Introduction and Review
Hello ZooChat, I am back with yet another zoo review and species list. I have fallen behind on my zoo review and species list threads, as I have visited a bunch of different facilities in the past 3 months that I want to do threads for. I am hoping that these threads are still timely and that it isn't too late to post these.
For this thread, I will be focusing on another small Pennsylvania facility that I had the pleasure of visiting; the Elmwood Park Zoo in Norristown, PA. This is a small zoo just outside of King of Prussia that I visited on 05/25/2024. Nestled along Stony Creek, this zoo encompasses about 16 acres, making it one of the smaller AZA facilities I have visited in terms of size, and mostly focuses on wildlife from the Americas, with a few exceptions.
This will be another short form review and species list because, like Lehigh Valley Zoo, this is a rather small zoo, although EPZ does organize their animals into more coherent zones.
One major caveat with this review is that my visit occurred about a month prior to the new Welcome Center opening to the pubic. It was still under construction at the time of my visit, so the zoo had a temporary entrance and gift shop located in the Northwest corner of the property (just to the right of the Wetlands exhibit if you look at the zoo's map; this is now a staff-only pathway). That being said, I don't think the zoo or its collection has changed too drastically as to render this review obsolete. I will include a note about it later in this thread.
I found the Elmwood Park Zoo to be a decent, but otherwise unremarkable, small zoo that has some good areas and some forgettable parts. In a lot of ways, it did remind me of the Lehigh Valley Zoo, a zoo which, funnily enough, I had also visited the week prior and did a review on. The zoo was established in 1924, and it definitely shows its age in various areas, such as the south side exhibits and the wetlands area, all of which feature a very rustic aesthetic and at time definitely feel like something you would see in a small unacreddited facility. That being said, Elmwood Park has made strides to modernize its exhibitry and guest spaces, and this can be best seen with the Trail of the Jaguar exhibit as well as the new Welcome center, both of which look fantastic and feel like something you would see in a major zoo. The zoo has also made public its expansion plans and future exhibits, all of which look to prop up the now otherwise average-at-best facility.
Trail of the Jaguar is undoubtedly the zoo's star exhibit. The outdoor habitats are spacious and well-landscaped. The indoor exhibits are not as great, but at least the Jaguar exhibits are rotational. It is also well-themed, and I was particularly fond of the small stream that travels under the visitor path between the 2nd Jaguar habitat and the Bald Eagle habitat. Harmony Hideaway is a decent indoor exhibit with free-flying birds, a free-roaming sloth, and even a free-roaming tortoise. Habitat HQ features a decent lineup of small mammals, birds, and herps.
The Wetlands exhibit is an odd one. It appears to have been an aviary at one point, as the wooden structure, the Alligator exhibit being indoors, and a plaque located outside of one of the entrances seem to imply. The exhibits are a mix of wooden climbing structures, concrete, and basic barriors, and feature a random mix of species, some of which aren't typically associated with wetlands. Savanna Station is a decent Giraffe and Zebra exhibit, but is nothing special. Bison and Elk can be found on the Southside; the Elk exhibit is pretty good, but I wasn't a fan of the bison exhibit.
Probably the most noteworthy aspect of this zoo, and a big reason why I visited this particulary facility, was this fellow.
This is Rime, the North American Porcupine, whom I encountered in the Wetlands exhibit. She is currently on a breeding loan from the North Carolina Zoo, where she occupies the former Peregrine Falcon exhibit at Rocky Coast. I missed her when I visited the NC Zoo back in February, but I finally caught up to her at Elmwood during my visit. I will be sure to catch her again once she returns down South.
With the introduction and review out of the way, the next post will be the species list.
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