Interestingly enough there have been many minor upgrades around the zoo in the past 6 months. After not visiting all winter my wife and I purchased NEXUS cards that enabled us this week to bypass a 2-hour lineup at the U.S. border and re-enter Canada in less than 2 minutes. We visited Woodland Park twice within a week as it now takes two full trips to see almost the entire zoo as we have 3 small children and therefore everything goes at a snail's pace.
Anyway, Woodland Park is due to be re-accredited this year as its AZA status is up for renewal in September. Every 5 years all accredited zoos have to undergo an inspection from a team and the process can take several days. Coincidence or not, many tiny things that had been broken or not in use (buttons near the elephants that make trumpet sounds; buttons in the barnyard area that make domestic animal noises; a heart-beat machine in the family farm area that rarely ever worked; the salmon drying rack in this photo; fairly new signs on the entrance washrooms; etc) are all fixed and it makes sense that the zoo is sprucing up the grounds in anticipation of summer and an inspection. The Tropical Rain Forest building is also under repair, as it had 4 empty exhibits this week.
