Lehigh Valley Zoo Lehigh Valley Zoo news

Lehigh Valley Zoo is constructing a Reptile and Amphibian building. There is no set date, as they are funding as they go.
 
I have visited this zoo for the first time yesterday. It is small, AZA-accredited, and is located inside large Trexler Nature Preserve. The Preserve was established by Harry Trexler, a wealthy industrialist in early 20th century, in order to propagate large game animals, especially bison. After Trexler's death, the Preserve became the property of the County, and the small zoo was opened much later. The Preserve still has herds of elk and bison, but I haven't seen any of them yesterday (and did not have much time to look for them)
When I visited the zoo yesterday I saw the following:
  • a pool for African penguins
  • an island for a couple of mongoose lemurs
  • prairie-dogs exhibit
  • a small pond for turtles, where I saw only some tadpoles
  • a series of 6 aviaries for birds of prey: peregrine falcon, red-tailed hawk, barred owl, turkey vulture, black vulture (I saw one of each species), and immature bald eagle together with a golden eagle
  • a very decent and quite large exhibit for Mexican wolves. I only saw 2 individuals laying at the far back of the exhibit, but there could have been more
  • 2 adjacent exhibits for bobcat and Canada lynx (I saw one of each)
  • 4 adjacent exhibits for: red fox (the specimen on exhibit was a brownish-gray color morph, and labeled as "gray fox"), North American porcupine housed with 2 ravens, a striped skunk housed with a ringtail, and a fisher. In a different corner of the zoo there were 3 similar exhibits for snowy owl (saw only 1), raccoon (only 1), and spotted skunks (saw 2)
  • an interesting exhibit for North American river otter (I only saw 1), inside a concrete amphitheater, which looked very much like an older-style seal/sea-lion exhibit adopted for otters
  • a petting zoo (standard mix of goats, alpacas, etc., did not go inside)
  • very basic-looking walk-through feeding aviary for lorikeets
  • small shed with viewing window, supposedly housing kookaburra, which was too dark to see anything inside
  • a pond for mute and black swans, also Egyptian geese and domestic ducks
  • a walk-through paddock for red kangaroos (1 male and 3 females), which can only be entered as part of a small group, supervised by a keeper
  • two adjoined paddocks: one housing 2 emus, and another one for tammar wallabies (I only saw 1)
  • "African savanna" paddock for ostriches (a male and a female) and 2 plains zebra, and a small adjoined paddock for sulcatta tortoises
  • three adjoined paddocks for scimitar-horned oryx (a small herd, including a calf), 2 dromedaries, and aoudad (only saw 2)
  • small Reptile and Amphibian Discovery Center
 
Reptile and Amphibian Discovery Center had 5 average-sized terrariums on the left hand side, and 3 average-sized and 6 small terrariums on the right hand side. The 5 terrariums on the left contained: eyelash vipers mixed with poison dart frogs (I only saw Dedrobates tinctorius azureus), a desert terrarium split in two levels, with a gila monster in the lower level and 2 chuckwallas and a desert iguana in the top level (there was also a label for Arizona mountain kingsnake, but I did not see it), northern copperhead mixed with eastern rat snake, a timber rattlesnake, and a dusky pygmy rattlesnake. The 3 larger terrariums on the right contained: a prehensile-tailed skink mixed with Solomon Islands leaf frogs; emerald tree boa and Corallus hortulanus mixed with 2 matamatas, and a cave-like terrarium for cave salamanders (Eurycea lucifuga), which was empty on the day of my visit. The 6 smaller tanks housed an axolotl, spotted turtles, tiger salamanders, Thailand black tarantula, a lesser siren (I believe it was the first for me, and very active), and a hellbender. At the end of the building, there are 2 larger exhibits: one for an African dwarf crocodile and another for green tree monitor mixed with White's tree frogs (I only saw the monitor)
 
Overall the zoo is small, does not have any outstanding exhibits (the best in my opinion is the one for wolves), but does have some interesting species that are rarely seen elsewhere (fisher, mongoose lemurs, spotted skunks). Except for the reptile/amphibian building everything else is entirely outdoors. They are currently in process of building a giraffe exhibit, which appears to be adjacent to the current African savanna paddock with ostriches and zebras.
 
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