What's the best South American habitat in the AZA?

tigris115

tigris115

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
I'm doing research for my own personal zoo project and I want to know which habitat that represents the continent of South America is considered the best within the AZA family of zoos.

I want one that really stands out from the crowd and doesn't just have the basic stuff. Ideally any zoo that has relatively rare species as well as some more common staples such as the jaguar and capybara
 
This is an interesting question, because you would think that there would be dozens of great Amazon rain forest exhibits and/or other South American rainforest exhibits, and there really are not. Lied Jungle in Omaha is pan-tropical, Jungleworld in the Bronx is Asia focused, San Diego does not have a South American rainforest exhibit. Tropic World at Brookfield is pan-tropical and mostly just primate focused. The Minnesota Zoo Tropical Trail is pan tropical with a small South American section grafted into its original Asian rain forest theme.

Houston Zoo has two South America-focused exhibits, Pantanal and Galapagos, that have gotten great reviews.

The Los Angeles Zoo has a mixed-quality outdoor South American rainforest complex. There are decent giant otter, jaguar, harpy eagle, and oropendola exhibits, and dodgy tapir, primate (formerly red uakari), and herp exhibits (caiman and poison dart frogs, formerly bird eating spider and cane toads). That exhibit has a really interesting section with an orchard of rainforest fruit trees as part of it.

The Smithsonian National Zoo's Amazonia exhibit is disliked by some because it features few of the charismatic species people expect in a rainforest exhibit like cats, primates, etc. It has arapaima and other fish of the Amazon and several free-flying bird species in a very tall atrium that the exhibit wraps around to show various levels of the forest. This is my favorite South America exhibit that I have seen.

Amazon and Beyond at Zoo Miami is a comprehensive South American exhibit that covers different parts of the continent. It has an interesting collection of invertebrates, herps, birds, and the charismatic mammals like jaguars, giant anteaters, and giant otters. A highlight is a large aquarium with big Amazonian fish and turtles species. For me this was a mixed quality exhibit. Most of it is not naturalistic at all, and the exhibits are rather cramped and aesthetically meh. The river aquarium and giant otter exhibits were notable exceptions.
 
If we're including places with few mammals, National Aquarium has to be in the top 5. Most of Level 4 is Amazon River Forest, a massive tank that feels like it goes on forever, plus a few more smaller exhibits. You then go up to to the open upland tropical rainforest, filled with a large variety of birds and plants, plus some fish tanks, herps, and a few mammals scattered in. It is huge. That's followed by Hidden Life, which has one of the largest species collections of poison dart frogs in the USA.
 
People make a big deal out of NAiB’s Australian exhibit, which honestly never dazzled me that much (maybe because it didn’t live up to its planned hype). I always thought that the aquarium’s South American exhibit was where it was at
 
Ok so rly my motivation is to create the SA section of my Bronx Zoo master plan.

This one to be percise

The idea is to have two sections

A open Pantanal section with capybara, green anaconda, maned wolves, etc.

A rainforest section that's kinda just JungleWorld but South America. This is important so that you can still visit and see cool stuff when the weather sucks for the outdoor animals.

Jaguars are def gonna be a part of it but they'll have 1 yard in both sections to showcase their adaptability

Since the Bronx Zoo is, historically, pretty strict as geography goes in its exhibits, I really want to keep the animal selection more specific than just "buncha jungle animals lol"
 
Aardwolf said:
People make a big deal out of NAiB’s Australian exhibit, which honestly never dazzled me that much (maybe because it didn’t live up to its planned hype). I always thought that the aquarium’s South American exhibit was where it was at
Click to expand...

Do you have any links to what was planned for Australia originally?
 
It seems like outside warm weather states like California, Texas and Florida, South American exhibits are extant but relatively rare, with aquariums providing some of the best exhibits outside that area. I want to say I'm surprised there haven't been more effort in this area, but then again, the larger mammals from South America might not be 'ABC' enough to be viewed as worth the investment.
 
ZooElephantsMan said:
Do you have any links to what was planned for Australia originally?
Click to expand...
No written plans, just what staff told me was being considered/sought after

I do have a list of “birds wanted” for the South American rainforest before it opened, and it featured a variety of pretty wild birds, including hoatzin. That would’ve been something
 
There's a lot of great choices on this thread, but here are two more that have yet to be mentioned. Jacksonville Zoo (Florida) has Range of the Jaguar, which has an extensive 'ruined temple theme' and two impressive Jaguar exhibits, and it would be interesting to see if someone could provide an updated species list. I enjoyed my tour of that zoo in 2008.

Alexandria Zoo (Louisiana) has Land of the Jaguar and that 2.5-acre complex opened fully in 2013 and contains more than 40 South American species according to the zoo's website. When I visited in 2015, here's what I wrote:

"The species list from that continent is very impressive: Andean Bear, Jaguar, Ocelot, Giant Anteater, Brazilian Tapir, Capybara, Patagonian Cavy, Red Rumped Agouti, Tayra, Bush Dog, Maned Wolf, Coati, Black Howler Monkey, Squirrel Monkey, Golden Lion Tamarin, Cotton Top Tamarin, American Crocodile, Broud-Snouted Caiman, Galapagos Tortoise, Andean Vulture, King Vulture, Chilean Flamingo and several other bird species. The sheer volume of South American animals, all in mainly decent exhibits, is quite astonishing for a fairly small zoo."
 
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