The new entrance and native species loop (Florida) seems to have taken a long time to come to fruition. Arizona Docent, what did you think of the zoo overall and was this your first visit?
Yes it was my first visit and I like it very much. It is huge and I never thought I would say this about a zoo but it is almost too big. I could not believe how long it took me to walk from the entrance to the Amazon exhibit.
It seems they are going in a new direction. All of the original exhibits follow the same design - massive open yards for large mammals with open areas behind (invisible moats) to give the illusion of infinity. The original zoo has no small animal exhibits - including bird aviaries and reptile exhibits - the only birds were also in a massive walk-in aviary.
However, starting with Amazon and Beyond (and presumably the upcoming Florida Mission Everglades) they are going the route of more traditional zoo exhibitry. That is smaller exhibits and some indoor buildings for reptiles and small mammals. This is not necessarily bad, just different, although I was disappointed with the small size of the two jaguar exhibits (though I like the vegetation and different levels and water viewing).
