Ha! I am not sure how I missed mentioning that. We didn't make it to Asia this time around and skipped Wallaroo/Australia due to the construction.
Zoo Tampa at Lowry Park Swampdonkey's visit notes for ZooTampa at Lowry Park
- Thread starter SwampDonkey
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No worries @SwampDonkey, for I was planning to upload some photos from my most recent visit into the gallery; and it will include the construction walls that I mentioned in my previous post.
A few updates, all in "The Canopy Aviary".
- Side aviary in the smaller section has an un-signed hornbill (maybe Sulawesi hornbill?).
- Side aviaries in the main section:
- Previous toco toucan and Amazon aviary - Bleeding heart dove and boat billed heron (strange since they are also free flight in the main aviary).
- Previous Amazon aviary - Red-billed hornbill and red-legged seriema.
- Previous great hornbill aviary - Southern ground hornbill (moved from Nyala habitat in Africa).
That's definitely a (male) Sulawesi Hornbill (Rhabdotorrhinus exarhatus). I saw and photographed one during my 2022 visit, so it may not be "new"?
Huh, maybe not. It was not signed, maybe I just never saw it in that side aviary. That is possible since it is the one that is kind of being another side aviary and off to the back. Do you remember which aviary it was in before? Regardless, it must be "new to me" if you saw one there in 2022
I didn't realize any North American zoos had Visayan hornbills. Is this a mistake?
Yes, you are correct, the mistake is mine.
Actually it all makes sense now. The Sulawesi hornbill in question is signed as Tarictic Hornbill, and I mistakenly thought the sign was referring to a different bird that was Visayan based on the sign. The sign shows a female, which looks very similar between the species, but the bird in question (the one in the side aviary) was a male.
So, they do not have Visayan, only Sulawesi. Had I looked closer at the sign it shows the island and the binomial; I would have realized the mistake as it shows it correctly:
Attachments
They have had Tarictic hornbill since the Sulawesi aviary opened. They moved them into the main aviary at least a year ago.
The zoo has always had a nice hornbill collection. If I recall correctly at least 4 or 5 species have been in the "hornbill aviary" by the old skyride entrance, mixed in with the current shoebill (former secretary bird) enclosure and great Indian and rhino in the main Aviary in the past
The zoo has always had a nice hornbill collection. If I recall correctly at least 4 or 5 species have been in the "hornbill aviary" by the old skyride entrance, mixed in with the current shoebill (former secretary bird) enclosure and great Indian and rhino in the main Aviary in the past
We went to Christmas in the Wild this past weekend. The event was fine, it seemed more lights than in years past, which was good....still way less lights than in the early 2000's. The kids/Wallaroo area is entirely closed for the remodel, there is a red wood wall blocking off the entire area.
The juvenile Komodo dragons are on display, I saw three of the six. Two were in the upper parts of the exhibit and one was below, the other three were not visible to me.
The juvenile Komodo dragons are on display, I saw three of the six. Two were in the upper parts of the exhibit and one was below, the other three were not visible to me.
This past weekend I visited the zoo and have the following notes.
- Silvery-cheeked hornbill aviary is empty and signage removed. This was rather surprising, these are one of my favorite birds at the zoo and they have been in that spot for a long time. It is possible they were moved to another aviary, but not the Canopy Aviary or the main aviary in Africa (or at least not signed if they were moved).
- Lots of the wood barriers have been replaced with new wood. Most noticeably outside of Primate World.
We did the Clouded Leopard encounter at the zoo this past weekend. It was pretty cool, they take you back to the Jacarlene Foundation Animal Care Campus which is located behind the water ride. Staff gives a brief tour of the facility including the education room and leopard food prep area. I find it interesting that the leopards have their own food prep area and don't seem to share the space with the main zoo animal food prep space.
The Campus building has a large terrarium with Panamanian golden frogs (and maybe other species....). It was pretty massive, about 8 feet long, making it the largest poison dart frog terrarium I have seen.
The leopard enclosures are outside and located facing the water ride, you can actually see them from the water ride line, if you were lucky you may see the cats. The tour takes you right up to the mesh where you point a training stick to the mesh and the leopard touches it with its nose and receives a treat and you can take pictures.
They explained that the binturongs replaced the leopards due to the zoo having 4 cats. This allows them to have more out at a time compared to only one at a time in the old Persian leopard/binturong habitat in the main Asian Gardens area.
The tour is new having just started in January. The whole tour lasted about 30 minutes and was limited to 10 people. All in all it was nice to see the leopards since they are not on public display, but I would not do it again.
The Campus building has a large terrarium with Panamanian golden frogs (and maybe other species....). It was pretty massive, about 8 feet long, making it the largest poison dart frog terrarium I have seen.
The leopard enclosures are outside and located facing the water ride, you can actually see them from the water ride line, if you were lucky you may see the cats. The tour takes you right up to the mesh where you point a training stick to the mesh and the leopard touches it with its nose and receives a treat and you can take pictures.
They explained that the binturongs replaced the leopards due to the zoo having 4 cats. This allows them to have more out at a time compared to only one at a time in the old Persian leopard/binturong habitat in the main Asian Gardens area.
The tour is new having just started in January. The whole tour lasted about 30 minutes and was limited to 10 people. All in all it was nice to see the leopards since they are not on public display, but I would not do it again.
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I took some time to visit the zoo this past Saturday, primarily to see the changes in the former "Wallarroo Station" now simply named "Australia". Broadly the changes are good in terms of a kids area that focuses on climbing structures and a few rides. Disappointingly, some animals are now gone.
Noticeable changes:
Aussie Trek Ride: This ride is right beside the horse barn, which is a good place for it. Each cycle of the ride goes around 2 times and can seat up to 24 people in 6 cars with 4 seats each. Adults can ride with one adult per car. It goes surprisingly fast for this type of ride, probably twice as fast as the similar ride at Wild Adventures. There are no animals in the ride (unlike Wild Adventures), but each car is named after an Australian animal such as cassowary, platypus, etc.
Former bat and singing dog enclosures:
I assumed they would remove these entirely in the remodel, but they did not. Rather they have left the structures there and intact, they simply removed the animals and the boardwalk access. The replaced the boardwalk with plants. This is super disappointing as they could have simply left at least the bat aviary rather than take more animals out of the zoo. Hopefully they have a plan to use them in the future, otherwise they are just going to start falling apart in their semi-hidden state.
Other parts of the zoo we stopped by:
Primate world:
The tables and chairs beside the hot dog restaurant are gone. We usually eat there, so this time we just left and ate off site. Had the tables been there we would have stayed, so the zoo lost revenue at least from us in that regard.
New Climbing structure where the train was (blurred to remove my son):
Wallaby:
Possibly my last time seeing guenon at ZT:
Trumpeter hornbill in the Canopy Aviary:
Noticeable changes:
- There is now a three level climbing structure with slide, climbing poles, and a rope spider web where the train ride was - this is nice for kids of a wider age range than the train was.
- The renovated splash pad area is really nice, they still call it the "billabong", but there are a lot more water features now.
- Addition of a Aussie Trek car ride just beside the horse barn. (more on this below)
- The Tasmanian Tiger rollercoaster was repainted (the same colors, I think).
- The restaurant was renovated (we did not try it this time).
- The former gift shop is now a bar with seats around it.
- New gift shop approximately where the walkway to see the bats was.
- Bats are gone. (more below)
- Singing dog are still long gone (more below)
- Wallaby habitat has been fixed and and somewhat enlarged and made to look way nicer. The plantings surrounding it have been removed or updated and the entire fenced area is now a very nice looking stockade rather than simply black fence.
- Palm Cockatoo gone.
- The overhead water feature at the entrance has been removed.
- Austronesian aviary renamed to "Straya’s Bird Sanctuary "
Aussie Trek Ride: This ride is right beside the horse barn, which is a good place for it. Each cycle of the ride goes around 2 times and can seat up to 24 people in 6 cars with 4 seats each. Adults can ride with one adult per car. It goes surprisingly fast for this type of ride, probably twice as fast as the similar ride at Wild Adventures. There are no animals in the ride (unlike Wild Adventures), but each car is named after an Australian animal such as cassowary, platypus, etc.
Former bat and singing dog enclosures:
I assumed they would remove these entirely in the remodel, but they did not. Rather they have left the structures there and intact, they simply removed the animals and the boardwalk access. The replaced the boardwalk with plants. This is super disappointing as they could have simply left at least the bat aviary rather than take more animals out of the zoo. Hopefully they have a plan to use them in the future, otherwise they are just going to start falling apart in their semi-hidden state.
Other parts of the zoo we stopped by:
Primate world:
- Guenon still on display.
- Mandrill gone and enclosure looks rough, in need of a good weed wacking.
The tables and chairs beside the hot dog restaurant are gone. We usually eat there, so this time we just left and ate off site. Had the tables been there we would have stayed, so the zoo lost revenue at least from us in that regard.
New Climbing structure where the train was (blurred to remove my son):
Wallaby:
Possibly my last time seeing guenon at ZT:
Trumpeter hornbill in the Canopy Aviary:
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I really enjoyed the Wallaroo Station Children's Zoo back in 2012 and I spent an hour just in this section of the zoo because my small kids enjoyed it immensely. The animal lineup was impressive: Koalas, New Guinea Singing Dogs, Yellow-footed Rock Wallabies, Emus, Flying Foxes, Palm Cockatoos, Bali Mynahs and Prehensile-tailed Skinks. There was a petting farm with goats and Llamas, a Koi pond, 4 rides, a café, a mini water park, a walk-through wallaby yard and a budgie feeding zone.
It sounds as if, combined with the mediocre revamp of the Florida zone, that ZooTampa at Lowry Park hasn't progressed much in the dozen years since I was there. Plus there has been the demolition of the spectacular African wading bird aviary...
It sounds as if, combined with the mediocre revamp of the Florida zone, that ZooTampa at Lowry Park hasn't progressed much in the dozen years since I was there. Plus there has been the demolition of the spectacular African wading bird aviary...
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Yeah, that's a fair assessment. They have some really spectacular plans, with revamps of Asia, Africa and a new section across the street by the river for South America....but that's all a while off.
This redo of Australia is largely successful, IMO. From the perspective of someone with a 6 year old it is a hit. The train was nice, but the climbing structure is better and honestly more "zoo" than another ride. The jeep ride is more thematic and fills a space that was not being utilized. The water feature is WAY nicer than it was before, so that will be nice this summer. If they had just kept the bats and dogs it would have been so much better.
All that said, largely, the era just after Africa had opened until around 2014 was probably the best for ZooTampa.
I finally made it back to the zoo, having skipped it most of the hot and rainy summer.
The Manatee Building is completely closed for renovations. The artist renderings and the small summary on the sign do not mention any herps, so I hope they still have them. It mentioned the new fresh and saltwater tanks and the manatee viewing windows being renovated. The closed building presents an issue as they did not make a walking path around it like they did when most of Florida was closed, thus one has to turn around at the alligators on the north side or at the Stingrays on the south side.
Africa:
The old silvery cheeked hornbill aviary appears to still be empty. It is strange that they have left it empty for so long.
Canopy Aviary:
They have finally removed the dilapidated observation deck!!! They eyesore that was closed 10-15 years ago (or so) is finally gone. In its place is just an open area. I assume they will plant this eventually (hopefully sooner than later).
The side aviaries still have common birds, nothing special like in the past. I guess they have still not decided what direction they are going with those. Overall the aviary just does not have a lot of birds.
The Manatee Building is completely closed for renovations. The artist renderings and the small summary on the sign do not mention any herps, so I hope they still have them. It mentioned the new fresh and saltwater tanks and the manatee viewing windows being renovated. The closed building presents an issue as they did not make a walking path around it like they did when most of Florida was closed, thus one has to turn around at the alligators on the north side or at the Stingrays on the south side.
Africa:
The old silvery cheeked hornbill aviary appears to still be empty. It is strange that they have left it empty for so long.
Canopy Aviary:
They have finally removed the dilapidated observation deck!!! They eyesore that was closed 10-15 years ago (or so) is finally gone. In its place is just an open area. I assume they will plant this eventually (hopefully sooner than later).
The side aviaries still have common birds, nothing special like in the past. I guess they have still not decided what direction they are going with those. Overall the aviary just does not have a lot of birds.
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Good to hear that the deck has been removed, although, based on what I see from the image you provided; I do agree that it feels a bit too open for an aviary like this.
Yeah, it is great that it is FINALLY gone, but the open space is strange. It has been barren dirt since the zoo opened, being too shaded under the huge platform to grow anything. It would be really nice if they did something with the space, at least plant it. Overall the aviary just does not have a lot of birds in it. I am not sure how many species are there, but it is nothing like it used to be, they desperately need new birds and a reason/mission for the side aviaries.