DAY 20: Saturday, July 31st
Zoo/Aquarium Review # 16: Philadelphia Zoo
Philadelphia Zoo’s website:
Philadelphia Zoo - Home
Zoo Map:
http://www.philadelphiazoo.org/PhiladelphiaZoo/files/a8/a8b7b95c-2c71-465a-bf7e-123ef99cc74b.pdf
Philadelphia Zoo is undoubtedly worth a visit just to see the wonderfully rare creatures that are found there and at very few other establishments in North America. On my visit I saw 2 Bornean bearded pigs, a Russian red squirrel, 2 blue-eyed lemurs, a baby Titi monkey, an Asiatic black bear, 2 aardvarks, 4 giant river otters, 2 species of elephant shrews, an echidna, an African striped weasel, Madagascar giant jumping rats, mongoose lemurs, 3 douc langurs (the only 3 on the continent) and an incredibly active aye-aye. What a list!
The zoo displays its animals taxonomically and there are 9 cat species, 4 bear species, a large bird collection, around 120 species of reptiles and amphibians, and all sorts of primates, hoofstock and other creatures. The animal collection is superb, the historic element of the almost 150 year-old zoo (fountains, sculptures, buildings, plaques, etc) is impressive, and it is immensely popular as illustrated with about 1.3 million visitors annually. On our visit my wife, daughter and I were plagued with massive crowds, and of all my lifetime zoo visits I think that this zoo was perhaps the busiest ever. Disney’s Animal Kingdom was also a challenge to get around, as are most major zoos on the weekend, but Philly was stuffed to the rafters and all of the large buildings were packed with rows of visitors. The enormous crowds tainted the day a little, but I will forget about them as I write an impartial review.
With so many terrific elements one would think that Philadelphia Zoo is one of the best in the United States, but the real reason why almost no one rates the zoo as a top contender is that the quality of exhibitry is lacking in many places. There are plenty of decent enclosures, but nothing that is a real knockout and several that are subpar. The zoo has renovated its old buildings over the years (such as the Reptile House and recently the Feline and Bird Houses) but the results, while very good, are not as spectacular as what could have been achieved by constructing an entirely new piece of infrastructure. However, the zoo did build a brand new primate building about a decade ago, but in my opinion it is a total disaster. More on that later…
THE BEST:
Big Cat Falls – This is a renovation of the old Feline House, and there are 5 spacious exhibits featuring 6 cat species. This area won the AZA Best Exhibit of the year award for 2007, and the complex opened to the public in 2006. I found the area to be quite impressive, but I was also expecting more from the renovation. The lion, tiger and puma enclosures are fairly large but in all honesty they are not as good as many other similar cat exhibits across the country. The jaguar enclosure has a low-key temple theme to it, and while impressive it is not as great as jaguar exhibits at Woodland Park or Jacksonville. The best part of Big Cat Falls is the Amur leopard/snow leopard exhibit, where the two species rotate. On my visit it was the Amur leopard in the enclosure, and the habitat is so lushly planted that it was fantastic to see the cat prowl around the perimeter of the exhibit. There is a cascading waterfall, and the only puzzling aspect is that the enclosure appears to be a thick, lush jungle while the cats that rotate through it are from much higher altitudes. There is also a large theater room and a researcher’s station that are both top-notch, and while Big Cat Falls is a worthy addition to the zoo it is not the world-class complex that I was expecting.
Bear Country – These 30 year-old enclosures actually hold up quite well in the modern zoo world, and I saw one bear of each of these species in the 4 habitats: polar, spectacled, Asiatic black and sloth. The polar bear exhibit has a huge pool and a large grassy area, and the other three habitats are all large and lush. The only downside is that the sloth bear was showing horrible stereotypical behavior on my visit. Compared to some of the absolutely horrendous bear pits that I’ve seen (Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Cheyenne Mountain, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Buffalo, Denver, etc) the bear exhibits in Philadelphia are excellent and spacious.
THE AVERAGE:
Carnivore Kingdom – The giant otters are the stars of the show here, and they have a terrific exhibit and a huge pool to splash around in. Other good enclosures are here for brown pelicans, hyacinth macaws and coatis, but too small habitats are here for these species: dwarf caiman, snow leopard, fishing cat and Canadian lynx. The snow leopard one in particular is a joke in terms of size, and the fishing cat enclosure had its pool drained of water.
African Plains – A reticulated giraffe paddock is narrow and barren, white rhinos share space with zebras, there is a saddle-billed stork/Mhorr gazelle/addax/African crowned crane exhibit that is huge and a bare ostrich yard. The average hoofstock yards that are seen at many other zoos.
Rare Animal Conservation Centre – Douc langurs! There are two older monkeys that live together and they never once moved in my two visits to this building, and one younger langur that lives next door but does not coexist in the same space as his two elders. It was a real treat to see the only 3 douc langurs in North America, and the rest of the species in this building include: naked mole rat, golden lion tamarin, kea, titi monkey, Rodrigues fruit pat, Goeldi’s monkey, mongoose lemur, Madagascar giant jumping rat, dwarf mongoose, prehensile-tailed porcupine, giant elephant shrew, red-capped mangabey, blue-eyed lemur and pied tamarin. This building would be much better if the larger primates had access to the outdoors, but all of them are confined to the cement of this 1960’s structure.
Small Mammal House – It was cool to see two aardvarks sharing the same habitat as meerkats, and another mixed-species exhibit had two-toed sloths with Brazilian agoutis. The rest of the small and fairly outdated building resembled the far superior “Mouse House” at the Bronx Zoo, and here are some of the species: chinchilla, Merriam’s kangaroo rat, European harvest mouse, short-eared elephant shrew, common tree shrew, bushy-tailed jird, pygmy marmoset, degu, damaraland mole rat, and Madagascar giant jumping rat. A very good but tiny nocturnal wing had these species, amongst others: African striped weasel, vampire bat, fruit bat, pygmy loris, sugar glider and echidna. Like much of the Philadelphia Zoo there is a great animal collection in average enclosures.
Reptile/Amphibian House – There are around 120 species here and the collection is hugely impressive, but the quality of the exhibits again lets the zoo down. A massive king cobra area is surrounded by galleries of smaller tanks, including disappointingly tiny and bare pools for American alligators, West African dwarf crocodiles and Nile crocodiles. A large southwestern display features Mexican beaded lizards and desert tortoises, and I took photos of excellent exhibits for prehensile-tailed skinks and black tree monitors. By far the best part of the house is the attached yard outside (“Tortoise Trail”), as there were Galapagos and Aldabra tortoises in a huge paddock that was very popular with visitors. A mating session was going on, and there were at least 8-10 of the massive tortoises in the spacious yard.
African Outpost – An enormous mesh enclosure for colobus monkeys, a small cage for red pandas, and two spacious yards for cheetahs and African wild dogs are somewhat randomly placed at the northwest corner of the zoo.
McNeil Avian Centre – A renovated bird house (a 1916 structure) featuring a great variety of smaller birds. Rhinoceros hornbills have a large aviary, and the walk-through area is pleasant but there is nothing to interest a non-bird lover here.
THE WORST:
Children’s Zoo – This is possibly the worst children’s zoo that I’ve seen on my current epic road trip, and it is no wonder that there are plans to update it in time for the zoo’s 150th anniversary in 2014. A puny insect zoo, a small stage with peeling paint and rusty metal poles, a few barns and farm animals scattered around the grounds, and a decrepit duck pond where visitors can toss food to the waterfowl. Ugh.
Zoo Layout – I’m not a huge fan of the taxonomic distribution of animal exhibits in zoos, as I’d much prefer an organized group centred around geographical areas or biomes. Philadelphia Zoo is an historic establishment and thus it has embraced the idea of keeping all the cats, bears, primates, birds, etc in complexes. However, the zoo is also haphazardly arranged, with exhibits of bald eagles, black-tailed prairie dogs, spider monkeys (white-bellied and Columbian black in the same large mesh enclosure), Andean condors, Bornean bearded pigs, giant anteaters, a capybara/mara enclosure, lorikeets, Russian red squirrels, macaws, black-and-white ruffed lemurs and golden lion tamarins in random areas with no attachment to anything around them. While weaving through the pathways I’d come across such exhibits and wonder if they were remnants of the past. With no set trails or organized loops it means that reading the zoo map takes on an even greater importance.
Bird Valley – A Humboldt penguin exhibit is not bad but somewhat outdated, and then there is a long line of ugly brick walls that feature a lengthy row of bird enclosures. Species include: black swan, black-necked swan, Coscoroba swan, turkey vulture, Cape barren goose, canvasback and a pretty Caribbean flamingo enclosure nearby.
Pachyderm House – Thank goodness there are no more elephants here, as their old enclosure would have been horrendous for such large mammals. The elephants were sent to a sanctuary where they have over 700 acres to roam, and their barren paddock at the zoo is now occupied by Poitou donkeys. Poor bastards! There are also crappy, dusty yards for okapi, Indian rhino and Nile hippos, in an area that is badly outdated. A southern ground hornbill lives in a yard right across from the hippos. The zoo even acknowledges the archaic zone, as there is a huge, double-paneled sign that details the fact that the elephants were in subpar conditions and were sent to a terrific new home. I’m sure that somewhere in the long-range plans there are suggestions to overhaul this desolate area of the zoo.
Primate Reserve – I realize that the decision to put a large primate complex that just opened a decade ago in my “worst” category might seem shocking to my faithful readers as often new exhibits are praiseworthy, but this building gets just about everything wrong. The entrance sign is pleasant and there is a well-planted ring-tailed lemur island that offers up an attractive offering as visitors file into the area. The outdoor gorilla yard is simply a large field, with the only vegetation hotwired off in the centre of the space. There are a couple of small climbing structures, but for the most part it resembles a soccer field and none of the apes were interested in venturing out on my visit. The Sumatran orangutans and white-handed gibbons have a large outdoor yard that is great for the gibbons as they have access to some massive trees, but I’m not sure that the orangs can scale the ropes to also spend time in the treetops. There is a metal structure lumped into the exhibit right near the glass viewing windows, and it is ugly as anything I’ve seen in an ape enclosure. Maybe the orangs hang their laundry on it?
The great ape outdoor yards were disappointing, but the indoor area of the primate house is a disaster. The decision was made in the late 1990’s (after the original primate house burned to the ground on Christmas Eve of 1995) to construct a type of “retro” building, as almost all of the floor space is hard cement, the walls are murals from another era, and few of the primates have any outdoor areas. There are steel beams, ladders and metal pipes in the exhibit that are used for climbing, but if someone had shown me photos and told me that I was looking at a monkey house from the 1950’s I would have believed every word. Everything is harsh metal and cement, and the ladders and steel poles make me cringe. The species list: spectacled langurs, squirrel monkeys, Sumatran orangutans/white-handed gibbons, gorillas, colobus monkeys, aye-ayes (a male and pregnant female in a separate nocturnal area) and Coquerel’s sifakas and golden lion tamarins in basic outdoor cages.
OVERALL:
Philadelphia Zoo reminds me of the Los Angeles Zoo, and while I prefer Philly both zoos have amazing animal collections in what I deem to be subpar exhibits. Philadelphia has decent big cat and bear complexes, but the entire rest of the zoo is either average or weak in terms of how the animals are displayed. I would definitely recommend this zoo due to the rare species that are within the collection, but I often think that it is almost pointless for a zoo to showcase exotic animals in below average enclosures. If given the choice I’m convinced that the vast majority of the zoo-going public would prefer to see naturalistic habitats containing mysterious creatures rather than indoor fish bowls where the occupants never even get to feel fresh air.
Postscript:
I always re-read my reviews at least once or twice before I post them, and I don’t want to be too cynical as I really enjoyed visiting the Philadelphia Zoo and as I said I would urge people to tour the grounds. One of my main issues with many of the American zoos that I’ve been visiting is that there are large mammals being kept indoors for their entire lives. Some folks on ZooChat don’t seem to mind that and they like to be able to easily see the animals if they are indoors with zero hiding places and large viewing windows for the public. I have no problem with many smaller mammals (golden lion tamarins, elephant shrews, lorises, etc) living in well-furnished enclosures with loads of natural substrate within a building. But in my mind highly active, intelligent, mid-sized mammals such as colobus monkeys, mangabeys, red pandas, Pallas’ cats, fossas, etc, should have some type of access to outdoor areas. It is an absolute tragedy that I have seen all of those species, and countless more, in many zoos where the animals are in tiny cubicles until they die. Even a tiny yard built adjacent to a building would suffice, as it would surely be better than seeing African rainforest primates bouncing around from tile to metal to glass without even knowing what grass is.
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However, I think I'll start with a few reviews on Zoochat and keep the book as a goal for later! 
