Lincoln Park Zoo Visit Report, 10/14/21
Let's cut right to the chase, because I think there's only one thing people care about right now.
Pepper Family Wildlife Center - Thoughts and Impressions:
Today was a day I have been waiting for ever since I joined zoochat five years ago. What's formerly known as the Kovler Lion House has finally reopened as the Pepper Family Wildlife Center. I was super excited to finally check out this project. I have a lot to say so I separated things into bullet points.
- First, the main attraction. The lion exhibit was excellent. Probably the third best lion exhibit I've seen behind SDZSP and Omaha, although its totally unfair to compare these two to Lincoln Park. The lion habitat here is very large, at least three times the size of the old exhibit. It's essentially two halves with a similar general design and size divided in the middle by an elevated portion that goes over a visitor viewing area which I will elaborate more on in a moment. As I mentioned, both halves of the lion exhibit have the same design just focusing on different features. The east side is focused around various logs and deadfall that act as climbing structures and ramps. The west side is centered around large rockwork that is temperature controlled. I was worried about the rockwork contrasting with the building but it flows way better than expected. Great diversity in elevation with the lions being able to go above the heads of visitors in certain areas. There are some great furnishings such as trees and tall grasses as well, a pleasant surprise as I was expecting mainly just turf. My only real complaint doesn't effect the animals themselves. However, there are some noticeable cross views with other visitors, and seeing how the exhibit was designed this was inevitable. Visitors viewing from the main outdoor windows will easily see visitors who are viewing from inside the building. Besides that I have nothing but praise for the lion exhibit and this was one of the most active group of lions I have ever seen. They stuck to the east side of the habitat while I was there but were constantly running and chasing one another, gnawing on sticks, occasionally interacting with visitors by the glass. Great stuff!
- The main building is what I was most curious about as we had the least amount of details on what it would feature. I have to give the zoo credit for doing an excellent job preserving this buildings character. It's well over a century old and I think it's fantastic that they were able to adapt it into a modern exhibit. I think it's really interesting that the zoo decided to no longer have the building house the lions, instead using it to view the lions, opting for a separate holding building entirely. There are numerous windows looking out at the lion habitat, although the best way to view the lions from the building is the "Lion Loop." Part of a brand new addition to the existing building, it runs through the middle of the exhibit and the lions are able to go over the heads of visitors and there are various windows on both sides of visitors. There is also a classroom that can be accessed through here. The zoo also made a brilliant design decision by choosing to build the "Lion Loop" here as it gives purpose to the six historic windows that were previously between the two lion and tiger grottos. Now guests can see the cats from an elevated position through these windows from the interior. It's such a minor detail, but it's genius stuff and shows how much thought really went into the design of this project especially when it came to integrating the existing lion house into the new exhibit. However, despite all of this I find myself wishing they did a little more with the interior. It feels very empty and there was a ton of potential for some cool ideas here. Besides the various lion viewing windows all that is in here right now is a very small gift shop, a large educational graphic on urban vs suburban areas, and some donor walls. The original plans mentioned the addition of a coffee shop, what happened to that? Why not a historical exhibition display leaning into the buildings historic significance? Some more additions for guests would have been great, but I would be amiss not to again mention what I wonderful job the zoo did revamping this listed structure. The floors have been replaced by carpet, the lion windows do a great job blending in, and in general the building has been modernized without clashing with the historic character.
- Lastly, the snow leopard, red panda and Canadian lynx exhibits. These are all older cages on the other side of the building that have been maintained with minimal changes. Various wooden ramps and climbing structures have been added and the fencing has been replaced but otherwise nothing much has been altered here. Initially I was hesitant when I heard the zoo would be maintaining these very old school cages as I was never super fond of them. However, for these species I think they hold up nicer then expected. The red pandas take residence in their old exhibit which is fine because I always thought that exhibit was pretty good for them. The lynx and snow leopards each have two exhibits - the lynx taking up their former exhibit and the former cougar exhibit and the snow leopards are taking up their former enclosure and the former amur leopard exhibit. Didn't see the lynx, but I did catch brief glimpses of the snow leopard and red panda. I will say while I think these old exhibits work nicely for the lynx and red panda, I'm not sure if I love it for snow leopards. I can't help but feel the exhibits are still a bit small, even if there are now two. I'm going to have to give the zoo the benefit of the doubt here and assume the research they conducted with the old lion house residents proves me wrong. I like that cages are still around the maintain some historic elements. Quite frankly, I'm not sure what else they could have done with the space.
I just finished uploading over 30 photos of the new exhibit to the gallery and overall I found myself to be very pleased with the final product. It feels almost museum like with the grandiose architecture and the very minimalist design for viewing areas. For a zoo like Lincoln Park this works very well. I have a few nitpicks - name is boring and generic, cross-views in the lion exhibit, somewhat empty interior - but overall this is a fantastic exhibit, no doubt about it. By the time the Kovler Lion House began to be shut down circa 2016, it was probably one of the worst animal houses left in any major American zoo. Now, it's a superb lion habitat and a pretty spectacular first impression for those coming through the main gate.
Other Updates and Highlights:
- The Children's Zoo has finally reopened.
- The former alpaca/cavy exhibit in the hoofstock loop is now a third grevy's zebra yard.
- The Père David's deer was a real treat. I saw a pair of females at Omaha a few months ago but seeing a trio of males was even more impressive. Great addition that livens up the hooftsock loop just a bit more.
- The gorillas were the most active I've ever seen them. The family group in particular displayed the most arboreal behavior I have ever seen. The younger ones were being chased by the adults and were climbing on the ceiling. Seeing full grown gorillas swing like gibbons is something truly remarkable!
All in all, great day today. As an aside, it's really nice to see a zoo follow through on everything promised in their capital plan. Usually only some of the proposed projects actually come to fruition while a lot is left on the cutting room floor for a variety of reasons. But at Lincoln Park everything that was promised actually happened. Macaques, penguins, polar bears, seal renovation, new entrance, visitor center, learning center, train ride and lions. Very satisfying to see a completed master plan all for the modest cost of $135 million!
This is the stuff New Zealanders can only dream of.