Akron Zoo Akron Zoo News 2025

Notes from today's visit (10/21). Managed to get there right as the zoo opened and had the zoo pretty much to myself aside from a couple of school groups.
  • Waterfowl from the pond next to the penguins are all in the former jaguar exhibit.
  • No changes to the RainForest Building, but the green crested basilisk exhibit was uncovered. Last time they had paper over the windows.
  • The condor exhibit is closed so the glass can be replaced.
  • The fruit bat exhibit on the left is closed for maintenance.
  • The electric eel exhibit in Curious Creatures is now filled with several cichlids. Signage for the eels is gone, so I'm assuming it has either left or passed.
  • Construction on the new zoo hospital is visible behind the lion yard.
  • Macaws have gone behind the scenes for the winter and the trogopans have been brought out in Legends of the Wild.
  • Rock work in the second snow leopard exhibit is taking shape and it seems like they expanded the exhibit a bit. Didn’t see any changes to the original snow leopard exhibit yet through the fence.

  • Side note: I did find it interesting that one of the pumpkin animals on display in Wild Asia is a sun bear when the zoo hasn’t exhibited them in close to 20 years at this point, since they left in the late 2000s.
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EagleScout610 said:
Notes from today's visit (10/21). Managed to get there right as the zoo opened and had the zoo pretty much to myself aside from a couple of school groups.
  • Waterfowl from the pond next to the penguins are all in the former jaguar exhibit.
  • No changes to the RainForest Building, but the green crested basilisk exhibit was uncovered. Last time they had paper over the windows.
  • The condor exhibit is closed so the glass can be replaced.
  • The fruit bat exhibit on the left is closed for maintenance.
  • The electric eel exhibit in Curious Creatures is now filled with several cichlids. Signage for the eels is gone, so I'm assuming it has either left or passed.
  • Construction on the new zoo hospital is visible behind the lion yard.
  • Macaws have gone behind the scenes for the winter and the trogopans have been brought out in Legends of the Wild.
  • Rock work in the second snow leopard exhibit is taking shape and it seems like they expanded the exhibit a bit. Didn’t see any changes to the original snow leopard exhibit yet through the fence.

  • Side note: I did find it interesting that one of the pumpkin animals on display in Wild Asia is a sun bear when the zoo hasn’t exhibited them in close to 20 years at this point, since they left in the late 2000s.
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The remaining electric eel has had health issues. I am not surprised. That replacement is rather recent. I was there a couple weeks ago. The primate building will close around the first of the year for upgrades and theme changes. I am curious about the empty bat habitat because most of the straw-colored bats might be on the way out. Will bats replace them or something else? Sun bears Ringo and Muffin are still fondly remembered by staff and guests. You are forgetting Scruffy’s stay at the zoo in the 2010s after sloth bear Keesha went to Miami.
 
TigerValley98 said:
The remaining electric eel has had health issues. I am not surprised. That replacement is rather recent. I was there a couple weeks ago. The primate building will close around the first of the year for upgrades and theme changes. I am curious about the empty bat habitat because most of the straw-colored bats might be on the way out. Will bats replace them or something else? Sun bears Ringo and Muffin are still fondly remembered by staff and guests. You are forgetting Scruffy’s stay at the zoo in the 2010s after sloth bear Keesha went to Miami.
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Muffin retired in 2009 and died at the zoo in 2015 after her bout with cancer. She was given a short time after her diagnosis. She stuck around over half a decade.
 
TigerValley98 said:
The remaining electric eel has had health issues. I am not surprised. That replacement is rather recent. I was there a couple weeks ago. The primate building will close around the first of the year for upgrades and theme changes. I am curious about the empty bat habitat because most of the straw-colored bats might be on the way out. Will bats replace them or something else? Sun bears Ringo and Muffin are still fondly remembered by staff and guests. You are forgetting Scruffy’s stay at the zoo in the 2010s after sloth bear Keesha went to Miami.
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I did forget Scruffy spent some time in Akron to replace the sloth bears. So it's closer to 10 years they didn't have Sun Bears. As for the bat exhibit I have no idea what they're doing with it as all of the decorations have been removed. Here's how it looked today:
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TigerValley98 said:
The sun bear was also on the zoo’s logo for over a decade. That logo is still seen in places at the zoo to this day.
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It's still on the weather vane on top of the barn Owl exhibit (I joke with a friend who used to work at the zoo I'd give them $20 for it if they take it down) as well as the walk in the park display in Komodo Kingdom
 
EagleScout610 said:
Such a shame. I was lucky enough to see him and Mandisa on my last visit before they retired backstage. 2nd oldest lion in the USA was quite impressive!
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I remember him with his mohawk when he arrived. He didn’t like getting his feet wet. He was more active than Simba and Norma, the zoo’s original lions. They were older than Tamarr. They were awake long enough to go in and out, eat, and to briefly say hello.
 
TigerValley98 said:
The train will be closed on 10/28 for Wild Lights' set-up.

Patagonian mara will be off habitat starting 10/29 for habitat maintenance. This work will take a couple weeks.

Zoo Map | Akron Zoo
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I wonder if they'll end up closing the main part of Legends of the Wild again like they did briefly this fall at some point during the off season. With the penguins, condors, maras, snow leopards off exhibit for exhibit work and Madagascar closing to be rethemed, that just leaves the waterfowl and night house left.
 
EagleScout610 said:
I wonder if they'll end up closing the main part of Legends of the Wild again like they did briefly this fall at some point during the off season. With the penguins, condors, maras, snow leopards off exhibit for exhibit work and Madagascar closing to be rethemed, that just leaves the waterfowl and night house left.
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If Legends has any sections closed off, it will be after Wild Lights. Legends is needed for crowd flow for Wild Lights.
 
TigerValley98 said:
If Legends has any sections closed off, it will be after Wild Lights. Legends is needed for crowd flow for Wild Lights.
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I wonder if they'll retheme the former jaguar exhibit at the same time they take the Madagascar building down. Unless they're keeping the cat temple theme if it truly is going to be an Amur leopard.
 
EagleScout610 said:
I wonder if they'll retheme the former jaguar exhibit at the same time they take the Madagascar building down. Unless they're keeping the cat temple theme if it truly is going to be an Amur leopard.
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I am not sure when the Amur leopards will arrive and debut. They will somewhere to hold the new pair of Cinereous vultures. They are on the map for that habitat, so they could take residence there for a while after the waterfall habitat reopens.
 
TigerValley98 said:
I am not sure when the Amur leopards will arrive and debut. They will somewhere to hold the new pair of Cinereous vultures. They are on the map for that habitat, so they could take residence there for a while after the waterfall habitat reopens.
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Last I'd heard from an employee around July it was "sometime next year" for the possible Amur, if the vultures are not going in first. I can try to ask next time I go. Still going to be saying possible Amur until the zoo confirms either way.
 
EagleScout610 said:
Last I'd heard from an employee around July it was "sometime next year" for the possible Amur, if the vultures are not going in first. I can try to ask next time I go. Still going to be saying possible Amur until the zoo confirms either way.
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The vultures will go in the giraffe habitat when it is built. It could be they will join another habitat for a while. Like the hoofstock habitat in Pride of Africa. It is getting an upgrade and a new hoofstock species.
 
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