Did you see any gorillas outdoors on your visit? From what I gather, it seems as though they are opting to spend a lot of time indoors despite this incredible new outdoor space.
@Neil chace There's photos of the two gorillas I saw. None outdoors, two inside, each by themselves. With so many places to view them, both indoors and out, it felt much more ... impactful, maybe? ... to barely see any.
@TinoPup my last visit was like that, most of the gorillas were no shows. Prior to gorilla Grove, it'd be rather easy to see most of the gorillas, so I'm curious if there's some sort of new holding/connection chute between the two habitats they've been spending a lot of time in. That's just my guess though. In my opinion, it was a good exhibit prior to Gorilla Grove, and a great one now that the outdoor habitat was added. Hopefully it becomes easier to see the gorillas though, as they're what draws a lot of people into the zoo species-wise.
@Neil chace It's a great exhibit, but they need to use it! I'm not big on gorillas so missing them isn't normally a big deal to me, but it was disappointing. Having a half dozen separate windows inside, in addition to the huge outside area, is great if you see them, but makes the place feel more empty when you don't.
@Neil chace I have mixed feelings on it. It might have been because there were a fair amount of people, most going the wrong way (enforce the entrance/exit! Never had that issue in other similar buildings!), but it felt very busy. You can have a lot of stuff but still feel realistic, like Omaha and Bronx do in their jungles, and national aquarium's rainforest. But this felt more busy to hide things, if that makes sense? Rather than feeling *real*. Most of the exhibits were a decent size, at least, which isn't always the case with indoor spaces like this. The snake area felt ignored. The end area, with the cichlids and lemurs and whatnot, is absolute sterile crap (other than the exhibits themselves) and ruined any good feelings the rest of the building gives. I was feeling better about the building while going through the photos and uploading them, with the crowds not around me!, until I got to that area again.
@TinoPup all very valid points. Between opening Gorilla Grove, replacing mandrills with debrazza's monkeys, and giving Pygmy Hippo access to the old capybara exhibit, they've definitely made some necessary improvements to the building. Overall, I am a big fan of this exhibit, and think it's one of the stronger exhibit complexes in a New England Zoo (behind only Mystic's Beluga Area, Marco Polo at RWPZ, and Stone's Caribbean and Himalayan areas), but does have some flaws that are difficult to ignore. The Lemur exhibit is definitely the weakest in the building, and the slitherin exhibit is another weak spot. It doesn't help though that reptiles as a whole are virtually unrepresented at Franklin Park Zoo- so easy to see why the snake habitats have been neglected by the zoo. Fix those two areas, however, and they'd have an even better exhibit than they already do!
@Neil chace Those things definitely sound like improvements. I agree about it being one of the stronger complexes in the area, as well; there aren't many to begin with unfortunately. I enjoyed the children's zoo, even if only one exhibit has animals in it New England has a major lack of herps!
@TinoPup you only saw animals in one of the children's zoo exhibits? There should've been animals in all five' red panda/muntjac, hooded crane aviary, prairie dogs, and both turtle/fish exhibits. Must've been a very weird day if you only saw animals in one of these.
I completely agree with the major lack of herps in New England, there are a number of groups of animals I want better representation of in New England, and reptiles are number one on that list!
