ZooChat Cup S2 Match #11: Denver vs Woodland Park

Carnivores

  • Total voters
    16
  • Poll closed .
pachyderm pro

pachyderm pro

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
Two very strong zoos from the West spar in a category that they both have very strong points and very severe weaknesses in, carnivores. Denver has the brilliant predator ridge rotation habitats with lions, painted dogs and spotted hyenas (Striped hyenas are also featured elsewhere in the zoo). There is also a relatively new amur tiger exhibit that opened last year. However, there are two major blackeyes on the zoo when it comes to this category. These include Bear Mountain (A series of all concrete cramped bear grottos) and the infamous feline house (Multiple indoor glass boxes and tiny outdoor cages that aren't even remotely adequate for even its smallest inhabitant). Luckily as of late both areas have begun emptying out, a turn for the better. Other carnivores include the fishing cats and clouded leopards in Elephant Passage, an interesting polar bear exhibit and cheetahs. Now Woodland Park also has its share of excellence. Jaguar Cove is stunning and perhaps the best I have seen for the species, while Northern Trail has a superb set of woodland exhibits for grizzly bears and wolves. Banyan Wilds opened to mixed receptions in 2015 and is home to Malayan tigers and sloth bears. The sloth bear exhibit felt like more of a reskin of the already existing grotto, and for tigers didn't feel like enough effort went into hiding enclosure barriers, at least that's the general opinion of the area from what I've read on this site. Lions, snow leopards and maned wolves are also highlights.

The concept behind this poll is explained here: ZooChat Cup Season 2

Tomorrow: Columbus vs Houston
 
Here's a basic summary for my logic:

Collection: Both zoos have a good range of species and families represented. Denver has the edge in this category, with more species of canids and felids, as well as pinnipeds which Woodland Park lacks entirely. The inclusion of spotted hyenas and African wild dogs is a personal highlight for me. Denver wins this category handily.

Exhibits: Predator Ridge is a great concept and the enclosures look very nice. The clouded leopard exhibit also looks well-designed, and the cheetah habitat is spacious. Denver's other enclosures fall short of impressing me. The new tiger enclosure is quite ugly (I don't know how functional it is), the polar bear exhibit is disappointing compared to others I've seen, the fishing cat enclosure is uninspiring and appears to be quite small, and the leopard and other bear enclosures are just not up to par with modern exhibitry. On a high note, the sea lion exhibit looks pretty good, although ideally I'd like to know how deep it is relative to other exhibits.

Meanwhile, many of Woodland Park's exhibits appear to be nothing short of incredible. Jaguar Cove, the three carnivore exhibits in Northern Trail (bears, wolves, and otters), and the snow leopard exhibit are all large, visually attractive, and very much look like natural habitats for those species. The sloth bear exhibit in Banyan Wilds does indeed look like a grotto reskin, but I think it looks decent. Tiger exhibit is not pretty but not as ugly as Denver's. Asian small-clawed otter exhibit also looks better than Denver's. Overall, this category is a resounding win for Seattle.

Conservation: I was able to find one conservation program that involves African carnivores that Denver supports or leads. Woodland Park has... many. They conduct so many that I stopped counting. Mapping bear habitat in Asia, helping snow leopards, monitoring river otters in Washington and terrestrial carnivores in the Seattle area, conservation work for jaguars, carnivores in Ruaha National Park in Tanzania... I could go on, but I think the point is clear. I'm actually dumbfounded that WPZ can afford to support that many conservation initiatives, as ones involving carnivores are only a fraction of the total. Seattle wins this category outright as well.

Final verdict: Woodland Park for the win. I do feel somewhat guilty about Denver though, as I believe (depending on the category) both of these zoos could have advanced separately. Denver is particularly strong in primates, birds, and herps.
 
Woodland Park Zoo has Jaguars and Grizzly Bears in what are some of the best, most naturalistic zoo exhibits in the United States. The other carnivores (African Lions, Snow Leopards, Maned Wolves, Grey Wolves, Sloth Bears, River Otters, Small-Clawed Otters, Malayan Tigers) are all good but nothing spectacular. The one major weakness would be the tiny, disappointing Ocelot exhibit in the Rain Forest building.

Denver Zoo has African Lions, Spotted Hyenas and African Wild Dogs in the terrific Predator Ridge as the star carnivore attractions. Then there are others (Amur Tigers, Clouded Leopards, Striped Hyenas) in decent exhibits. However, there are the hideous bear grottoes dating from 1918 in Bear Mountain and the mainly poor Feline House, along with weak exhibits for Fishing Cats and Polar Bears elsewhere in the zoo.

I think that I'd have Denver in the #8 slot and Woodland Park in the #9 slot in terms of ranking the best zoos that I've ever visited (out of more than 400 different ones after this summer's latest trip) but in this particular category I feel confident that Woodland Park Zoo should be the victor. It's a bit harsh on Denver, which in my mind is clearly one of the 10 best zoos in the nation.
 
I think the Grizzly Bear and Jaguar exhibits at Woodland Park alone beat out Denver. The Jaguar exhibit in particular looks fantastic, although I bet it’s quite hard to see the animals.

Denver’s Predator Ridge looks brilliant, but I wasn’t very impressed with some of the photos of Denver’s other exhibits. So it’s Woodland Park for me.
 
I love this category for these zoos! While I love Denver, I was afraid that they’d win easy if the category was primates, birds or herps.

I’ve never been to Woodland Park Zoo but I haven’t heard many bad things about it. They really don’t have any poor exhibits for their carnivores. The jaguar exhibit looks amazing and that alone makes me want to make a trip west. I’ll stick to commenting on what I know about Denver though to help others.

Predator Ridge is a state of the art exhibit even though it’s more than a decade old. The rotating exhibit concept is still being emulated today at other zoos and within Denver with the similarly amazing Toyota Elephant Passage. Right before you get there, there is a huge banded mongoose exhibit that is the best I've ever seen for the species. The main exhibit consists of two large yards separated by minimum fencing so it appears as one big yard and one smaller side yard that is aesthetically pleasing but could not hold a pride of lions at one time. Inside the main viewing building for the two main yards, there is a training wall where they have daily training sessions with one of the species on exhibit. I’ve been to other zoos and this has got to be the best exhibit for lions, wild dogs and hyenas in the nation if not in the top 3 for each species.

The rest of the zoo falls short for carnivores unfortunately although it’s a hard task to live up to.

The new Amur tiger exhibit “The Edge” is the epitome of disappointing. It’s just two gigantic cages connected with an upper walkway that I’ve personally never seen used by any of the cats. The foliage looks sparse and the immersion is non existent. I almost prefer the aesthetic of their previous home in the Felines building. At least there there were trees taller than 12 feet. I can’t say anything about the functionality of the exhibit other than assuming it is near state of the art in terms of husbandry because of its age. But from a visitor’s perspective, a huge miss.

Rocky Shores is an older exhibit featuring polar bears, sea lions harbor seals, river otters, and arctic fox. I can truly say that in over 20 years of visiting this exhibit that I have never seen the arctic foxes on exhibit. But the zoo insists that they have them so there’s that. They are in a very outdated enclosure next to a similarly small and outdated otter enclosure. Nothing terrible but I almost forgot the exhibits existed while writing this. Polar bears have two large yards but the lack of grass or anything else natural make this one of my least favorite enclosures and it’s one I tend to skip when visiting. The sea lions have the best enclosure in the exhibit. But it again, is nothing special and does it's job well for what it is. There is underwater viewing which is a plus but the visibility is generally low and the animals need to be close in order to see them. Off to the side is the harbor seal pool which is very small and uninspiring. Overall, if you are making your vote on quality over quantity, Northern Shores makes Woodland Park's case that much better.

Toyota Elephant Passage has exhibits for clouded leopards, fishing cats, and Asian-small clawed otters. The clouded leopard exhibit is the only one of the three to be outdoors and is the best in quality. Lots of climbing and hiding opportunities. I always make it a goal to see them when I visit. The other two are in a building and neither is that large or impressive. Both have underwater viewing which is nice. What I really like about these three exhibits is that they break up the monotony of the elephant exhibits. Not a lot of other zoos have three carnivore exhibits (among other types of animals) among their elephant yards. I believe this is a big plus when considering where the carnivores are located in the zoo.

In one of the "hoofstock row" exhibits, there is a decently sized cheetah exhibit. Really nothing much special about it.

There is a very small, historic bear grotto near Primate Panorama that was built in 1918. I personally think it should be a crime to house animals in it. There is a small concrete grotto that looks sort of like an ancient ruin that houses coati. Not sure what species as I almost never see the animals and the sign just says "coatimundi". On the side there are two horrendous grottos currently occupied by a pair of grizzly bears. Nothing much else to say. The exhibit is from the era of exhibition for exhibition's sake.

The remaining carnivore exhibits are in the "currently in the process of moving all animals out" Felines building. As of last month, there is no viewing for the indoor exhibits (they previously had dwarf mongoose in one of the indoor exhibits) and the larger yards on either side and the decent maned wolf yard between the two halves are also no longer available for guest viewing. This means that striped hyena and maned wolves are no longer on exhibit (I know for a fact that the maned wolves are no longer at the zoo. I do not know about the striped hyena). The only viewable exhibits are 4, extremely small cages on the side of the building that house Amur leopards, snow leopards, and red panda. The exhibits can't be bigger than 20'x20'. But for their size, the animals do an amazing job at hiding and I rarely see them at all. Definitely the weakest exhibits in the zoo and I'm glad they are in the beginning stages of moving everything out and demolishing it.

Before I wrote this, I was thinking the match was pretty even. But the only exhibits I had a positive opinion of were Predator Ridge and the Toyota Elephant Passage carnivore exhibits. I can't in good faith vote for Denver because of the quantity of poor exhibits for carnivores when its up against a zoo that I can't find a poor carnivore exhibit. Woodland Park takes it for me.
 
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Looking through the Denver Zoo media category, I agree with the previous arguments made... the bear grottos are quite poor, and the tiger exhibit is hideous. The Clouded Leopard exhibit seemed pretty reasonable, but the Fishing cats and otters seemed not too great. Predator Ridge looks pretty good, but not good enough to redeem Denver exhibit-wise for me.
They appear to do well species-wise, though apparently several species are now gone or off-display according to Echobeast.

Having been to Woodland Park 2 years ago, I do remember being quite impressed with their Jaguar exhibit. Grizzlies, American River Otters, and wolves were very good as well. I seem to remember their Maned Wolf exhibit being the largest one I've seen, but I could be wrong. Agree the tiger exhibit isn't great, but it's not horrible either. Same goes for the Sloth Bear.

My vote goes to Woodland Park.
 
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