Day Five
Oregon Zoo is located in Washington Park, to the west of downtown Portland. It can be reached via the MAX light rail system, specifically the Washington Park station, which is the deepest underground rail station in North America. Once at the station, an elevator takes you 80 metres to the surface, from where the zoo entry is a minute’s walk away. Entry is fairly cheap, just $10 for students, including a $1.50 discount for arriving via public transport.
The entry plaza, and the upper portion of the zoo, is nestled on a wooded slope that provides a brilliant and immersive backdrop to the first exhibit precinct – The Great Northwest. The first enclosure is a naturalistic paddock with rocky outcrops for Rocky Mountain Goats, and this works very well. The next exhibit is a steep slope for American Black Bears, traversed via a raised boardwalk, which leads to a well-vegetated Bobcat cage, both of which offer excellent views of these carnivores. Heading down the slope, a bridge leads into a walk-in aviary for two Bald Eagles. These are cleverly housed above a large tank for various Salmonids, which can be viewed through an underwater window. This is one of the best aviary set-ups I have encountered, and the use of a waterfall to hide the underwater viewing area from the eagle viewing is brilliant.
Following on from the Salmonid viewing are indoor exhibits for native and invasive turtles, followed by indoor viewing of outdoor exhibits for an active group of North American River Otters, and then North American Beavers, although these were in a den, with their exhibit full of waterfowl. Further on, but still inside, were an array of terrariums for native reptiles and amphibians, and finally a darkened enclosure for Ringtails. Exiting this building takes you into a native waterfowl aviary, outside of which is a lower viewing area for the bears, and then a Cougar exhibit. The final exhibit in this area is the brand-new, and very good, aviary for three male Californian Condors, which at the time I visited were feasting on a calf carcass. This new addition is world-class and certainly provides a lot of confidence for the other new exhibits planned for this zoo.
Passing the Children’s Zoo, the next exhibit was a high-walled Polar Bear enclosure, which was outdated, but did have some modern improvements such as dirt and grass. However these appeared to do little for the lone inhabitant, who was displaying concerning stereotypical behaviour. This is one of the exhibits slated for replacement in the near future. I should point out that, despite being a Wednesday, the zoo was packed, and this area and the next were extremely congested which made it feel probably worse than it actually was.
Next is the beginning of the Asian Rainforest area, with an outdated Sun Bear exhibit and pens for Visayan Warty Pigs and Barbirusa – nothing impressive here, but the new elephant enclosure will wrap around the back of these I think, and they will hopefully be improved in the future. Opposite is the rainforest house “Fragile Forests”, with Orang-Utans and White-cheeked Gibbons housed in a rather odd exhibit that doesn’t really work. Inside the house, the theme changes to an African rainforest, with a bad Mandrill exhibit, and a quite reasonable Chimpanzee one. The final part of the house contains South American species, including White-faced Sakis and Black Howler Monkeys, and various reptiles, amphibians and fish. Bizarrely there were no birds in the entire complex, which was disappointing.
Next up is the Asian Elephant exhibit, which is pretty basic, with a typical elephant house and yard set up – generally barren and small. But fortunately under major renovation and expansion, the plans look great and hopefully this turns into an excellent facility. Views of the elephants were largely obscured by construction, and only a small area of the exhibit could be seen up close, although views of the herd were possible from a distance. I would very much like to re-visit this facility when it opens; I think I’ll be impressed.
The next part of the zoo was Africa, and this began with the modern “Predators of the Serengeti” complex. The worst thing about this was a lack of space for visitors – too narrow hallways and paths, with limited viewing of several exhibits made this unpleasant, although the generally spacious and well thought out enclosures were much appreciated. An entry building displayed Dwarf Mongoose and a small selection of reptiles. Cleverly, a series of Perspex tunnels lead out of the main mongoose exhibit, through the excellent Caracal exhibit, to a smaller enclosure, providing both species with some enrichment. Surrounding the building were three enclosures, for Cheetah, African Wild Dog and African Lion. These were all great enclosures and also featured some very good educational signage.
The next part of Africa was the Vollum Aviary, a tall glass cylinder attached to a function centre with a selection of mostly-common African birds, not all of which were labelled. The most interesting species here were an Oxpecker and a Hornbill which chased each other around a food bowl. Outside was a paddock for Black Rhino and an outdated Hippo enclosure, both of which could use renovation. This was followed by a large grassy paddock, with a number of mature trees, with Speke’s Gazelle and Gerenuk, two excellent new mammal species! This exhibit had previously also held zebra, and the return of this species would be an improvement. An adjacent (and approaching too artificial) exhibit holds more Speke’s Gazelle, Reticulated Giraffe and Southern Ground Hornbill, and is nicely overhung with some leafy trees, with another couple in the exhibit itself. Between these two exhibits is the giraffe house, which also has exhibits for Naked Mole Rats and some desert reptiles, and a tall old cage nearby for De Brazza’s Guenons.
The final part of Africa is the Rainforest, a series of indoor and outdoor exhibits. The first is a standard small pen for African Crested Porcupines, which sits outside a crocodile house with a decent and large exhibit for Slender-snouted Crocodile and other reptiles, although the Nile Monitor enclosure is rather small and barren. Outside is a large, well-planted walk-through aviary for Lesser Flamingo and other African waterfowl, and it’s great to see flamingos and ibis displayed in this setting. Further along the trail is a netted exhibit for Allen’s Swamp Monkey and Black-and-White Colobus, which is nice although only one of each species appeared to be on display. The final exhibit is the bat house, which consists of a central visitor’s area surrounded by rather barren enclosure for three Fruit Bat species, which at least offered great views of these active animals, and provided a decent amount of enrichment, although it wasn’t at all naturalistic.
The final area of the zoo includes some disparate exhibits including the ridiculously overstaffed Lorikeet Landing, horribly outdated Amur Leopard and Tiger exhibits, and a small but appreciated Insect House. Nearby is the Penguinarium, with Humboldt Penguins and Inca Terns. This is a rather dismal exhibit, and I don’t really understand why they need to be always inside, I would have thought they could have handled an outdoor exhibit in Portland. The very last exhibits in this section are in Steller Cove, and contain a couple of marine fish tanks and rock pools, an excellent Sea Otter exhibit and a reasonable Steller’s Sea Lion enclosure, with a massive inhabitant. The final animals I saw were a Red-tailed Hawk and a Western Screech Owl, being walked around the zoo by a couple of friendly volunteers.
Overall, Oregon Zoo was rather surprising. Given the negative press surrounding the place recently, I wasn’t expecting such an impressive collection – a full complement of large and small mammals, decent range of reptiles and birds, although some big holes in the bird collection, as well as a few fish and invertebrates. The enclosures run from amazing to abysmal, but the new ones are great and a good indication for the future, which includes plans for new elephants and polar bear enclosures, as well as new rhino and primate exhibits. Hopefully any change in management doesn’t derail these plans. All in all, it was a great visit, and I was genuinely impressed with my first American zoo.
