DAY 8: Monday, July 9th, 2012
Road Trip Review # 4: Indianapolis Zoo
Indianapolis Zoo’s website:
Indianapolis Zoo
Zoo Map:
http://www.indyzoo.com/SiteAssets/pdfs/Zoo_Map_JanFeb_2012.pdf
Indianapolis Zoo is an AZA-accredited zoo that opened in its current home in White River State Park, Indiana, in 1988. It is 64 acres in size, has approximately 1,500 animals of 320 species, and regularly attracts 1.1 million visitors each year. My wife and I toured this zoo back in the summer of 2008 and on our second visit I was glad to see a number of changes: renovations to the tiger exhibit, and new Flights of Fancy bird exhibits, fruit bats, Alaskan brown bears, African crested porcupines, bat-eared foxes, warthogs and cheetahs have all been added. The zoo is constructed around 4 biomes: Forests, Oceans, Deserts and African Plains, along with an Encounters zone and a Botanical Garden.
The zoo does not rest on its laurels as there is a new addition every year, and the multi-million dollar orangutan exhibit set to open in May of 2014 is already being hailed as a fantastic addition to the zoo. Since the zoo is privatized and does not receive any government support (unlike many other major American zoos) it is interesting that attendance and revenue remains high year after year. There is a “thank you to our sponsors” section on the high-quality zoo map and it lists perhaps 50 different sponsors who contribute money towards exhibits or annual events. The only real downside to the zoo is that it is fairly small and anyone without kids could probably see it all in 3 hours. Since we now have two small children we spent time in the waterpark, checking out the playgrounds, etc, and so we stayed almost 5 hours. Our friend (and zoo author) Allen Nyhuis joined us for about an hour and a half and during that time we had lunch and then saw the superb Oceans complex for a second time.
THE BEST:
Oceans – This massive building contains a variety of surprises. The famous Dolphin Dome is the first piece of innovative exhibit design that stunned me. To be able to watch a 15 minute dolphin show that was better than the standard one (complete with tricks as well as a conservation message) was a thrill, but to then walk beneath the dolphin pool and watch such sleek animals swim overhead was startling and unique. The glass was sparkling clean, the area was spacious for visitors, and the experience was unforgettable. I'm a huge fan of all sorts of tunnels (shark tanks, polar bear exhibit in Detroit, dolphins, etc) and it gives the visitor a fantastic viewing opportunity.
The Oceans complex also contains a good walrus exhibit with a single animal as well as a male California sea lion, a cool touch tank where there were about 20 dog sharks swimming in a large pool that is perhaps one of the best touch tanks in the United States, and the second innovative exhibit design that truly impressed me concerned penguins. The exhibit was quite impressive and it contained 3 species (king, rockhopper and gentoo) and was duplicated on the other side of the hallway. Then there was a large part of the flooring that was all glass and allowed visitors to see penguins swimming under their feet! In 2008 I could see small penguins jump into their pool on one side of the hallway, speed by beneath my sandals, and then pop back onto the second exhibit on the far side. It is a brilliant idea, and why don't more zoos build similar enclosures? The cost factor could perhaps be overwhelmed by the reaction of zoo fans, even though in 2012 I visited the habitat twice and did not see any penguins cross over through the glass.
Oceans has a pinniped exhibit with California sea lions, harbor seals and a grey seal; a large tank with cownose rays and wobbegong sharks, a standard polar bear exhibit that is the only weakness, and a diverse collection of other marine animals. A trio of seahorse exhibits that were circular and perhaps 7 feet in height contained these 3 species: long-snout, pot-belly and lined seahorses. There was a large coral reef tank with moray eels and at least 8 species of fish; a line of approximately 10 standard-sized fish tanks along a wall; and a large and beautiful moon jellyfish exhibit.
African Plains – There is a large loop that takes visitors past an exciting array of animals, and it circles around a scenic savannah yard with these 6 species: greater kudu (in a side paddock on my visit), Grant’s zebra, ostrich, Ruppell’s vulture, marabou stork and rarely showcased wildebeest in a spacious setting. A nearby, shady paddock has reticulated giraffes, Speke’s gazelles and Addra gazelles within close reach of zoo visitors. White rhinos inhabit a dusty enclosure that is accessed via a short swinging bridge that leads to a circular lookout deck. African wild dogs and lions have standard exhibits that are still more than adequate for their inhabitants, while the guinea baboons were a joy to watch in their rocky habitat and the large troop gathered quite a crowd. I thought that the public could have benefited from seeing the baboons on an island (without all of the mesh) but the troop appeared to be settled where they are.
A large elephant paddock (I’ve heard that it is between 2-3 acres in size) winds around a huge settlement of rocks, and the pool there is perhaps one of the most beautiful that I've ever seen. There is lots of green grass and room to roam for the 8 pachyderms (including 4 youngsters under the age of 7) and this is arguably a top 12 elephant exhibit in the country. There is a pair of fairly new cheetah yards that provide fantastic viewing opportunities and we saw 2 cats in each exhibit and the elephants at one point can be clearly seen in the background thus creating a panoramic image. A warthog/African crested porcupine enclosure is viewed through glass, and a bat-eared fox/yellow-billed hornbill/East African crowned crane/helmeted guinea fowl exhibit is spacious enough for its mixed group of critters.
Family-Friendly Attractions – This zoo appealed greatly to our family and especially my wife as now that we have kids the children’s sections that we once skipped are now crucial to the success of a zoo visit. Indy has a train, a carousel, a show arena, a tiny rollercoaster, face painting zones, a 4-D theater, 5 areas where one can purchase food, a nursing room for breast-feeding moms, a Race-A-Cheetah track, bird feeding, giraffe feeding, a dolphin show, two party rental pavilions, a toddler playground, a 3-12 year-old playground and a mini-splash park with lots of water spouts. There are plenty of options for a family to have fun and thus lengthen a typical visit to the zoo.
THE AVERAGE:
Deserts – This is a nice little desert building, with meerkats and a few birds, but essentially it serves as a Reptile House. It is quite well done (but naturally blown away by Omaha's Desert Dome in terms of size) and the only drawback was the size of the dome and the size of the 27 terrariums in a back room as all of the tanks were approximately 2.5 ft. by 2.5 ft. by 2.5 ft. glass boxes. Species list for the Desert Dome: meerkat, Grand Cayman iguana, rhinoceros iguana, radiated tortoise, pancake tortoise, desert tortoise, Coahuilan box turtle, blue spiny lizard, great plated lizard, African plated lizard, blue-tongued skink, chuckwalla, Mali spiny-tailed lizard, bearded dragon, stellio agama, red-headed agama, owl finch, shaft tail finch, Gouldian finch, zebra finch and Gambel’s quail.
Species list for the 27 terrariums (I think that every exhibit contained exactly one snake): Honduran milk snake, Sinaloan milksnake, Malaysian blood python, black-headed python, spotted python, green tree python (two exhibits), timber rattlesnake, Eastern diamondback rattlesnake, Mexican bullsnake, Everglades rat snake (two exhibits), red spitting cobra, Brazilian rainbow boa, Kenyan sand boa, Mexican rosy boa, desert rosy boa, mangrove snake, eastern indigo, eyelash viper, West African gaboon viper, tentacled snake, gray-banded kingsnake, Florida pine snake, northern copperhead, western cottonmouth and eastern massasauga.
Forests – This area contains Tiger Forest, which features two habitats for Amur tigers. The first, much larger exhibit, is very well designed as it has large viewing windows, a pool, tall grass and rocky boulders for the cats. The second habitat is also nicely furnished but it is much smaller in size. Reeve’s muntjacs and red pandas share a neat little mixed-species exhibit; turkey vultures, ravens and a bald eagle have an aviary; and at least 5 Asian small-clawed otters and 2 white-handed gibbons share space in a tall mesh exhibit. A pair of Alaskan brown bears has a rocky grotto with a trickling stream and a deep pool, while a pair of bat species (Island flying fox and straw-colored fruit bat) inhabits an all-glass enclosure that at one time was the temporary home of koalas.
The Forests area also includes a couple of lemur exhibits, and one is a ring-tailed lemur island that is scenic but it does not offer up a lot of climbing opportunities. The second exhibit is covered with wire/mesh and it is much more lush and natural-looking with two species: red ruffed and blue-eyed black lemurs.
Encounters – This area has a tiny flamingo pool with two species (Caribbean and Chilean) and a small southern ground hornbill enclosure next to a café. There is Flights of Fancy: A Brilliance of Birds (new in 2012) that features walk-through aviaries with budgies, lorikeets and African birds but those types of attractions have zero appeal for my wife and I. The line-ups were intense to get into them as I suppose that for some folks being crammed into a cage with a hundred birds pooping in all directions and cheeping in your ears is bliss!
THE WORST:
There is nothing really wrong with this excellent small zoo, and in my opinion the two least impressive exhibit are the two bear enclosures (Alaskan brown and polar) simply because there is very little in the way of natural substrate and the majority of the exhibit is mock-rock, textured cement.
THE FUTURE:
I quote from the zoo’s website: “the best orangutan exhibit in the world”. The International Orangutan Center will open in May of 2014:
International Orangutan Center
OVERALL:
Indianapolis Zoo is small and can be seen in a few hours, but it has a number of above average exhibits and 2 fantastic ones. To seemingly walk inside a dolphin pool and to see penguins swimming beneath ones feet is a cool experience, and the elephant paddock is one of the best around. It's tough to complain about a zoo that does most things right, and they have a bright future with a huge orangutan complex to be opened in another couple of years that will have an O-Line system somewhat similar to the one found at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. The zoo is worth visiting simply for the Oceans complex, which brilliantly showcases aquatic wildlife, but just about everything is top-notch and the zoo has yet to reach the quarter-century mark in terms of age and so there is a modern touch to many of the animal habitats. I’d place the facility in the top 35 zoos in America, and while there isn’t much wrong with it I would guess that many ZooChatters might comment on its small size. One bonus is the constant stream of new exhibits that keep fans coming back each year.
Also, you can skip the Far Side Trail and Forest Realm(nothing special). Its a small zoo with a stay time at about 2-4 hours for a zoochatter. If it gets really hot the beach is 30 minutes away to the west and the best beach is either Holland's Tunnel Park or Grand Haven's beach and pier. I hope this was useful! 
