Until 2011, this habitat was home to the Kenda the Polar Bear (Ursus Maritimus) (0.1), who was known as a local celebrity.
After her passing, the exhibit was renovated and altered to be a new great home for mountain lions (Puma Concolor). At 18,500 square feet, the Ecotarium claims the enclosure is among the largest Mountain Lion Exhibits in North America. It is home to 1.1 mountain lions (siblings), named Salton and Freyja. The exhibit has really good signage, which talks about the positive impact mountain lions would have on local ecosystems if they were reintroduced into the Northeast.
I would be curious if anyone knows where the other top largest Mountain Lion habitats are located.
This is the full exhibit. The camera angle makes the habitat look deceptively small, but I actually had to stand pretty far back to get the whole thing in view.
In reality, the exhibit is pretty deep, with the back wall being much further away than it appears.
@Coelacanth18 I know we're talking about Puma's here but I'm working on a tour of Lincoln Park's Lion House and coincidentally the zoo claims their new lion habitat is almost exactly 18,500 sq. ft. (Google Earth says 14,000). This doesn't even look half the size of their lion exhibit.
Edit: According to Google Earth, this outdoor area is approx 3,600 sq ft, the whole complex is about 5,000 sq ft.
It does, weird. I wonder if it's counting off-show, indoor, and surrounding visitor/keeper space in addition to the actual display enclosure? Sometimes zoos will do that, such as with elephant complexes.
@Coelacanth18 Houston did that with their Gorilla habitat, claiming its the largest of its kind in America at 2 acres. In reality, it's not even an acre and no where near the size of Atlanta's.
@Coelacanth18 it looks like you are right. I got an approximate 18,500 square foot measurement for the entire complex when I included the habitat, guest areas, plaza, holding buildings, and 3 adjacent bird exhibits in the measured zone.
The zoo's website is really exaggerating the square footage, which always comes across as being deceitful in my opinion. I never go on Google Earth, but there are plenty of North American Cougar exhibits that are larger than the one at EcoTarium.
I listed 10 Cougar exhibits below that are more than likely ALL larger than what is at the EcoTarium. (Every photo was taken by me)
Winnipeg's Assiniboine Park Zoo:
Shalom Wildlife Zoo (Wisconsin) has a very large Cougar exhibit that opened in 2017:
BC Wildlife Park:
Keepers of the Wild (Arizona):
Dakota Zoo (North Dakota):
DeYoung Family Zoo (Wisconsin) - with sketchy fencing:
Northeastern Wisconsin Zoo (Wisconsin):
Wildlife Prairie Park (Illinois) - an enormous enclosure!!:
