DAY 12: Friday, July 23rd
Zoo/Aquarium Review #9: Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo
Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo’s website:
Fort Wayne Children's Zoo - Home Page
Zoo Map:
http://www.kidszoo.org/images/zoomap.jpg
Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo was smaller than I had anticipated, as if it were not for the new “African Journey” area (opened in 2009) a zoo visit could possibly have been squeezed into a 2-hour timeslot. As it is the modest size (38 acres) does not take away from what is definitely an enjoyable experience and the new African area takes at least an hour to see all by itself. Overall the zoo is hit-and-miss in terms of exhibitry, but there is a positive vibe about the establishment and an extra effort to consider the welfare of children in everything that the zoo does. If it were not called a children’s zoo perhaps no one would notice the difference of name change, but many of the sections in the central area are geared towards youngsters.
THE BEST:
African Journey – This 2009 addition is the newest, biggest and best that the zoo has to offer, as is often the case with naturalistic alterations to modern zoos. What was most enjoyable and surprising about this African zone was the selection of species, as several are rarely seen in American zoos. Honey badgers (also called ratels) are only found here and at San Diego, spotted hyenas, banded mongoose in the absence of meerkats, Verreaux’s eagle owl, sitatunga, white-bearded wildebeest and bat-eared fox are all uncommon and thus wonderful to see in shiny new exhibits. In addition there is a multi-acre savanna with these species: ostrich, zebra, white stork, marabou stork and the aforementioned gnus. A pair of lions roam a hilly yard, a pair of leopards are found in the African Village area, and other species include: reticulated giraffe (1 male and 6 females), Diana monkey, colobus monkey, DeBrazza monkey, Allen’s swamp monkey, Ruppell’s griffon vulture, great white pelican, serval, red-billed hornbill, black stork, black-masked lovebird, wattled crane (temporarily replacing the off-exhibit sitatunga) and African crowned crane.
The entire journey is a mixture of wood chip pathways, paved zones and wooden, elevated boardwalks, and the highlight is probably the huge boulders that make up the Kopje area (lion, hyena, fox, ratel, vulture, mongoose and serval) and the attractive surroundings include misters and beautiful views. The negatives are the metal cages which are large but ugly for all of the monkeys, the hornbills, owl and leopards. Also, the enclosures for the honey badgers, serval and bat-eared fox are definitely too small. This African area pales in comparison to many others, but overall I really enjoyed it and the zoo is much improved due to its addition.
Australian Adventure – One highlight of the zoo was meeting Elaine, also known as “rookeyper” here on ZooChat. She was gracious enough to spend time with us to chat about grandkids, travelling and of course zoos. We toured the Aussie section together, and it was fantastic to have a kangaroo expert describe details about several of the animals on display. Thanks for the tour!
The book “America’s Best Zoos” names Fort Wayne as the #1 zoo in the country for Australian animals and exhibits, and I’d have to agree with that assessment. An Australian Welcome Center has exhibits for a tawny frogmouth, carpet python and water dragon, as well as colourful activities for kids. A Great Barrier Reef tank contains 30 species of fish, while adjacent to it an even larger tank has some small sharks and other creatures. Moon jellyfish and sea nettles round out the collection, before the journey leads outdoors to a courtyard with some aboriginal art on the fountain (which has become a mini-splash park for children!). A nocturnal hall has a pair of echidnas in with beautiful and extremely active striped possums, as well as a large fruit bat exhibit on the opposite wall.
“Walkabout Aviary” is a huge walk-through aviary with a variety of Aussie winged beauties, including a lush kookaburra enclosure and an area for parma wallabies. Close to 20 eastern grey kangaroos are in another walk-through section, and North America’s ONLY pair of dingoes resides in a separate exhibit towards the end of the walk-through area. There is a “River Ride” where visitors can travel in dugout canoes through the kangaroo yard and around the Australian wildlife, another feature of the zoo that appeals to small children.
California Sea Lion Pool – A fairly new addition to the zoo, this large pool with underwater viewing has 4 sea lions (two youngsters and two veterans) and there are shows twice daily.
THE AVERAGE:
Central Plaza – An average yard for Bennett’s wallabies, a typical monkey island for capuchins, a small but intriguing alligator pool that comes with underwater viewing, a decent African black-footed penguin enclosure, a large and typical family farm zone, a red-tailed hawk in a metal cage, an Aldabra tortoise yard, a saki monkey/two-toed sloth cage, magpie jays in a metal box, and an awfully small North American river otter exhibit round out this old and aging area. This zone of the zoo is hit-and-miss, and there isn’t anything to really stand out other than the impressive California sea lion pool. A quartet of cages features bobcats, satyr tragopan pheasants, red-billed blue magpies and white-eared pheasants as the trail heads towards the African area.
THE WORST:
Indonesian Rain Forest – There are two nice sections here. The Sumatran tiger exhibit isn’t that large but incredibly lush, and I give it a definite thumbs-up, and the walk-through aviary in the Jungle Dome is also dense with humidity and a fair replica of a realistic jungle. However, after that this are of the zoo is massively disappointing. A middle-aged pair of Sumatran orangutans shares a dreadful enclosure that is all indoors and comes complete with a cement floor, cement walls, a few ropes and fake trees. On an elevated boardwalk there are metal cages for siamangs, prevost’s squirrels, Javan gibbons (also called silvery gibbons), a binturong, wrinkled hornbills, hunting cissa and spectacled langurs. None of the enclosures do justice to their inhabitants whatsoever. A small walkway outside of the rain forest area leads to more metal boxes for ring-tailed lemurs, Eurasian eagle owls, a turkey vulture and a red panda. Ugh.
Metal Cages - By my estimation there are 24 exhibits at the zoo that are literally metal cages, which makes it next to impossible to photograph the animals unless one has an ultra-expensive and high-powered camera lens. Also, it can be difficult to clearly see the occupants, and quite simply the black metal is not attractive in the modern zoo world. The Indonesian Rain Forest area has some terrific species, and so if the zoo would invest in glass viewing windows, lighter mesh restraints or something other than black metal then that area would be considerably improved.
OVERALL:
Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo is a small zoo that nevertheless packs a lot into its 38 acres and 3 major zones. “African Journey” is for the most part quite impressive, “Australian Adventure” is about 5 acres in size and well worth a visit, and the “Indonesian Rain Forest” and central plaza area are mainly disappointing areas with a few scattered worthy animal exhibits. I enjoyed my visit and am definitely excited that there are some animals on offer at this zoo that can rarely be found anywhere else. I would recommend a visit just to see the honey badgers, dingoes, silvery gibbons, spotted hyenas, striped possums and short-beaked echidnas!
We've actually seen all 56 zoos since 2006 and so all of my reviews are very recent, and 53 of them in the past two years as Denver, San Francisco and San Diego Zoo's Safari Park were all visited in 2006 and the other 53 were either on our 2008 road trip or 2010 journey. My lifetime total is 120, and about 100 of those are in either the United States or Canada, with 18 in Australia, 2 in Switzerland and 1 in Trinidad & Tobago. 
