Louisville Zoo Louisville Zoo Review

[tigertiger]

I visited the Louisville Zoo today for the first time. I like to visit zoos for the first time in the winter session for two reasons: 1. It's all nice and dandy if you're exciting in the summer but it says a lot more if you're entertaining otherwise and 2. You can really enjoy it without the crowds, sun, etc.

There's also a few inches of snow on the ground so it makes it even more interesting. Overall opinion:

1. Very nice overall so, very dedicated to providing a family day of fun.
2. Heavily enjoyable Hepaquarium, much like Columbus.
3. While a nice collection, the zoo gives little care to cats, large mammals.

The Island rotational wasn't open because of the whether but I can see how it would be very interesting, albeit small. The indoor building with the dayroom for the rotation animals, several bird exhibits, indoor komodos and cuban crocs was a welcomed surprise. Nice suplemental building with okay exhibits. My only complaint is that you see a LOT of the inside of the exhibits. In other words, you see the cages where the animals have night quarters and almost part of the exhibit. Not appealing. The Rockhopper exhibit is your usual penguin behind glass deal. However, the upper feet of the glass is open so the terns fly around freely!

The Herpaquarium was great and reminded me a lot of Columbus. I'm not one in the way of believing reptiles require large amount of space so the building suited me and my zoo interests well.

The next thing open was the string of cat exhibits near the Manned Wolfe (great exhibit space), Snow Leopard and Puma. Poor cat exhibits. Both sets of cats were standing at their door waiting to go in when we were there and I can't blame them. Just poor. Later in the zoo, the lion exhibit with plastic rocks and little space feels just the same way.

I like the feel of the Tiger exhibit. It's a great idea to have upper viewing areas as well as lower viewing areas. However, the space is quite small for the tiger and there's a 'lake' that wasn't filled because of the weather seemed to take up most of the exhibit space. Not too eye attractive.

I know Louisville has a popular outdoor gorilla climate but their indoor exhibit is atrocious. Like the Island, too much 'behind the scenes views' on the scene. The zoo has a baby Gorilla now and it was on display today--in the same exhibit space as their keeper/cleaner was working on tidying up the exhibit. Kinda of breaks the appeal.

The African Plains were your average ho-hum African exhibit. Small exhibits for popular animals. I gasped when I saw the space of the elephant exhibit (not much larger than my parent's yard...) and felt bad for the lions. However, I do appreciate the proximity of the giraffe's to the lions.

All in all, I look forward to going back when there are more animals out in summer.

Any other views on the zoo?

 

[snowleopard]

I've heard that there are only two stand-out sections of this zoo: "Gorilla Forest" (which opened in 2002) and "The Islands" and its rotating exhibits (malayan tapirs, babirusas, tigers, siamangs and orangutans). However, how much of "Glacier Run" has been constructed? That expensive mega-complex could eventually be home to polar bears, reindeer, arctic foxes, sea otters, seals, sea lions and Stellar's sea eagles.

 

[tigertiger]

I've heard that there are only two stand-out sections of this zoo: "Gorilla Forest" (which opened in 2002) and "The Islands" and its rotating exhibits (malayan tapirs, babirusas, tigers, siamangs and orangutans). However, how much of "Glacier Run" has been constructed? That expensive mega-complex could eventually be home to polar bears, reindeer, arctic foxes, sea otters, seals, sea lions and Stellar's sea eagles.

Glacier Run doesn't look like it is anywhere near complete but it massive. Looking at the map before going, one would think "Oh, that looks large but it's probably out of scale, after all...it's a zoo map..." but it isn't. The area is easily the largest thing on the zoo right now (of course, plenty of that will be visitor space but still). A lot of the cement work and height for what I'd assume is the polar tank is up. I read recently that Louisville would be acquiring seals from Lincoln Park Children Zoo (Seal to get new Kentucky home | World Zoo Today), which would presume to me that they have someplace built to keep them (though I don't know about preexisting spaces they may have...).

The zoo recently started a blog (Glacier Run) that says the following of the exhibit's progress on January 27th of this year:

"Glacier Run construction hit a big milestone this week. Make that an 8,000 pound milestone.

An 8,000 pound acrylic window 5-inches thick, 13-feet wide and 21-feet tall (that’s as tall as a two-story building, wider than two full-sized pickup trucks parked side-by-side and as heavy as 15 grand pianos) was installed at the Zoo’s Glacier Run exhibit.

The window, designed to contain 85,000 gallons of water in the polar bear outdoor pool and withstand a full grown 1,000 pound polar bear swimming at full speed, was lifted with a 65-ton crane.

It was one of four large acrylic windows installed this week—one for seal and sea lion viewing and three for polar bear viewing (including the 8,000 pound one)."

 

[Kudu21]

Great review! I visited the Louisville Zoo a few years back, and I can say you pretty much hit the nail on the head. It's small and most of it is outdated, but the staff seems very informed, very kind, and love their job and their animals very much. Also it's amazing to see such rare animals in their collection. As you mentioned they have Cuban Crocodiles, they also have Hartmann's Mountain Zebras, Addax, Pygmy Hippos, and Giant Elephant Shrews among others. It turned out to be a nice scorching hot July day for me.

 

[snowleopard]

I hope to visit this zoo on my latest epic zoo trip (approximately 25 zoos across 25 American States this summer) and the seal/sea lion exhibit is slated to open by then. "Glacier Run" seems as if it could be hugely impressive, but the Pittsburgh Zoo opened a similarly themed complex a few years ago and I found it highly disappointing. That mock-town has polar bears, sand tiger sharks and sea otters, but in basic and uninspiring enclosures. We'll all have to wait to see what Louisville's exhibits look like...

 

[groundskeeper24]

Did they still have the big sailfin dragons in the Herpequarium? They are the coolest lizards when fully grown and in a good water/land exhibit.

 

[tigertiger]

I hope to visit this zoo on my latest epic zoo trip (approximately 25 zoos across 25 American States this summer) and the seal/sea lion exhibit is slated to open by then. "Glacier Run" seems as if it could be hugely impressive, but the Pittsburgh Zoo opened a similarly themed complex a few years ago and I found it highly disappointing. That mock-town has polar bears, sand tiger sharks and sea otters, but in basic and uninspiring enclosures. We'll all have to wait to see what Louisville's exhibits look like...

I'm eager to see that seal/sea lion exhibit. However, I was excited to see the tiger exhibit--the first 'leg' of their arctic land--and though there were cool features (like the overhead viewing areas!), the exhibit was small and largely without aesthetic so I don't know about the seals. I'm optimistic though.