Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium

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Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium

The Pittsburgh Zoo is built on 77 acres, and opened in 1898. The newest and now most famous exhibit opened in stages between late 2006 and early 2008, and is called "Water's Edge". Polar bears, sea otters and walruses are featured here, and there are glass tunnels that pass directly through the polar bear and walrus pools.
The 2008 book "America's Best Zoos" claims that the Pittsburgh Zoo has the #1 children's zoo in the entire nation. "Kid's Kingdom" is a 7-acre set of exhibits that has plenty of playground equipment, but also sea lions, white-tailed deer, kangaroos, porcupines, skunks, river otters, beavers, meerkats, and various bird species.

The Aquarium part of the zoo opened in 2000, and is 45,000 sq. ft in size. It cost $17 million and boasts over 40 aquatic exhibits. The Pittsburgh Zoo is one of only a handful of zoos in the United States that houses a major aquarium adjacent to the zoo.
 
I visited the Pittsburgh Zoo in 2002...Chuckles, the long-lived Amazon River Dolphin, had just died before my visit :(

The zoo's parking lot and entrance are located in a valley below the zoo campus. Upon entering the gates you get on a steep escalator that takes you up to the ridge above the entrance. Here you find the usual visitor amenities and then follow the path up the mountainside...Cheyenne Mountain isnt the only mountain zoo as they claim. Through a tunnel beneath a park road is the Asian Forest exhibit.

Asian Forest
Snow Leopard, Amur Tiger, Amur Leopard, Komodo Dragon, Storks.

African Savannah
This exhibit is located on the site of the former zoo building that once housed the majority of the zoo's animal collection. This building was clearly one of the largest in the US. Now the site houses spacious exhibit for African Lion, Black Rhinoceros, Zebra, Antelope, Reticulated Giraffe, and the famous African Elephant herd. With the birth of Victoria in 1999, the zoo restarted African Elephant breeding in the US. Their bull, Jackson, is the most prolific in the US, also siring calves during his 5 year stay at DAK.

Tropical Forest
This building houses a geographically diverse primate collection. The exhibits are bare and full of fake tree props and concrete floors, though the exhibits are surrounded by foilage...it reminded me of Cleveland. The pathway follows along the building's walls, with the exhibits in the center under the atrium roof. Behind the primate house is a spacious lowland gorilla exhibit with a large troop of gorillas.

Further behind Tropical Forest is a 15 acre? spread that is unused and is planned to be the site of a reptile house and other new exhibits.

Bear Grottos
Amongst one of the earliest bear grottos, these enclosures were blasted from the mountainside. And unlike most bear grottos, these are rather large, but still somewhat barren.

PPG Aquarium
Probably the best and most complete aquarium within a zoo, this two story replacement of the originial "Aquazoo" is well laid out and houses a diverse collection of aquatic specimens. The large atrium the juts out from the building houses the large amazon river tank that was built for Chuckles the Amazon River Dolphin...at least he got to spend a few years in it :)

Niches of the World
Now the site of "Water's Edge", this building inside the mountain housed a small, but nice collection of reptiles and small mammals.

Kid's Kingdom
I agree with Nyhuis's ranking of this children's zoo. It is certainly one of the best I've ever seen. It houses a good collection of Pennsylvania wildife and active exotic animals that would be popular with children. This 7 acre spread is full of interactive and play elements for children.

The zoo also just acquired a several hundred acre property in Somerset County, Pennsylvania to build a conservation center that is due to be operational this year. It will be built around the zoo's elephant breeding program. This year it will house Jackson and young Callee, the zoo's bulls, and three cows from Philadelphia. The zoo also hopes to add Grevy's Zebra, Amur Tiger, Cheetah, African Wild Dog, etc. to the center's collection in the coming years.
 
Zoo preps for 2 elephant births - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

The Pittsburgh Zoo will have two baby elephants within the next month or so, and with plans for 20 elephants at their conservation centre in the future the progress of their breeding of pachyderms is looking liking a big hit. The article states that soon 3 female elephants will be arriving from the Philadelphia Zoo, and I was wondering what the reason would be behind that. I'd read about a year ago that the Philly zoo was shutting down its elephant exhibit forever, but then later there was talk of a new, multi-million dollar set of habitats. Which is the truth? Either way, the Pittsburgh Zoo is fast becoming a leader with their elephant breeding program.
 
Philly Zoo is wise enough to understand that its current elephant exhibit is substandard and that a new elephant exhibit cannot be built at their zoo for many years....so they are shipping out their elephants (0.1 Asian to Elephant Sanctuary and 0.3 to Pittsburgh's new conservation center). This is something other zoos with prime breeding age elephants should take notice of.

Pittsburgh Zoo has been the leader in African Elephant breeding since the beginning of their program in the late 1990s. Their bull Jackson has sired more (african) calves than any other in N America. And their elephant manager Willie Theison is well-known, world wide, for his work with elephants.
 
We've got a baby girl! A 200-pound girl. Savannah, one of the female elephants, gave birth to a healthy female calf on July 9. The other pregnant female, Moja, is due any day. Mother and calf are thriving in the spacious recently-renovated elephant barn.

Pittsburgh Zoo Announces Elephant Birth - Family News Story - WTAE Pittsburgh
Video

There's been a lot happening at the PGH Zoo recently. An Amur tiger cub was born on Mother's Day (May 11). Six beaver kits were also born in May. Now this baby elephant as well as another female elephant expecting within the next two weeks. The Zoo has also expanded their elephant barn, doubling its size. There are also plans for a new, state-of-the-art animal hospital.
 
Congratulations to Pittsburgh. Is "Jackson" the father of the two calfs ?
How many Walrusses do have the zoo, and from where they came from ?
 
Zebraduiker said:
Congratulations to Pittsburgh. Is "Jackson" the father of the two calfs ?
How many Walrusses do have the zoo, and from where they came from ?
Click to expand...
Yes, Jackson is the father. He sired this calf as well as the other female's calf, which will be born very soon. Jack has become a rather prolific sire. This new baby is his sixth confirmed offspring.

The Zoo currently does not have walruses. They completed a multimillion-dollar exhibit called Water's Edge, intended to house polar bears, sea otters, and walruses, in late 2006. But they still do not have walruses on exhibit. The tank is empty. I believe they may be waiting for a breeding pair. I'm really anticipating their arrival though, whenever that may be. Walruses are fascinating animals.
 
PGH said:
Yes, Jackson is the father. He sired this calf as well as the other female's calf, which will be born very soon. Jack has become a rather prolific sire. This new baby is his sixth confirmed offspring.

The Zoo currently does not have walruses. They completed a multimillion-dollar exhibit called Water's Edge, intended to house polar bears, sea otters, and walruses, in late 2006. But they still do not have walruses on exhibit. The tank is empty. I believe they may be waiting for a breeding pair. I'm really anticipating their arrival though, whenever that may be. Walruses are fascinating animals.
Click to expand...

You know the tank needs walruses, hopefully in late 2008 or early 2009.
 
There weren't any photos in the gallery of this zoo until today, but for those that are interested I've now uploaded over 100 shots from my epic road trip.
 
Wow, I wish every zoo would regularly put out such a list. Thanks for the link!
 
Los Angeles Zoo has one but it's not online. Everytime I go to the zoo to volunteer I look at it because sometimes it gets updated every week, but most of the time is every month. The list is on the bulletin board in the Volunteer offices.
 
You cant quite access this list from the zoo's website...I came across it accidently (like most things I find) during a search for something else.
 
Thanks for posting the link okapikpr! Interesting for me to read as I was just at the Pittsburgh Zoo in July, and it seems as if 50% of the zoo's species can be found in the aquarium. Hopefully walruses will be added in the next year or so, especially considering that there is an empty exhibit that will first be the home of sand sharks.
 
That (the sand shark exhibit) will be very interesting...I dont think there are many outdoor shark exhibits.
 
The sand shark (future walrus) exhibit will be made even more interesting by the fact that there is a visitor tunnel that goes directly through the habitat. It was bizarre walking through there this summer without any animals swimming overhead.
 
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