Day 4 – Saint Louis Zoo
After a laid back Sunday, I was anxious for the trip to kick into full gear with the renowned Saint Louis Zoo on Monday. It was a bit of a shock to the system when I looked out my hotel window on Sunday night to see freshly fallen snow… yes snow. So much for a search for warmth. While I had left my winter jacket at home, Monday morning I threw on a hoodie, a thicker spring jacket and my toque and departed for the zoo with the temperature showing as -2 Celsius (approximately 28 Fahrenheit). My previous two visits to this zoo had been on much warmer days, first in the fall of 2014 and later in July 2016 when temps topped 30 degrees Celsius. Thus I was intrigued to see how this zoo would hold up on a notably colder day; probably to no one’s surprise the zoo did quite well.
River’s Edge
The marquee exhibit was still fairly populated on this chilly day. Granted animals such as hippos and elephants only appeared later in the day as the temperature climbed and I never did see one of the black rhinos emerge. This area is simply fantastic. A series of immersive and naturalistic habitats take visitors to various regions of the world, showcasing the interaction of animals, their environments and humans. The list of non exceptional habitats in this section is easier to cover than the exceptional ones. Only the African Painted dog habitat stands out as somewhat mediocre; limited in size, immersion and viewing angles. Conversely, the black rhino habitat is beautiful, the hyenas have a naturalistic and spacious enclosure with varied terrain, hiding spots and enrichment opportunities (to this point, this is my favourite exhibit to photography hyenas). The hippos have a large pool with a series of massive windows to watch the majestic animals while they are underwater. My only gripe with the hippo exhibit is a limited amount of space out of the water, and very limited viewing angles to see the animals from above water (which may be a concern not shared by many). The stars of this area are the Asian elephants who have a series of habitats that are staggered so that guests come upon separate enclosures as if they were coming to a clearing on their path and stumbling upon the elephants. These spacious enclosures offer both a great space for the elephants and excellent viewing opportunities for guests. Andean and sun bears each spacious and lushly planted enclosures. Truly it is a challenge to say much negative about this area.
Grizzly Ridge and Polar Bear Point
I believe these are the two most recent habitats and both are decent but not spectacular. The polar bear habitat opened a couple years ago and offers a varied terrain of natural substrate for the bear. There is a decent sized pool that offers guests the chance to see the bear under water. The grizzly habitat opened last year and looks as if it incorporates the rock wall backing previously utilized by bear grottoes (I am not certain on this, please correct me if I’m wrong). The habitat is a decent space, it offers the bear a grassy surface, gives them lots of enrichment opportunities, has a training wall where keepers can showcase their training for the public and has a decent sized pool with under water viewing. There are many worse bear habitats out there, and many zoos would have these as habitats as their standout exhibits. But compared to the level of naturalism and immersiveness in Rivers Edge, these habitats lack a lot of that wow factor. If you were asked to list your favourite exhibits for either bear species, I doubt that Saint Louis’ would be on that list. There are more spacious and more naturalistic exhibits out there. With that said, both exhibits are more than satisfactory for the animals and are a decent upgrade for the zoo.
Penguin and Puffin Coast
In my fall road trip thread I raved about how much I enjoyed Calgary’s open air exhibit for penguins. Saint Louis follows a similar path but has a larger habitat for Gentoo, rockhopper and King penguins followed by a second exhibit for puffins. Comically enough, it was actual warmer inside the penguin exhibit than it was outside when I first went into it in the morning. There is something about being only several feet away from the penguins and being able to hear them that makes for a remarkable zoo experience.
Red Rocks
The strength of this section is a larger diversity of species, particularly with a larger number of hoofstock species. I do not think that any of these habitats would qualify as spectacular. Indeed, some of them are rather basic, large yards. However, the ability to see such a variety of species (more than a handful of which were understandably not out during my visit) gives the area a certain appeal.
Big Cat Country
As someone who might have a bit of an obsession photographing big cats (one of my cousins children who follows my social media accounts, once asked me if I only photographed big cats), this section has a bit of an appeal to me. Lions, tigers and jaguars each have a larger, spacious yard with a grassy surface and some trees/logs in them. The yards are all adequately spaced, and the jaguar habitat is one of the few for the species to be open top. The tiger yard is a bit of a hassle as it can mostly be seen from looking down on the exhibit (the jaguar can only be seen from above, but it’s so rare to have these animals in open topped exhibits that it is enough to keep me happy). From eye level for the tiger exhibit, guests are kept particularly far back by the train station (which when crowded in the summer makes it impossible to get any photos from). All three of these exhibits offer the animals a more than acceptable environment, however they lack much in the way of imagination. I spent a lot of time in this section during my visit, including more than 30 minutes at the start of the day before anyone else came by that wasn’t zoo staff. I personally think that a lot more could be done with this area, these exhibits could be turned into naturalistic exhibits that offer a lot more to both the animals and visitors. The jaguar exhibit for example, could have a much denser planting, the existing large concrete based pool could be removed and replaced with a more naturalistic water source. But before changing the bigger habitats, something needs to be done with the smaller exhibits for cougars, snow leopards, serval and amur leopards. Each of these cats inhabit a smallish caged in yard (not quite as a small for the serval relative to its size) that offer lots of climbing opportunities mixed in with mock rock. All of these habitats, while adequate, seem far too small. Personally, I’d like to see the three side by side enclosures (currently for the snow, amur leopards and serval) combined into one larger exhibit for either snow or amur leopards. The remaining yard currently home to cougars would make a decent space for servals. I don’t want to sound overly harsh on this section of the zoo as I do enjoy it, and spent a fair bit of time there. I was just inspired by what I thought could be done to make this section stronger and thought I’d throw those ideas out there.
Primate House
This section contains a variety of primates in fairly standard indoor enclosures. Although it must be noted that all of these enclosures are of the larger size for indoor habitats. There is nothing in here that is overly remarkable, the main draw here is the number of species.
Sea Lion Sound
Another strong point of the zoo; sea lions have a large pool and the highlight of guests is the ability to go through an underwater tunnel to watch these animals swim around them.
Jungle of the Apes
I don’t have much to say on the apes. They were understandably all in their indoor enclosures, and construction for an upcoming café blocked the pathway I normally take to see their outdoor habitats. As such I only watched them indoors. The indoor spaces for the orangutans, chimps and gorillas are all moderately spaced with plenty of climbing opportunities. The outdoor exhibits are where the main focus for the apes normally is and while I have spent time at the outdoor exhibits on my previous two trips, I cannot write a fair review based on recalling memories from that long ago.
Bird House
You may recall from my fall trip that I’m not exactly a bird fanatic. I fully admit that I know very little about birds and am not generally drawn to them (penguins aside). I did spend a bit of time in the bird house and while I don’t feel comfortable making insights into the quality of exhibits, I will say that there are a notable number of species exhibited.
To be truthful, I felt a little funny at the start of this review. Saint Louis Zoo is such a known commodity that I’m not sure how much there is to add on the discussion. With that said, the fact that I’m on page 3 indicates that I’m not exactly being brief. There is a lot to like about this zoo. Going on a day like Monday also provided the added benefit of the zoo not being very crowded. Now I can only blame myself for bad photos and not try to claim that I was having to work my way through crowds. I also think it’s notable that this zoo offers a lot even when the weather is less than ideal. In the past I’ve visited zoos on cooler days that offer very little, this was not the case here. Keen observers will notice that I didn’t mention the children’s zoo. I had planned to go during the first hour (when I believe it’s free) but as mentioned above, I really enjoyed the peacefulness of watching the big cats undisturbed in the mourning. After that, while I could have paid the entrance fee for the children’s zoo, especially to see the Tasmanian devils; I had visited during the first hour on my previous visit and was not blown away by the habitat thus not encouraging me to spend money to see it this time. In closing, I’d say if you haven’t seen the Saint Louis Zoo than it should be on your list, but you probably already knew that. This truly is a remarkable zoo.
!
