bears over sun bears due to the visibility of the species.
I'm trying to remember what this section of the zoo looked like. I recall an old largish cage that looked like it had once held big cats and had a pair of pheasants in it when I visited in 2010. Would that be in the footprint of the new development?
When this project is done will there be any other parts of the zoo that need modernization? I remember the raptor aeries looked quite out of place and old, but it seemed like they had a function in the zoo with their raptor show.
@DAVID: The 2-acre Asian Tropical Forest zone will be basically in the exact center of the zoo, as currently the trio of outdated grottoes (Sumatran tiger, sloth bear, sun bear) are on a pathway that connects the western edge (Reptile House, penguins, etc) with the eastern side (orangutans, elephants, etc). After 2014 the zoo might not have a single really bad exhibit and so as to what else needs to be modernized your guess is as good as mine.
I'd suggest that the Temperate Forest (waterfowl, cranes, red pandas, Japanese serow) could use sprucing up, the hippos could definitely benefit from an overhauled exhibit that also contains underwater viewing, the 3 elephants (2 Asian and 1 African) might not last much longer under AZA-requirements, and the long-rumored addition could be an Asian Highlands trail that connects to the Northern Trail and completes the loop rather than forcing annoyed visitors to backtrack to the top of the path after reaching the Steller's eagles and elk. Woodland Park will be in a pretty good position as it can start looking at upgrading exhibits as there won't really be anything that desperately needs attention.
