Amazonia
Step into the world’s largest indoor rainforest and be transported to a true, living jungle. Winding paths, a treetop trail and a twisting river take you through the rainforests of South America. Monkeys climb through the trees, macaws soar through the canopy, manatees glide through the water, and a jaguar watches from a log above. Amazonia is an immersive experience, with over 100 animal species, including 31 free-roaming bird species, a river ride and even a walkthrough bat cave!
Exhibit Overview
Amazonia is record-breaking in every sense. The main rainforest hall is the world’s largest, covering 21,500 square metres (beating Emmen’s Rimbula at 18,000m2). The tallest point of the hall is 40 metres off the ground, with trees growing up to a height of 34 metres! The exhibit is composed of a huge living rainforest under a foil cushion roof. As well as the countless free-roaming animals, there are many enclosed exhibits scattered throughout the exhibit.
Amazonia is a paid attraction, with an admission of £5 per adult and £3 per child. Entrance to the exhibit is included in the ZooPlus entrance ticket.
Exhibit Walkthrough
After you have waited in the queue and paid for your admission for the exhibit (or walked straight in with your ZooPlus ticket!), you enter into a modest-looking building. South American tapestries are draped from the roof of this room, and on the walls are signs and displays about the Amazon Rainforest, including its importance to both the global ecosystem and the tribes of people that live there. The room continues into an enclosed pathway with mock rock walls and roof, simulating a cave. The animals start small, with two medium terrariums for
Cane Toad and
Fer De Lance. These terrariums are fairly standard, with lush planting and climbing opportunities. All information signs along this cave path are lit to allow easy reading. You continue along the cave passageway around a corner, coming to a glass window spanning the entire left side of the cave wall. The window gives a view into a medium-sized exhibit with several lush bushes connected by small branches and vines. This exhibit is home to an exciting group of
Red-Handed Tamarin and
Black Lion Tamarin. Wildlands’ family of 1.3 Black Lion Tamarins arrived from Jersey Zoo, with these individuals involved in a breeding programme aiming to save this amazing species from extinction.
A short way down the passage from the tamarin exhibit is a similar, slightly larger exhibit with rocky outcrops along the back side of the exhibit and several branches and logs for climbing. This habitat is home to an elusive female
Jaguarundi. Although hard to spot, this small cat can entice visitors with its agile climbing. As the cave rounds another corner, the light begins to dim. To the right of the path is a darkened exhibit for
Northern Night Monkey and a breeding pair of
Kinkajou, featuring many small branches and logs for climbing. The final exhibit in this cave section is sure to terrify some visitors! Several small glass windows integrated into the cave wall give a view into a dark cavern. Watch closely for a small shadow passing by the glass, or look to the roof of the cave as you may be able to spot the zoo’s colony of
Common Vampire Bat! Finally, the cave passage comes to an end. However, to exit the cave, visitors must push their way through a small area of hanging vines. These vines act as immersion for visitors but also double as a barrier to prevent free-roaming birds from entering the cave path.
As you push the final vines out of the way and step into the light, you are hit by the sights and sounds of the jungle. Bird calls ring out from all around you and the smell of exotic plants fill the air. You are now in the main free-flight rainforest hall, in which you may be able to spot the following species:
Blue-Crowned Motmot, Sunbittern, Scarlet Ibis, Roseate Spoonbill, Puna Ibis, Black-Faced Ibis, White-Faced Whistling Duck, Fulvous Whistling Duck, Brazilian Teal, South American Comb Duck, Ringed Teal, Wattled Jacana, Puna Teal, Helmeted Curassow, Scarlet Macaw, Blue-and-Yellow Macaw, Guianan Toucanet, Southern Lapwing, Chiloe Wigeon, Cuban Grassquit, Turquoise Tanager, Brazilian Tanager, Chaco Chachalaca, Blue-Throated Piping Guan, King Vulture, Black-Necked Stilt, Mitred Parakeet, Military Macaw, Ashy-Headed Goose, Sun Conure, Blue-Fronted Amazon, Peruvian Pelican, White-Faced Saki
Some other notable free-roaming species include our troop of 73
Black-Capped Squirrel Monkeys that are always active, clambering through the trees. You may be able to spot some of our adorable tiny
Cotton-Top Tamarins and
Golden-Headed Lion Tamarins. Our
Green Iguanas love to hang out amongst the trees, take a walk on the treetop trail and see if you can spot them.
You enter Amazonia on the forest floor, a stone path takes you around this section of the sprawling building. For the first short section of pathway there are no enclosed exhibits, simply trees and mock rock. Bird feeding stations are integrated into trunks or rocks and placed close to the path to draw the birds towards the visitors. The pathway takes a sharp turn to the right and visitors are met with the fist enclosure. Enclosed with invisible mesh, this enclosure appears to blend in with the rest of the jungle. Four small trees are connected by branches and logs. One large tree makes up the back enclosure and holds up the mesh. This habitat is home to an interesting mix. A pair of elusive
Southern Tamandua, a male
Prehensile-Tailed Porcupine, a pair of
Channel-Billed Toucan, a group of
Pied Tamarin and a family of
Red-Rumped Agouti all call this medium-sized enclosure their home. Offshow holding facilities are all completely invisible from the visitors point of view; in this exhibit, the tree-dwelling species enter their offshow area through a hole in a log, whereas the agoutis enter through a small cutout in a boulder.
Carrying on down the pathway, a similar exhibit holds
Goeldi's Monkey, Common Marmoset, Silvery Marmoset, and the zoo's crowd favourite
Six-Banded Armadillo, named Pedro. For now, visitors have been confined to one pathway snaking through dense foliage. Now, however, the jungle opens up as you reach the
Aldeia da Selva (Jungle Village in Portuguese). This area is a large recreation of an Amazonian tribal village, with wooden huts and roundhouses. One of the larger buildings houses the Amazonia Grill, a restaurant with a large window overlooking an area of the rainforest. Visitors can enter some of the buildings, they have a recreation of the interior of a tribal house, with information about the lifestyle of the jungle tribes. The village acts as a central hub point for the Amazonia building. From here there are several pathways and directions you can take. Also located in the village are two attractions: the Treetop Trail and the Amazon River Journey; details about these will be outlined in a later section.
Near the loading dock for the Amazon River Journey is a shallow pool flanked by foliage on the back side. On an island in the pool stands a large flock of
Chilean Flamingos. This pool is also a common place for a lot of the free-roaming waterfowl to settle. Another habitat in the village area is two large "dead" trees extending quite far upwards. A network of branches and fake vines make a great exhibit for the zoo's breeding pair of
Two-Toed Sloth. The sloths can also use a small branch to enter one of the village huts, which acts as their offshow holding area. The sloth exhibit is designed to give the visitors a good view of the animals and also give the appearance the sloths are free to roam the whole jungle, trees are cut back from the exhibit to prevent the sloths climbing out of their designated area. One of the largest huts in the village is able to be entered, called the Explorer’s Cabin. This building is themed as the lodging of an animal explorer, named Dr Ashley Brooke, including lots of notebooks and kit. There are several small terrariums in this building, home to small animals such as:
Rainbow Boa, Goliath Bird-Eating Spider, Emerald Tree Boa sharing an exhibit with a single
Smoky Jungle Frog, Brazilian Cockroach, as well as others.
From the village, many different paths can be taken around the seemingly endless rainforest. You choose a path and continue your jungle journey. This path takes you alongside the river ride. The rainforest opens up and the river expands into a large lake. There are several well-planted islands in this lake. 3 medium islands connected by a network of branches is home to the very vocal group of
Black Howler Monkeys, their calls can be heard echoing through the entire hall. Another chain of small islands, again connected by trees and vines, is inhabited by a small but active group of
Weeper Capuchins. The path begins to rise, eventually becoming a raised boardwalk. This gives an elevated view of the monkey islands. Now in one of the corners of the building, the path travels next to a large, deep pool. Playing in the water is Wildlands' fun family of
Giant Otters. There is a decently-sized land area behind the pool, with foliage and logs for the otters to play with.
The raised path continues along the edge of the building, to the right of the path, along the wall is a large clay bank. Simulating the real-life clay banks found in Peru, the clay bank is littered with food to entice the macaws to perch on the bank, like they do in real life. A large information sign educates guests about the clay banks of Peru and the scientific mystery of why the parrots eat the clay. The left side of the path is completely open, with a view towards the lake area with the monkey islands, this allows the macaws to easily fly to and from this area. You continue along the raised path, getting some amazing views of birds flying above your head, and spotting a pair of Saki monkeys sitting in a tree. The ground to the right of the path suddenly drops away. Against the side of the building is a large, multi-level enclosure. Several large fake trees at your eyesight are home to a large group of
Brown Spider Monkeys, drawing a large crowd and a lot of “awws” is 3 new babies born recently at the zoo. A small group of 1.3
Red-Backed Bearded Saki monkeys also inhabit these trees. Peering over the side of the fence gives you a view of a large area down below the monkeys. This area is made up of a grassy area on a light incline as well as a muddy area which connects to a large pool. A pair of
Baird’s Tapir live here, and, just as crowd-pleasing as the baby spider monkeys, is adorable newborn tapir Bonito!
The path begins to slope downwards. On the left side, cut into mock rock walls is a small exhibit for
Chilean Pudu, Chacoan Mara, Plains Viscacha and
Yellow-Footed Tortoise. This exhibit was formerly home to Capybara, but after they moved to a new home, was repurposed for several South American species the zoo was holding offshow. The Capybaras’ pool was filled in and now serves as a sandy area for the exhibit. Continuing down this pathway takes you to another, larger exhibit. This is home to a small squadron of
White-Lipped Peccaries. The exhibit is a mix of sandy and grassy and is littered with rocks and logs. The final exhibit on this stretch of pathway is to the right of the path, and is completely meshed over. The exhibit can be viewed through glass windows cut into large mock rocks, or a large window on the front side of the exhibit. The enclosure itself is densely planted, with lots of climbing opportunities and a mock rock back wall. A pair of
Ocelot may be able to be spotted here.
We are approaching the main attraction of Amazonia! A dense jungle trail winds around the trees and comes to something peculiar. A giant wing off of a propeller plane! It must have crashed in the jungle some time ago as some parts of it have rusted away. In the middle of the wing is a glass window giving visitors a view into an enclosure. Huge and densely planted, this enclosure is completely netted over, and takes up a whole corner of the hall. This enclosure is (as far as I’m aware) the world’s first
Jaguar exhibit in an indoor rainforest. This exhibit is massive and is mostly dense rainforest, with many live trees. The exhibit slopes up towards the back and has a small pool at the front. Continuing on from the plane wing, visitors walk along the side of the mesh of the exhibit, hoping to glimpse a view of the jaguars. Eventually, the path comes to the centrepiece of this exhibit: the fuselage of the crashed plane. Visitors can walk through the plane, using its windows to view into the enclosure. The other wing is still attached to the plane and is pointing upwards into the air. This wing has a heated spot, enticing the cats to sit there, creating some awesome photo opportunities! The jaguars can also walk directly over the fuselage of the plane, there is even a window in the roof of the plane, to cross over into a smaller secondary exhibit consisting of one large tree with several offshooting branches. During our visit today, two jaguars are present in this exhibit; breeding pair Shadow (a black jaguar) and Itzca. The zoo is home to three groups of jaguars rotating around three exhibits. Where are those other exhibits, you may ask? Well, we’ll get to them soon in a later exhibit:
Land of the Jaguar!
Backtracking a bit from the jaguar exhibit, we are back down to the lowest level of Amazonia. Here, we come across a large system of pools and interconnecting rivers. These pools are viewed with a boardwalk passing next to and over them. Basking on some logs hanging over a pool are many
Giant Amazon River Turtles. Swimming about in this large water system are
Caribbean Manatees, Oscar, Discus, Silver Dollar, Black Pacu and a few
White-Blotched River Stingray. Finally, all of the paths converge and head to the last area in this building; an ancient temple. Overtaken by vegetation and crumbling to pieces, this temple was left by the humans long ago, and has now been taken over by wildlife. Two enclosures are set into the temple, with a netted front. The first one is home to the world’s tiniest monkey: the
Pygmy Marmoset! The second is home to both
Golden Lion Tamarins and
Emperor Tamarins. These exhibits are fairly small and standard, with some branches and vines for climbing. The temple has a secret though, one of these broken buildings seems to go down underground. You walk down the steps until you are bathed in darkness. A shadow flies past your head. You notice a sign informing you that you are now in The Bat Cave (dun dun dun!). In here are free-flying
Jamaican Fruit Bats and
Seba’s Short-Tailed Bats. The cave itself has many stalactites and temple decorations. As you continue through the cave, you notice rays of light streaking down from the roof. You look up to the roof and notice several openings in the cave roof. This allows the bats to fly out into the main rainforest as they please.
Exiting the cave, back into the light, the jungle journey comes to an end. You exit the Amazonia building through a temple opening, and are taken out into a gift shop selling many South American-themed items, including plushies of several animals found in this exhibit. Continuing onwards, we are entering the next exhibit. Still inside, you take a set of stairs or ramp downwards and a sign above your head reads “Amazon Flooded Forest” - coming soon!
Rides and Attractions
Amazon River Journey
Admission - Free
This boat ride, starting at Aldeia da Selva includes a ride through the jungle dome on an open topped boat. Get different views of the animals, such as tapirs swimming in their pool, manatees gliding nearby, a jaguar at the river’s edge, and a spider monkey crossing the river.
Treetop Trail
Admission - Free
Take a walk through the rainforest in a whole new way! A series of narrow dirt paths, stepping stones across streams, and finally, rope bridges through canopy take you on a journey through the jungle. See the animals from a different perspective, or try and spot some elusive birds amongst the trees!
Resorts
Rainforest Rooms
An unforgettable night in front of the tropics! Explorer-themed cabins with a large glass window are available for up to 3 nights. Breakfast, lunch and dinner is included in the adjacent Rainforest Rooms Restaurant, which is only accessible for resort guests.
Overnight guests can enter the world of Amazonia one hour earlier, and stay one hour later (with your wristbands) and have 24/7 access to the Rainforest Rooms complex.
Wow, that was a long first exhibit! I promise they won’t all be as long as this one
. Thanks for taking the time to read through it all if you made it this far! Comments/ideas/criticisms/advice are welcome in the comments - help me to perfect my design! I will be back soon with the next exhibit.
