So this review was due a long time ago. While I was working on it, a friend of mine passed away and I became caught up with semester finals and other projects. Soon this review faded away from my mind and I forgot about it. Thanks to my upcoming Seattle trip, I remembered I can’t really do Wolf Trek’s 03 without finishing 02 so here we are! I also decided to do the review in a new style as well. Sorry for the delay and I hope you enjoy the review!
Fresno Chaffee zoo review (September 2017 trip)
Species seen in bold
Overview: The Fresno Chaffee zoo is a zoo I would have never went to six years ago. Back then many of the exhibits were comparable to LA’s boring roundhouses and exhibits for many of the mammals and birds. Now the zoo has gone through a revival period unlike anything seen before. There are a few exhibits in this zoo that scream “world class” and with the zoo planning to do even more in the future, I just had to drop by to see what made this boring zoo become what many zoochatters consider a place with world class exhibits. Let’s go through each exhibit one by one.
Reptile house
The reptile house in the zoo was shockingly enjoyable. Many of the species were active and moving around which surprised me as many reptile houses I have seen are filled with sleeping reptiles that are basking under a heat lamp. The first thing you see before entering the house is an outdoor exhibit with Galapagos giant tortoises and East African crowned cranes. An odd pairing but the exhibit is nice and large with grass instead of the typical sandy substrate you see with San Diego’s tortoises. The cranes were moving about and were very active. The grouping of these two species were odd for me but It worked out for both members of the exhibit.
Once you enter into the actual reptile house, you see a row of exhibits that go around the whole house and follows a circular path around the whole house. Some of the highlights include a very active green mamba, spider tortoises, mating fly-river turtles with schools of Boeseman’s rainbowfish, newly opened exhibits for king cobras and Komodo dragons, tentacled snake, and a blue spiny lizard riding on a rare San Esteban Island chuckwalla. Most of the exhibits are nicely spaced with plants and rocky substrate for respected species. My favorite exhibit was the green mamba’s as the snake had a giant tank all to himself. Obviously he loved it as visitors can see him moving throughout his exhibit and see how long he really is. Overall this exhibit area is very nice with some great exhibits but many of the species I saw could be seen at other zoos. The fact that the house is one, long, circular path also makes it harder to turn back and see a missed reptile or a reptile that becomes active once you move on. I’ll give this exhibit a 7.5/10 as there are a few aspects that don’t give this reptile house an edge over others.
Red wolf woods
This exhibit is near the reptile house and the entrance of the zoo. It houses some red wolves, the only in captivity in California and one of two facilities in the west coast that house this species in public (the other being the Point Defiance zoo and aquarium). The exhibit was okay with hiding places for the wolves and some space for them to run around but the exhibit seems to be a bit small and not immersive at all. Not much to say about this exhibit besides that. I’ll give it a 6/10 as it is okay for the animals but not the best for the people learning about this endangered mammal.
Australian aviary
This aviary was one of the worst parts of the zoo. The whole aviary has this “roadside zoo” look to it. Almost as if someone built this in their own backyard. Now that’s not a bad thing but the whole exhibit is boring with barely any signing. I personally saw and identified pied imperial pigeons, Bourke’s parrots, sulphur-crested cockatoos, galahs, and long-billed corellas. I’m sure there are a few species that I have missed. This aviary is not the best looking one but the birds seem to like it. This exhibit gets a 4.5/10 as the viewing of this walk-through aviary is dull and unimaginative and needs an upgrade soon.
Sunda forest
Since this area of the zoo is getting an upgrade soon, I won’t dwell on it too much but all the exhibits are mediocre at best and terrible at worst. The orangutan exhibit was the best one with a good amount of space and some climbing room. Malayan tigers and sloth bears weren’t so lucky with small exhibits and a grotto for the sloth bears. The old asian elephant exhibit looks terrible and I’m happy that the elephants were moved somewhere else. The exhibits now houses indian rhinos but I didn’t see them on my visit so I can’t state an opinion on them. I’ll give this exhibit a 5/10 as the orangutan exhibit is the only redeeming quality for this region of the zoo. I’m happy to hear the zoo is working on giving the animals better exhibits in 2019 so the rating will change when I visit the zoo again in late 2020 when this exhibit and another project which I’ll mention later are done.
Rainforest aviary
The aviary is a bit odd in my opinion. It’s not bad but it feels weird to walk through it as many rainforest aviaries are indoors and give a sense of actually being in the rainforest but this one doesn’t have that feeling. It’s almost as if they just created an aviary with no signing and just put a bunch of birds in there. Even odder, there is a indoor rainforest inside a rainforest. This indoor rainforest is at the end of a path that goes through the whole exhibit. In the large, outdoor part of the aviary I saw blue crowned motmots, sunbitterns, northern helmeted curassows, sun conures, and blue-gold macaws. In the indoor rainforest there is a handful of golden lion tamarins, caiman lizards, guira cuckoos, mata matas, and a Linnaeus's two-toed sloth. There was also a plush-crested jay kept in a odd location in a aviary/box exhibit on top of the entrance. Apparently it used to attack visitors so they keep it there so that people can see it. It’s odd that they would still want to showcase him but whatever. The exhibit is weird with a lot of odd design choices that don’t really stick with me. The signing is almost not there unless you grab a laminated paper with all the birds (which I didn’t because my sister took the last one near the entrance). The exhibit gets a 6.4/10. It’s just an odd exhibit compared to everything else i’ve seen at other zoos.
So far it is not a very strong start for this zoo but the much, much, MUCH better stuff will come soon. I’ll continue this once I return from my trip to Seattle which I will make a separate review thread for both the Woodland park zoo and the Seattle aquarium.
