By: Andrew Bermudez
This upcoming Tuesday, April 29, the newest addition to the Los Angeles Zoo, Rainforest of the Americas, officially opens to the public. However, as my family and myself are annual passholders to the zoo, we were given this first look at the new exhibit before anyone else. Ready for an exclusive sneak peek? Then read on!
The new show occupies the space that used to be a series of long-condemned terrace exhibits that had been closed as far back as I can remember. Unlike those old exhibits, this one is firmly placed on the ground with a more conscious attention to setting the place. With that said, let's give a tour of the new exhibit, starting at the entrance next to the Cambodian viewing area for Elephants of Asia.
The entrance to the exhibit is designed to look like a series of lily pads, with water running underneath. One series of lily pads is interconnected, creating a solid walkway across the water. More adventurous guests can try their hand at the disconnected walkway, jumping from pad to pad. In the back ground of the above photo is the handicapped access for the next part of our virtual tour.
The naturalistic walkway leads to a two-story hut that looks over the main exhibit in this new expansion: the giant river otter exhibit. These otters can be so much fun to watch, especially when they're frolicking in their exhibit, treating the river in the exhibit as a water slide, or chewing up a map that one of the guests accidentally dropped. On the first floor of the hut are exhibits for several aquatic Amazon animals, including piranhas, the mata-mata turtle, and others. However, the animals down there aren't on display yet. What's the mata-mata with that? (*GROAN*).
Next to this hut is an enclosure for the harpy eagle, truly a spectacle to behold, especially in flight. It not only adds more flavor to this already-interesting opening act of the new area, it also allows this new expansion to blend in with the adjacent aviary. Well done, indeed.
Continuing around the corner and along a path that overlooks the Safari Shuttle route are more windows looking into the giant river otter exhibit. Have I mentioned that this is the main part of the new addition? Both of these windows feature underwater viewing, which revealed to us that the otters hadn't yet consumed their meal of fish that day.
Directly next to the otter exhibit is a dual species exhibit for both the Baird's taper and the cotton-top tamarin. This one is equally spacious, but to be fair, isn't as nice as the previous exhibit. But it does still serve the needs of the animals in a realistically-recreated environment, so it does have that. Perhaps it's because this exhibit doesn't have as much shade, which brings me to another point: as this exhibit is new, the plants are not much more than small seedlings, particularly unrealistic for the Amazon Rainforest. However, given a few years, this problem should solve itself.
Next up are a series of huts with exhibits, including the spotted pacca, which was hard to find but was eventually spotted (*GROAN*). It's nice to have an area dedicated to smaller animals, but this particular area just didn't meet up in comparison to the rest of the expansion.
Go through a tree and past a giant log, and you're at the next part of our tour. This part features such animals as the pygmy caiman and the Goliath bird-eating spider (which was hiding that day). While the visuals in this area look very nice, this is also the new exhibit's biggest fault: as there are no plants, rocks or pretty much anything across the path from the glass enclosures, the sun's light in the afternoon creates bright reflections on the glass, creating a glare that makes it very difficult to see into the exhibits. If you are able to get to the zoo early in the morning, make this your first stop for that reason.
Just beyond the fallen tree in the previous photo is the last exhibit: the toucan. The exhibit seems a little large for just one toucan, but it is a very beautiful bird, making the zoo's other toucan look plain in comparison (no offense to whoever that other toucan is, but seriously). After that is a series of winding paths that lead down to an informational center comprised of shade structures that look like they were ripped off from Zoo Tycoon 2, ending the tour.
So, what are my thoughts? To start off with, the layout of the exhibit has a very strong start, but does have its setbacks after the village of exhibits, especially with the glare issue. However, the toucan makes for a good ending. As for the variety of animals, not all of the animals were out on exhibit yet, but the ones that were made for a nice variety. The design also really gave a sense of place. Granted, it may not look as good as, say, Cars Land, but what is there does an effective job of establishing the look of the Amazon Rainforest. I highly recommend making this your first stop when you next visit the Los Angeles Zoo, as it may get crowded during the summer. Rainforest of the Americas officially opens April 29, 2014.
Note: The opening of this exhibit will also mark the return of the World of Birds show, which recently underwent a multi-year refurbishment. We haven't seen it yet, but when we do, you can expect to see a review for it here!
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