Denver Zoo (Colorado, United States of America)

I was quite excited as I planned my visit to Denver Zoo in Colorado.  This was my first visit to a zoo in continental North America, and I was anxious to compare it to the zoos that I had already visited in Japan, Korea, Thailand, and India.  Spread out over an area of 32 hectares (80 acres), the zoo is bounded on the south by a city park, on the north by a golf course, and on the east and west by residential areas.  The Monday of my visit happened to be a national holiday in the United States (Memorial Day), and the zoo was full of families with young children.

This zoo has a history of more than 100 years, and is said to have originated with a gift of a black bear to the mayor of Denver City in 1896.  With this in mind, perhaps I should have started my visit at the “Bear Mountain”, but I decided to do a circuit of the zoo traveling in a clockwise direction starting with the big cats.  I will describe the main areas roughly in the order in which I encountered them.

Benson Predator Ridge

The first complex of enclosures I saw in this area featured spaces that were commonly used (at different times) by lions, hyenas, and wild dogs.  The occupants are rotated among this group of connected exhibit areas in order to provide the animals with mental and physical stimulation.  This rotation is designed to replicate the wild where these three groups of animals take turns occupying territory in the African savanna.  When the animals enter each space, they smell the odors left behind by the other groups of animals, and it alerts them to the presence of the other predators, same as in the wild.  The photo below is of one of these shared spaces.  On the day of my visit, it was the hyenas’ turn to be in this particular space.

Sign explaining the animal rotation.

Striped Hyena

African Wild Dog

Next, I saw the enclosure for the Kirk’s Dik-Dik.

Kirk’s Dik-Dik, a small and cute animal.

The below Lion artwork was constructed of 56,408 plastic Lego bricks.

Giraffe enclosure

Okapi enclosure

Felines

This area mostly featured indoor exhibits that had large glass windows, housing smaller to medium-sized animals such as Red Pandas, Servals, and an Amur Leopard.  Somehow, whenever I see one of these indoor exhibits with glass windows, I am reminded of the fancy department store window displays in the Umeda shopping area.  No matter how realistically and skillfully the interiors are decorated, they still look man-made and artificial.  Maybe it’s the lighting.

Exhibit for Fossa

Snow Leopard Enclosure: outdoors, but a relatively small caged area

The Siberian (Amur) Tiger enclosure included a large open area that was planted with many shrubs and temperate climate trees.

During my visit, I learned that Denver Zoo will be opening a new, larger tiger area in the Fall of 2016.  The new enclosure will include an outdoor area 50% larger than the present tiger exhibit, and will feature elevated walkways where tigers can walk directly above visitors’ heads.

Educational signs placed around the exhibit were very colorful, eye-catching, and informational.

Northern Shores

This area was home to a Polar Bear and North American River Otters.

Educational signs located at Polar Bear enclosure

Tropical Discovery

Located in a climate-controlled building, this area showcased various reptiles, amphibians, and fishes.  The humidity inside this building was noticeably higher than outside, a fact that the visitor will notice immediately when either entering or exiting this structure.  Many of the specimens were housed in enclosures with glass walls that resembled large terrariums.  Judging by the condensation on some of these glass-walled exhibits, I would venture to say that the individual exhibits were climate-controlled to a degree even more than the visitors’ areas.  

Simulated tropical rainforest environment

Tropical fish aquarium

Komodo Dragon

Toyota Elephant Passage

Sponsored in part by Denver area Toyota dealers, this area is described on the zoo homepage as the “crown jewel of Denver Zoo”, with “two miles of interconnected trails on 10 acres of varied terrain”…”one of the largest and most-complex elephant habitats in North America.”  It features five enclosures through which Asian elephants, greater one-horned rhinos, and Malaysia tapirs can be rotated.

The photo below shows a bridge which animals use to move from one area to another. I wish I had been able to see an elephant or rhinoceros walking across that bridge.  It must be quite awesome.

Large amphitheater where elephant demonstrations are held.

Elephant enclosures

Display of the sponsor’s product.

This area included a reproduction of a Thai village.  There was even a Tuktuk taxi cart.

List of people who donated to support this exhibit area.   There were similar signs throughout the zoo at various exhibits acknowledging the support of donors.

Gibbon island

Northern White-Cheeked Gibbon

Hippopotamus

Bird World

The main part of this section was contained in a large building.

The first few exhibits looked like the type of diorama displays you would expect to see at a museum - except that the specimens here were alive.

Snowy-headed Robin Chat

Micronesian Kingfisher

The more interesting parts of this building were designed as walk-through immersion exhibits so that visitors could walk in among the birds. These areas included real trees and flowers (among some artificial trees and plants) and the birds could fly around with a certain level of freedom.  I suppose the minus for the birds would be the frequent stress of having humans standing at very near proximity.

Nicobar Pigeon

Golden-breasted Starling

Blue-crowned Laughing Thrush

Blue and Gold Macaw

Another walk-through immersion exhibit.

In this area, I met a Crested Wood Partridge.

He must be quite accustomed to humans at close range.   He seemed to want a handout or something, coming close enough to peck at my shoes.

In this area, I also spotted another moocher.  This small mouse was eating food that had fallen from the bird feeder above.

Other exhibit spaces displayed birds such as this Rhinocerous Hornbill

Inca Tern

Chestnut-backed Thrush

Blue-breasted Kingfisher

Exiting the building, there was a flock of African Penguins immediately outside.

On the side of the building, there was an enclosure for the Double-wattled Cassowary.

Cinereous Vulture

American Flamingoes and Chilean Flamingoes

Primate Panorama

The entrance to this area reminded me of the entrance to the “Jurassic Park” area of Universal Studios Japan theme park in Osaka.

Colorful signs

They are educational too! 

Another sign acknowledging financial donors and sponsors

Indoor glass-window exhibits.  These exhibits contained the smaller primates.

The Orangutan area was quite large and featured very large, fully grown trees.

Orangutan

Sign comparing primates to humans

Indoor area for Orangutans

Lowland Gorilla exhibit

Sign explaining human-gorilla conflicts that occur in African farming communities.

Bear Mountain

Brown Bear enclosure

Monkey Island

This island was amazing because the only barrier preventing a monkey escape was a water moat surrounding a small island covered with trees and shrubs.

Hooded Capuchin

Educational Efforts

The zoo map contained a long list of daily zookeeper narrated shows, demonstrations, and feedings.  Although I didn’t see any of them, I was told that these were very entertaining and informative. There were many uniformed volunteers stationed throughout the zoo, and they all seemed enthusiastic to provide tidbits of information regarding their particular exhibits.  There was a gentleman at the polar bear enclosure holding a piece of fur that visitors were encouraged to touch, a man stationed at the elephant enclosure who provided many interesting details about the display artifacts imported from Thailand, and a woman who had been a volunteer for about 30 years who gave me a brief history of the zoo.

Many exhibits featured decorated props that made the messages more interesting and easier to understand.

And there were numerous educational signs placed throughout the zoo.  The sign below asked visitors to not harass the animals such as the geese and peafowls that roamed freely throughout the zoo.

This sign at the camel’s enclosure explained how to remember the difference between Dromedary and Bactrian Camels.

This small sign explained the zoo’s use of recycled water.

There was a complex of tent structures.  I was told that educational sleepovers for children are very popular.

Rubbish containers for recycling

There were also a number of sculptures throughout the zoo grounds.

Opportunities for Animal Encounters

I was told by one volunteer that this zoo stopped conducting “petting zoo” activities because of the stress it placed on the animals.  The zoo map does mention opportunities to hand-feed the Giraffes, a “Be a Zookeeper” zone for children, and the “Lorikeet Adventure”.  

The “Lorikeet Adventure” was a large walk-in caged enclosure housing dozens of the small birds.  Visitors can put what appears to be syrup water into a tiny paper cup and hold out their arms to offer the syrup water to the Lorikeets.  The birds fly to the visitors, perch on their hands, and sip the syrup water.  I don’t know how the birds are trained to do this, or even if training is required, but it makes for a great effect.  Most visitors are visibly excited by the experience, and some even forget the staff’s instructions to not make loud noises, ending up squealing with delight. 

Food and Souvenirs

The zoo map indicates that there are 9 food concessions and 3 souvenir shops within the zoo.  From what I could tell, the food concessions offered a variety of different types of foods.  The photo below shows the exterior of the “Kamala Café”.

I had lunch at the “Samburu Grille” where I enjoyed pepperoni pizza at $3.75 per slice and a bottle of orange juice for $3.50.

Exterior of the “Kibongi Market”, the souvenir shop adjacent to the zoo entrance/exit.

The “Soi Street Market”, which is opened only on days when the weather is nice.

Getting There

The zoo is about 4 miles from the downtown part of Denver where my hotel was located.  Since there weren’t any train lines near the zoo, and since I was unfamiliar with the local bus lines, I caught a taxi.  I paid about $12 each way. 

Admission to the zoo was $17 for people aged 12 to 64, $12 for children aged 3 to 11, and $14 for seniors aged 65+.  

(Note: The photos used in this post were taken during a visit on May 30, 2016.  The comments in this post are based on observations made on that day.  Conditions may have since changed.  Please check it out for yourself!)