Toledo Zoo (Visited October 13, 2021)
I visited the Toledo Zoo earlier this week. I started off at the front side of the zoo that features exhibits for seals, polar bears, gray wolves, and African savannah animals. I have seen photos of the Toledo Zoo polar bear exhibit and I was never really impressed. I would not call it horrible, but average at best. Of course I would prefer to see more natural substrate than one patch of dirt/grass that's at the end of the exhibit. There are quite a few viewing windows to see the polar bears up close, including a den area. Right before this exhibit was a pool for gray and harbor seals that was also decent for these marine mammals. I found the gray wolf exhibit to be spacious and it featured shading areas for them as well.
The African exhibits were a little left to be desired for guests. The cheetah exhibit was spacious, but there's a train station right in front of the exhibit. I was lucky the train was not operating and I could sneak into the queue in order to see them up closer. For being a shy animal, I wonder if the train bothers them? The African savannah yard was spacious, but there is poor viewing for guests. There looked to be an African watering hole exhibit in front of it, similar to Columbus zoo, but no animals were in it when I visited the area. You're able to see the main yard with giraffe, watusi, kudu, ostrich, and some other African hookstock from the front. In order to get more views into the exhibit, and also the back paddock with the camel, you would have to take the train or do the obstacle course.
On the other side of the zoo, there is Tiger Terrace. I would be happy if the zoo just bulldozed the whole area and focused on an animal or two in the space. The cage exhibits with mock rock were all small and not very pleasant looking. In this area I saw Andean bear, snow leopard, and Amur tiger. Near by this exhibit was a nice netted free flight aviary for flamingo, roseate spoonbill, and some other birds. There was also a nice exhibit for dingo.
Across from this section of the zoo is an outdoor exhibit for cassowary and the bird house. I appreciated the beautiful architecture of all the old buildings; aviary, reptile house, museum, and aquarium. And the exhibits in all these buildings were quite nice too. I really loved the aviary. The exhibits were all nicely designed and there was quite a few bird species that I have never seen before, such as the Dracula parrot. There was one exhibit that was netted in the front and when you opened a door to view the side of it, it was an open flight area and it was awesome to have birds fly by.
Tembo Trails almost felt like a hodge podge of exhibits. The African elephant yards were decent in size, but not big enough for a herd bigger than three. Are there only two female elephants at the zoo at the moment? The hippo exhibit was neat to see as being the first one in the country to feature underwater viewing. The have a big pool, but they could use some more land area. On the side of the exhibit there are little peekaboo windows to view the exhibit from above their pool and also a window on the ground where you could potentially see them swim underneath you. Other exhibits in this area was for Indian rhinoceros, North American river otter (I take it that the zoo got this species when they no longer had African spotted neck otters), meerkat, yak, and brown bear. Thankfully the brown bears will have a new exhibit in the next couple of years.
As mentioned above, the exhibits in the reptile house were pretty nice. I'm not much a reptile person so I can't fairly access what exhibits were spacious enough for its inhabitants. I did not explore the museum near by and Nature Neighborhood's building was closed off to visitors. Why visitors are able to have birds fly by them in the aviary, but you're not allowed to see the southern tamandua in a glass enclosed exhibit in the Nature Neighborhood building is beyond me. The outside area was rather nice for families with smaller children.
Primate Forest has mesh exhibits for primates, like Francois langurs, red panda, some bird species, and gorilla and orangutan. The orangutan exhibits did have climbing structures, but they seemed a bit crammed. I'm remembering a grassy paddock for the gorilla, but I can't recall really any climbing structures. Both are outdated, but not horrible.
Lastly, the aquarium was pretty good with a variety of animals. The outdoor penguin outdoor was fine, but the pool was so odd. It was deep, but didn't haven't much depth for the penguins to move around. I've never seen a pool like it before at a zoo.
The zoo is struggling with a bare minimum staff for guest services. All restaurants were closed, with the exception of a couple food kiosk, the historic Carnivore cafe is shut down with pallets candy all over inside for zoo boo and the main gift shop has not been open since pre covid. Although I enjoyed the animal collection at the zoo, a lot of the exhibits left something to be desired and the layout was so mismatched. It will be interesting to see if the zoo can do any improvements to its exhibits in the next decade.
Stay tuned for my Detroit Zoo review.
I visited the Toledo Zoo earlier this week. I started off at the front side of the zoo that features exhibits for seals, polar bears, gray wolves, and African savannah animals. I have seen photos of the Toledo Zoo polar bear exhibit and I was never really impressed. I would not call it horrible, but average at best. Of course I would prefer to see more natural substrate than one patch of dirt/grass that's at the end of the exhibit. There are quite a few viewing windows to see the polar bears up close, including a den area. Right before this exhibit was a pool for gray and harbor seals that was also decent for these marine mammals. I found the gray wolf exhibit to be spacious and it featured shading areas for them as well.
The African exhibits were a little left to be desired for guests. The cheetah exhibit was spacious, but there's a train station right in front of the exhibit. I was lucky the train was not operating and I could sneak into the queue in order to see them up closer. For being a shy animal, I wonder if the train bothers them? The African savannah yard was spacious, but there is poor viewing for guests. There looked to be an African watering hole exhibit in front of it, similar to Columbus zoo, but no animals were in it when I visited the area. You're able to see the main yard with giraffe, watusi, kudu, ostrich, and some other African hookstock from the front. In order to get more views into the exhibit, and also the back paddock with the camel, you would have to take the train or do the obstacle course.
On the other side of the zoo, there is Tiger Terrace. I would be happy if the zoo just bulldozed the whole area and focused on an animal or two in the space. The cage exhibits with mock rock were all small and not very pleasant looking. In this area I saw Andean bear, snow leopard, and Amur tiger. Near by this exhibit was a nice netted free flight aviary for flamingo, roseate spoonbill, and some other birds. There was also a nice exhibit for dingo.
Across from this section of the zoo is an outdoor exhibit for cassowary and the bird house. I appreciated the beautiful architecture of all the old buildings; aviary, reptile house, museum, and aquarium. And the exhibits in all these buildings were quite nice too. I really loved the aviary. The exhibits were all nicely designed and there was quite a few bird species that I have never seen before, such as the Dracula parrot. There was one exhibit that was netted in the front and when you opened a door to view the side of it, it was an open flight area and it was awesome to have birds fly by.
Tembo Trails almost felt like a hodge podge of exhibits. The African elephant yards were decent in size, but not big enough for a herd bigger than three. Are there only two female elephants at the zoo at the moment? The hippo exhibit was neat to see as being the first one in the country to feature underwater viewing. The have a big pool, but they could use some more land area. On the side of the exhibit there are little peekaboo windows to view the exhibit from above their pool and also a window on the ground where you could potentially see them swim underneath you. Other exhibits in this area was for Indian rhinoceros, North American river otter (I take it that the zoo got this species when they no longer had African spotted neck otters), meerkat, yak, and brown bear. Thankfully the brown bears will have a new exhibit in the next couple of years.
As mentioned above, the exhibits in the reptile house were pretty nice. I'm not much a reptile person so I can't fairly access what exhibits were spacious enough for its inhabitants. I did not explore the museum near by and Nature Neighborhood's building was closed off to visitors. Why visitors are able to have birds fly by them in the aviary, but you're not allowed to see the southern tamandua in a glass enclosed exhibit in the Nature Neighborhood building is beyond me. The outside area was rather nice for families with smaller children.
Primate Forest has mesh exhibits for primates, like Francois langurs, red panda, some bird species, and gorilla and orangutan. The orangutan exhibits did have climbing structures, but they seemed a bit crammed. I'm remembering a grassy paddock for the gorilla, but I can't recall really any climbing structures. Both are outdated, but not horrible.
Lastly, the aquarium was pretty good with a variety of animals. The outdoor penguin outdoor was fine, but the pool was so odd. It was deep, but didn't haven't much depth for the penguins to move around. I've never seen a pool like it before at a zoo.
The zoo is struggling with a bare minimum staff for guest services. All restaurants were closed, with the exception of a couple food kiosk, the historic Carnivore cafe is shut down with pallets candy all over inside for zoo boo and the main gift shop has not been open since pre covid. Although I enjoyed the animal collection at the zoo, a lot of the exhibits left something to be desired and the layout was so mismatched. It will be interesting to see if the zoo can do any improvements to its exhibits in the next decade.
Stay tuned for my Detroit Zoo review.
