It is rather amazing how San Diego Zoo consistently has a section of the establishment under construction, but one of the most exciting eras of the zoo was between 1988 and 2005. In that 17 year period 7 large complexes opened: Tiger River (1988), Sun Bear Forest (1989), Gorilla Tropics (1991), Hippo Beach (1995), Polar Bear Plunge (1996), Ituri Forest (1999) and Monkey Trails and Forest Tales (2005).
Many of those names make it seem as if only one exhibit was involved but in most cases there was an entire chunk of the zoo developed and multiple species were added in a variety of enclosures. For example, Gorilla Tropics included a revamp of the 1923 Scripps Aviary and in 1993 a Bonobo habitat was added along with 23 tropical bird aviaries in an Australasian zone.
