keith8404
Well-Known Member
I finally made it out to the Tulsa Zoo for the purpose of visiting the recently opened Wild Life Trek (WLT) complex, and thought I would provide a report on the renovation and my impressions. The four buildings that make up the WLT were formerly the North American Living Museum (NALM) complex. As the NALM, each building represented a different region and broad ecosystem of North America – Arctic Tundra, Western Desert, Eastern Forest and Southern Lowland. Each building of the NALM contained animals native to those areas plus displays highlighting native and/or prehistoric human cultures of each region (thus the “Living Museum” moniker). The new WLT has repurposed the buildings to represent similar habitats, but they are no longer limited to North America. The four buildings are now named “Life in the Cold,” “Life in the Desert,” “Life in the Forest,” and “Life in the Water,” and animals representing several continents are mixed throughout the buildings.
A positive of this change is that there is a greater total number of species and individual animals in the WLT than there was in the NALM (with the exception of the “Life in the Cold” building, as reported below). There are also some interesting new additions to Tulsa’s collection that I was glad to see. The general condition of the buildings has been improved by fresh paint, new glass, etc., and I believe a large part of the money spent on the renovations went to infrastructure updates and behind the scenes improvements that will be unseen or unnoticed by the public. But overall I ended up being underwhelmed by the presentation, and disappointed in some of the choices made in the renovations. For those familiar with the NALM, particularly when it was new and in fine repair, you will likely find WLT to be less of a total experience than before, and it is definitely not up to par with ecosystem themed buildings at other zoos such as LA’s new LAIR or Tulsa’s own Tropical American Rain Forest.
One of the most noticeable changes is that basically all of the cultural items and displays are now gone. Clearly the decision with the renovation was to focus on the live animals of each broad ecosystem, and delete the “museum” aspect. I’m sure part of the decision was to reduce maintenance costs associated with some of the displays in the old NALM, and for many visitors to the Zoo, who are obviously there to see animals, the cultural items were probably not an attraction. But for the most part the presentation of those items in the NALM was very high-quality and their presence added a greater richness to the complex. They helped make the NALM unique. Unfortunately, their deletion makes the buildings seem “sterile” to me. Very little new or innovative theming or educational displays have been installed to take their place. A few new animal exhibits have been added to fill some of the vacant space, but the deletion of the museum displays has also left some awkward dead spaces.
This was most noticeable in the “Life in The Cold” building; the first building most visitors will encounter when entering the WLT. Because it was also the first building encountered in the old NALM, about half of the first of two rooms in the building formerly contained a winding walkway through a fairly large set of interactive and static displays introducing the history and geology of the earth. The area included a popular earthquake simulator, paleontological displays, and information on evolutionary adaptations and the effects of man. Unfortunately, all this is gone. In its place is just a very large bare space, with a white line painted on the floor containing a conservation message about polar bears, and some banners overhead with arctic images. The whole first room now contains only the viewing windows into the Grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) habitat (the remodeled and expanded former Polar bear habitat, more below); viewing into the Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) habitat; a small amount of northern forest theming in the way of a little rockwork and conifers; an “Arctic Blast” machine that looks like a glass-enclosed shower stall where guests can pay to experience a blast of cold wind (clearly intended as a revenue generator, to which I have no objection, and it will probably be popular in the hot Oklahoma summer); and a whole lot of open space. I’m hopeful that there are plans to fill the dead space with new exhibits in the future, but for now the general impression is that there’s not much here, and you wonder if the rest of the complex will be equally barren. (Each of the other three buildings contain a multi-species aviary and it seems the same could work well in this space; perhaps with Arctic coast species such as Golden plover, Dunlin, Knot, Phalarope, Ivory gull, Ross’ gull, Lapland longspur, etc. ).
The second room of the building formerly contained a number of displays highlighting historic Inuit or “Eskimo” culture, including a life size diorama of a native family inside an igloo, an authentic seal-skin kayak, ceremonial masks, a video display with an endless loop of the silent film “Nanook of the North,” and tools and other cultural items. Again this is all gone (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing) but nothing of value has been added to replace it. The igloo structure remains, but it is vacant and has been painted the color of bare dirt. A wall display nearby calls it “the burrow” and invites children to find small replicas of arctic animals attached to it, but I suspect many will not notice the signs and instead just wonder why there’s a big empty brown dome with some little fake animals stuck on it. I’m not sure how anyone connected with the remodel thought this particular reuse was a very good idea.
Worse of all, although there are fewer interesting things to look at in this room than before, there aren’t any more animal displays (two)! The habitat for a pair of Snowy owls (Bubo scandiacus) remains largely unchanged, although it may have been enlarged slightly. The only real improvement to the building is that a space formerly holding an in-wall aquarium with a few nondescript arctic ocean fish and invertebrates has been turned into a much larger glass fronted display for Long-tailed chinchilla (Chinchilla lanigera), a new species for the zoo that I suspect many guests will find appealing. So, overall the interior of the “Life in the Cold” building presents no more animal displays than before (a total of four, including the Grizzly bear viewing), only one new species, and a vastly reduced overall experience. It’s definitely not what I had hoped for out of the remodel, and not something to make a strong first impression on visitors.
Thankfully, things do improve as you move on. Immediately outside, a yard that was originally home to wolves, and for a long time was vacant, is now a spacious yard for the critically endangered Siberian crane (Leucogeranus leucogeranus) which I believe the zoo is hoping to breed. This struck me as a good use of the space, and presents an important new species for the zoo. Also it appears (though I’m not sure) that the large enclosed yard behind the building may be available to the Grizzly bears when off exhibit, which would provide them with a vastly larger space than any bear has had at Tulsa before now. I should also note here that the public exhibit space for the Grizzly bears in front of the Life in the Cold Building has been expanded a bit in size from the old Polar bear exhibit, and the concrete floor has been mostly replaced with loose soil, gravel and grass, so that also represents an improvement, and the viewing into part of the yard has been vastly improved.
Moving toward the Life in the Desert Building, there is some nice xeric landscaping outside that sets the stage nicely. The building’s entrance has been remodeled to divide what was formerly a larger mostly unused space into two spaces; a kind of foyer with a large window looking into the aviary that makes up the main portion of the building, and a small second room that contains a relocated aquarium with fish from the Sea of Cortez in Baja Mexico. From this you move into the main room. This large open aviary appears mostly unchanged from the old NALM, but it’s definitely been cleaned up and appears to have been re-landscaped and replanted.
Most importantly, it now contains a much larger variety of birds and reptiles. Bird species include Eastern paradise whydah (Vidua paradisaea), Pin-tailed whydah (Vidua macrour), Parson finch (Poephila cincta), Red-headed finch (Amadina erythrocephala), Red-billed firefinch (Lagonosticta senegala), Lavender finch (Lagonostica caerulescens), Blue-capped cordon bleu (Uraeginthus cyanocephalus), Egyptian plover (Pluvianus aegyptius), Namaqua dove (Oena capensis), Buff-crested bustard (Laphotis gindiana), California Quail (Callipepla californica), and Madagascar buttonquail (Turnix nigricollis). Reptiles roaming the open exhibit include Desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii), Common chuckwalla (Sauromalus ater), and Uromastyx sp.. The aviary space is surrounded by herpetariums containing a number of snake and lizard species, including several rattlesnakes (Crotalus sp.) and Gila monsters (Heloderma suspectum). Nice new additions to the zoo’s collection in this area are a Frilled-neck lizard (Chlamydosaurus kingie) and San Esteban chuckwalla (Sauromalus varius). Overall the impression given by this big sunny space is quite good, and I found myself spending a long time here spotting and observing the interactions of all the various birds and reptiles.
Moving from the main room, you now enter a space that contains three desert mammal exhibits. Two remain unchanged from the NALM – a recreation of an arroyo that houses Kit fox (Vulpes macrotis) and an area for Ringtail or Cocomistle (Bassariscus astutus). The new addition is a colony of Naked mole rats (Heterocephalus glaber) inhabiting a plastic-tube burrow, set into some dirt colored plaster work in the wall. It looks okay and the viewing of the mole rats is good, but the room itself is pretty bare. A new wall and door separate this area from the final room of the Desert building which now contains a number of glass display cases on pedestals each containing desert plants or invertebrate specimens such as Giant desert centipede (Scolopendra heros), Blue death-feigning beetle (Asbolus verucosus), and Desert blonde tarantula (Aphonopelma chalcodes). This area also has a wall of windows that look into the habitat of a small herd of Collared peccary. These are the same species that formerly inhabited the space, but I was glad to see that their outdoor yard has been at last doubled in size by the filling of a moat that now gives them access to a small hillside planted with Cedars. Information released by the zoo prior to the WLT opening noted that Sand cats (Felis margarita) would be part of the collection, but if they are there I completely overlooked them.
Leaving the Desert, you next approach the “Life in the Forest” building. To the left of the walkway is a fairly large outdoor habitat that remains unchanged from the NALM, containing a herd of White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and Wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) (more on this below). A new addition to the outside of the Forest building is a caged enclosure that contains Bobcat (Lynx rufus). As you enter the building there is a viewing window into that new habitat immediately to the left. Moving in and to the right, what used to be large aquariums housing unspectacular freshwater fish is now a multi-part glass fronted enclosure for a large Crocodile monitor (Varanus salvadorii). This is definitely a nice addition to the collection and an improvement for this space. However, some informational displays have been removed from this part of the building and nothing has been added to replace them, so once again there’s the feeling that this first part of the building is a little barer than before.
The next area in the Forest building is a recreation of a cave, and it was this area that provided possibly my biggest disappointment with the WLT renovation. The cave was a popular holdover from the NALM. I’ve always felt that it is a masterpiece of rockwork, with very natural looking features like stalagmites, stalactites, flow stones, bacon rinds, draperies, etc. These were originally highlighted by interactive lighting and informational displays. The cave also originally contained small tanks set into the walls containing creatures like cave crickets, blind salamanders, and blind cave fish, with touch plates that could be used to raise and lower the lights on the displays. The displays have long been unused, and I hoped that the renovation would restore their function. Sadly it didn’t. In fact the openings have been closed over with new rockwork, and not all that well at that. A display of a pre-historic native and some Pleistocene era fossils inset into the wall of an adjoining passageway has also been removed and covered over. The interactive display that highlighted the unique cave features has been removed, and overall it seemed the lighting has been diminished. Basically what you are left to do is walk through a very dimly lit area with nothing to look at and no information about any interesting thing that might still be there. I viewed this as a total failure to make use of what was (and still could be) a very unique and exciting space. I hope the zoo is planning to revisit this part of the renovation and restore the cave to its former glory.
The rest of the Forest building, however, does represent an improvement over the NALM. An area adjacent to the cave that was formerly two smaller habitats has been combined into one larger space that provides the North American porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum) with an improved home. A habitat across from it that formerly housed raccoon now holds Thick-tailed bushbaby or galago (Otolemur crassicaudatus), another nice new addition to the Tulsa collection. Next to the galago, the zoo has relocated its Raccoons (Procyon lotor) and Striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis) into a fairly large habitat that was vacant for quite some time (originally used for bobcat). Nearby is the habitat for a pair of very active and interesting Northern tree shrews (Tupaia belangeri). Opposite these displays is a lovely free-flight aviary area that now contains several beautiful forest species, including what I believe is a pair of Siamese fireback (Lophura diardi), and this area has been remodeled to make it much more open and airy than before. Next to this is an enclosed aviary containing Thick-billed parrots (Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha) (which represent a huge improvement over the habitat’s former resident, a common American crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)!). Across from the parrots is a window wall that looks into the unchanged but fairly spacious and attractive exhibit inhabited by Bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus).
Moving outside the Forest building, the habitat for American black bear (Ursus americanus) on the south side of the elevated walkway remains unchanged. To me this represents a missed opportunity in the remodel. I had hoped that the zoo would choose to greatly expand the bear habitat by remodeling and linking the deer yard on the north side of the walkway with the bear yard on the south via a passage under the walkway. Since white-tailed deer and wild turkey are common species in the Tulsa area, I don’t see any strong reason to continue displaying them. In fact, since the complex is no longer exclusively North American in focus, it seems this presented a good opportunity to relocate the zoo’s much more interesting pair of Spectacled bears (Tremarctos ornatus) to this area from the old bear grotto area on the opposite side of the zoo (which the zoo intends to close). This would also fit in well in this area given spectacled bears’ native distribution includes both Andean forest and desert areas, so the species would naturally link together the two buildings flanking the expanded habitat. Even if it’s not practical or possible to connect the two yards, it would have been nice to at least see some less common species of deer or some other more interesting ungulates replacing the white-tailed deer.
The final building of the WLT is the “Life in the Water” building. Outside the building there is an enclosed area that formerly held American alligators which now holds American white pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos). Entering the building you encounter one of the most obvious renovations. An open area that formerly displayed cultural items has been enclosed to create a habitat for Albino American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) which are another interesting new addition to the zoo. Signs provide information on normal, leucistic and albino coloration. An area nearby that has had a variety of unsuccessful displays of lowland plants in the past has been reworked into a terrarium for musk and mud turtles (Sternotherus sp. and Kinosternon sp.). Larger terrariums holding Water moccasin (Agkistrodon piscivorus), Louisiana pine snake (Pituophis ruthveni), and some other lowland snakes, as well as an aquarium that houses a large Alligator snapping turtle (Macrochelys temminckii ), remain unchanged from the NALM.
Likewise the next section of the building, which is primarily a large free-flight aviary, is mostly unchanged, although there has been some rearrangement of the inhabitants and the addition of several new species of waterfowl and wading birds. Species in this area include Inca tern ((Larosterna inca), Roseate spoonbill (Platalea ajaja), Great blue heron (Ardea herodias), Green heron (Butorides virescens), Snowy egret (Egretta thula), Wood duck (Aix sponsa), and what I think were Purple heron (Ardea purpurea) and, surprisingly, a very active Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus), among others. An area that formerly was the indoor alligator habitat is now part of the larger aviary, and the alligators have been relocated into an area formerly used for the pelicans. Proceeding, you enter the final area of the WLT, a room containing several large salt-water aquariums, including a round tank with a fairly impressive number of different Seahorse species (Hippocampus sp.). A display on bioluminescence that formerly took up part of this space has been removed.
The result of the remodel is a mixed bag. The physical plant has undoubtedly been cleaned and updated and service areas probably improved. The animal collection has been broadened and most of the new species are interesting, welcome additions. Several habitats have been enlarged. However, the overall sense of immersion and the educational presentations have been diminished. It seems several opportunities for obvious significant improvements were missed. Those who never experienced the NALM when it was fresh and new will probably think the WLT is fine. Those familiar with how good that complex once was, and with how good similar complexes elsewhere can be, will find the WLT comes up short. It does however represent some movement out of the stagnation caused by severe budget problems that plagued the Tulsa Zoo for so long, so I hesitate to be too critical. Several large new projects (a new White Rhino yard and barn, and “The Lost Kingdom” complex featuring new exhibits for Malayan tiger, Snow leopard, Komodo dragon and many other Asian species) are currently in the works at Tulsa, so I remain hopeful that those will come closer to fulfilling the high expectations we have for a quality modern zoo.
A positive of this change is that there is a greater total number of species and individual animals in the WLT than there was in the NALM (with the exception of the “Life in the Cold” building, as reported below). There are also some interesting new additions to Tulsa’s collection that I was glad to see. The general condition of the buildings has been improved by fresh paint, new glass, etc., and I believe a large part of the money spent on the renovations went to infrastructure updates and behind the scenes improvements that will be unseen or unnoticed by the public. But overall I ended up being underwhelmed by the presentation, and disappointed in some of the choices made in the renovations. For those familiar with the NALM, particularly when it was new and in fine repair, you will likely find WLT to be less of a total experience than before, and it is definitely not up to par with ecosystem themed buildings at other zoos such as LA’s new LAIR or Tulsa’s own Tropical American Rain Forest.
One of the most noticeable changes is that basically all of the cultural items and displays are now gone. Clearly the decision with the renovation was to focus on the live animals of each broad ecosystem, and delete the “museum” aspect. I’m sure part of the decision was to reduce maintenance costs associated with some of the displays in the old NALM, and for many visitors to the Zoo, who are obviously there to see animals, the cultural items were probably not an attraction. But for the most part the presentation of those items in the NALM was very high-quality and their presence added a greater richness to the complex. They helped make the NALM unique. Unfortunately, their deletion makes the buildings seem “sterile” to me. Very little new or innovative theming or educational displays have been installed to take their place. A few new animal exhibits have been added to fill some of the vacant space, but the deletion of the museum displays has also left some awkward dead spaces.
This was most noticeable in the “Life in The Cold” building; the first building most visitors will encounter when entering the WLT. Because it was also the first building encountered in the old NALM, about half of the first of two rooms in the building formerly contained a winding walkway through a fairly large set of interactive and static displays introducing the history and geology of the earth. The area included a popular earthquake simulator, paleontological displays, and information on evolutionary adaptations and the effects of man. Unfortunately, all this is gone. In its place is just a very large bare space, with a white line painted on the floor containing a conservation message about polar bears, and some banners overhead with arctic images. The whole first room now contains only the viewing windows into the Grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) habitat (the remodeled and expanded former Polar bear habitat, more below); viewing into the Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) habitat; a small amount of northern forest theming in the way of a little rockwork and conifers; an “Arctic Blast” machine that looks like a glass-enclosed shower stall where guests can pay to experience a blast of cold wind (clearly intended as a revenue generator, to which I have no objection, and it will probably be popular in the hot Oklahoma summer); and a whole lot of open space. I’m hopeful that there are plans to fill the dead space with new exhibits in the future, but for now the general impression is that there’s not much here, and you wonder if the rest of the complex will be equally barren. (Each of the other three buildings contain a multi-species aviary and it seems the same could work well in this space; perhaps with Arctic coast species such as Golden plover, Dunlin, Knot, Phalarope, Ivory gull, Ross’ gull, Lapland longspur, etc. ).
The second room of the building formerly contained a number of displays highlighting historic Inuit or “Eskimo” culture, including a life size diorama of a native family inside an igloo, an authentic seal-skin kayak, ceremonial masks, a video display with an endless loop of the silent film “Nanook of the North,” and tools and other cultural items. Again this is all gone (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing) but nothing of value has been added to replace it. The igloo structure remains, but it is vacant and has been painted the color of bare dirt. A wall display nearby calls it “the burrow” and invites children to find small replicas of arctic animals attached to it, but I suspect many will not notice the signs and instead just wonder why there’s a big empty brown dome with some little fake animals stuck on it. I’m not sure how anyone connected with the remodel thought this particular reuse was a very good idea.
Worse of all, although there are fewer interesting things to look at in this room than before, there aren’t any more animal displays (two)! The habitat for a pair of Snowy owls (Bubo scandiacus) remains largely unchanged, although it may have been enlarged slightly. The only real improvement to the building is that a space formerly holding an in-wall aquarium with a few nondescript arctic ocean fish and invertebrates has been turned into a much larger glass fronted display for Long-tailed chinchilla (Chinchilla lanigera), a new species for the zoo that I suspect many guests will find appealing. So, overall the interior of the “Life in the Cold” building presents no more animal displays than before (a total of four, including the Grizzly bear viewing), only one new species, and a vastly reduced overall experience. It’s definitely not what I had hoped for out of the remodel, and not something to make a strong first impression on visitors.
Thankfully, things do improve as you move on. Immediately outside, a yard that was originally home to wolves, and for a long time was vacant, is now a spacious yard for the critically endangered Siberian crane (Leucogeranus leucogeranus) which I believe the zoo is hoping to breed. This struck me as a good use of the space, and presents an important new species for the zoo. Also it appears (though I’m not sure) that the large enclosed yard behind the building may be available to the Grizzly bears when off exhibit, which would provide them with a vastly larger space than any bear has had at Tulsa before now. I should also note here that the public exhibit space for the Grizzly bears in front of the Life in the Cold Building has been expanded a bit in size from the old Polar bear exhibit, and the concrete floor has been mostly replaced with loose soil, gravel and grass, so that also represents an improvement, and the viewing into part of the yard has been vastly improved.
Moving toward the Life in the Desert Building, there is some nice xeric landscaping outside that sets the stage nicely. The building’s entrance has been remodeled to divide what was formerly a larger mostly unused space into two spaces; a kind of foyer with a large window looking into the aviary that makes up the main portion of the building, and a small second room that contains a relocated aquarium with fish from the Sea of Cortez in Baja Mexico. From this you move into the main room. This large open aviary appears mostly unchanged from the old NALM, but it’s definitely been cleaned up and appears to have been re-landscaped and replanted.
Most importantly, it now contains a much larger variety of birds and reptiles. Bird species include Eastern paradise whydah (Vidua paradisaea), Pin-tailed whydah (Vidua macrour), Parson finch (Poephila cincta), Red-headed finch (Amadina erythrocephala), Red-billed firefinch (Lagonosticta senegala), Lavender finch (Lagonostica caerulescens), Blue-capped cordon bleu (Uraeginthus cyanocephalus), Egyptian plover (Pluvianus aegyptius), Namaqua dove (Oena capensis), Buff-crested bustard (Laphotis gindiana), California Quail (Callipepla californica), and Madagascar buttonquail (Turnix nigricollis). Reptiles roaming the open exhibit include Desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii), Common chuckwalla (Sauromalus ater), and Uromastyx sp.. The aviary space is surrounded by herpetariums containing a number of snake and lizard species, including several rattlesnakes (Crotalus sp.) and Gila monsters (Heloderma suspectum). Nice new additions to the zoo’s collection in this area are a Frilled-neck lizard (Chlamydosaurus kingie) and San Esteban chuckwalla (Sauromalus varius). Overall the impression given by this big sunny space is quite good, and I found myself spending a long time here spotting and observing the interactions of all the various birds and reptiles.
Moving from the main room, you now enter a space that contains three desert mammal exhibits. Two remain unchanged from the NALM – a recreation of an arroyo that houses Kit fox (Vulpes macrotis) and an area for Ringtail or Cocomistle (Bassariscus astutus). The new addition is a colony of Naked mole rats (Heterocephalus glaber) inhabiting a plastic-tube burrow, set into some dirt colored plaster work in the wall. It looks okay and the viewing of the mole rats is good, but the room itself is pretty bare. A new wall and door separate this area from the final room of the Desert building which now contains a number of glass display cases on pedestals each containing desert plants or invertebrate specimens such as Giant desert centipede (Scolopendra heros), Blue death-feigning beetle (Asbolus verucosus), and Desert blonde tarantula (Aphonopelma chalcodes). This area also has a wall of windows that look into the habitat of a small herd of Collared peccary. These are the same species that formerly inhabited the space, but I was glad to see that their outdoor yard has been at last doubled in size by the filling of a moat that now gives them access to a small hillside planted with Cedars. Information released by the zoo prior to the WLT opening noted that Sand cats (Felis margarita) would be part of the collection, but if they are there I completely overlooked them.
Leaving the Desert, you next approach the “Life in the Forest” building. To the left of the walkway is a fairly large outdoor habitat that remains unchanged from the NALM, containing a herd of White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and Wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) (more on this below). A new addition to the outside of the Forest building is a caged enclosure that contains Bobcat (Lynx rufus). As you enter the building there is a viewing window into that new habitat immediately to the left. Moving in and to the right, what used to be large aquariums housing unspectacular freshwater fish is now a multi-part glass fronted enclosure for a large Crocodile monitor (Varanus salvadorii). This is definitely a nice addition to the collection and an improvement for this space. However, some informational displays have been removed from this part of the building and nothing has been added to replace them, so once again there’s the feeling that this first part of the building is a little barer than before.
The next area in the Forest building is a recreation of a cave, and it was this area that provided possibly my biggest disappointment with the WLT renovation. The cave was a popular holdover from the NALM. I’ve always felt that it is a masterpiece of rockwork, with very natural looking features like stalagmites, stalactites, flow stones, bacon rinds, draperies, etc. These were originally highlighted by interactive lighting and informational displays. The cave also originally contained small tanks set into the walls containing creatures like cave crickets, blind salamanders, and blind cave fish, with touch plates that could be used to raise and lower the lights on the displays. The displays have long been unused, and I hoped that the renovation would restore their function. Sadly it didn’t. In fact the openings have been closed over with new rockwork, and not all that well at that. A display of a pre-historic native and some Pleistocene era fossils inset into the wall of an adjoining passageway has also been removed and covered over. The interactive display that highlighted the unique cave features has been removed, and overall it seemed the lighting has been diminished. Basically what you are left to do is walk through a very dimly lit area with nothing to look at and no information about any interesting thing that might still be there. I viewed this as a total failure to make use of what was (and still could be) a very unique and exciting space. I hope the zoo is planning to revisit this part of the renovation and restore the cave to its former glory.
The rest of the Forest building, however, does represent an improvement over the NALM. An area adjacent to the cave that was formerly two smaller habitats has been combined into one larger space that provides the North American porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum) with an improved home. A habitat across from it that formerly housed raccoon now holds Thick-tailed bushbaby or galago (Otolemur crassicaudatus), another nice new addition to the Tulsa collection. Next to the galago, the zoo has relocated its Raccoons (Procyon lotor) and Striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis) into a fairly large habitat that was vacant for quite some time (originally used for bobcat). Nearby is the habitat for a pair of very active and interesting Northern tree shrews (Tupaia belangeri). Opposite these displays is a lovely free-flight aviary area that now contains several beautiful forest species, including what I believe is a pair of Siamese fireback (Lophura diardi), and this area has been remodeled to make it much more open and airy than before. Next to this is an enclosed aviary containing Thick-billed parrots (Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha) (which represent a huge improvement over the habitat’s former resident, a common American crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)!). Across from the parrots is a window wall that looks into the unchanged but fairly spacious and attractive exhibit inhabited by Bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus).
Moving outside the Forest building, the habitat for American black bear (Ursus americanus) on the south side of the elevated walkway remains unchanged. To me this represents a missed opportunity in the remodel. I had hoped that the zoo would choose to greatly expand the bear habitat by remodeling and linking the deer yard on the north side of the walkway with the bear yard on the south via a passage under the walkway. Since white-tailed deer and wild turkey are common species in the Tulsa area, I don’t see any strong reason to continue displaying them. In fact, since the complex is no longer exclusively North American in focus, it seems this presented a good opportunity to relocate the zoo’s much more interesting pair of Spectacled bears (Tremarctos ornatus) to this area from the old bear grotto area on the opposite side of the zoo (which the zoo intends to close). This would also fit in well in this area given spectacled bears’ native distribution includes both Andean forest and desert areas, so the species would naturally link together the two buildings flanking the expanded habitat. Even if it’s not practical or possible to connect the two yards, it would have been nice to at least see some less common species of deer or some other more interesting ungulates replacing the white-tailed deer.
The final building of the WLT is the “Life in the Water” building. Outside the building there is an enclosed area that formerly held American alligators which now holds American white pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos). Entering the building you encounter one of the most obvious renovations. An open area that formerly displayed cultural items has been enclosed to create a habitat for Albino American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) which are another interesting new addition to the zoo. Signs provide information on normal, leucistic and albino coloration. An area nearby that has had a variety of unsuccessful displays of lowland plants in the past has been reworked into a terrarium for musk and mud turtles (Sternotherus sp. and Kinosternon sp.). Larger terrariums holding Water moccasin (Agkistrodon piscivorus), Louisiana pine snake (Pituophis ruthveni), and some other lowland snakes, as well as an aquarium that houses a large Alligator snapping turtle (Macrochelys temminckii ), remain unchanged from the NALM.
Likewise the next section of the building, which is primarily a large free-flight aviary, is mostly unchanged, although there has been some rearrangement of the inhabitants and the addition of several new species of waterfowl and wading birds. Species in this area include Inca tern ((Larosterna inca), Roseate spoonbill (Platalea ajaja), Great blue heron (Ardea herodias), Green heron (Butorides virescens), Snowy egret (Egretta thula), Wood duck (Aix sponsa), and what I think were Purple heron (Ardea purpurea) and, surprisingly, a very active Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus), among others. An area that formerly was the indoor alligator habitat is now part of the larger aviary, and the alligators have been relocated into an area formerly used for the pelicans. Proceeding, you enter the final area of the WLT, a room containing several large salt-water aquariums, including a round tank with a fairly impressive number of different Seahorse species (Hippocampus sp.). A display on bioluminescence that formerly took up part of this space has been removed.
The result of the remodel is a mixed bag. The physical plant has undoubtedly been cleaned and updated and service areas probably improved. The animal collection has been broadened and most of the new species are interesting, welcome additions. Several habitats have been enlarged. However, the overall sense of immersion and the educational presentations have been diminished. It seems several opportunities for obvious significant improvements were missed. Those who never experienced the NALM when it was fresh and new will probably think the WLT is fine. Those familiar with how good that complex once was, and with how good similar complexes elsewhere can be, will find the WLT comes up short. It does however represent some movement out of the stagnation caused by severe budget problems that plagued the Tulsa Zoo for so long, so I hesitate to be too critical. Several large new projects (a new White Rhino yard and barn, and “The Lost Kingdom” complex featuring new exhibits for Malayan tiger, Snow leopard, Komodo dragon and many other Asian species) are currently in the works at Tulsa, so I remain hopeful that those will come closer to fulfilling the high expectations we have for a quality modern zoo.
