Penguins
are returning to Lincoln Park Zoo as the zoo announces plans for a new
habitat that will house the popular birds. Polar Bears will also be
getting a new habitat, the zoo announced. (Lincoln Park Zoo)
Instead of “penguins as theater” in a darkened indoor home, Thompson said, the new exhibit will feature a long swimming area in front of visitors and try to mimic the rocky coastline of their native South Africa. “It's about connecting with nature, instead of something that looked a little bit like a museum exhibit,” he said. Just north of that facility, as part of the same project, the zoo will be building a naturalistic polar bear habitat that will be more about the terrain and less about the pool. The penguin and polar bear habitats should open by spring or summer 2016.
Costing $22 million and paid for almost wholly by zoo fundraising, said Thompson, the just-announced exhibits mark something of a building boom at the free North Side facility. One of the area's top tourist attractions, with an estimated 3 million annual visitors, the zoo expects this fall to open the $15 million Regenstein Macaque Forest and the adjacent Lionel Train Adventure, projects that cover the space of the old penguin house, to the north of the zoo's West Gate.
The macaque exhibit, also primarily outdoors, will showcase a startup population of “about five” of the simians popularly known as “snow monkeys.” Like the new penguin habitat, it will protect its residents from potential Illinois invaders with “roofs” made of wire mesh for an open-air feel. The macaque exhibit will include trees, rocks, a stream and a “hot tub” and heated rock floor to simulate the thermal springs the red-faced, sandy-haired monkeys use in their native Japan. The polar bear and penguin habitats will replace the “bear line” occupying about an acre in the zoo's northeast corner. Along that line, the current polar bear, sun bear, Andean (or spectacled) bear and hyena exhibits will be demolished, beginning after the macaque exhibit is finished. All of the new facilities replace exhibits that were more than three decades old and demonstrate more modern thinking about wildlife management and display, Thompson said.
Priority is given to finding animals that will be not only popular but also can thrive in Chicago weather and help communicate the zoo's conservation message. And although the exit of the hyenas and two bear species means there will be fewer overall species at the zoo, the point is to give better environments to the ones that best suit the mission. “These are very iconic species,” Thompson said of penguins and polar bears. “You can think of them as ambassadors” for the institution's message. Both are threatened in the wild, with natural habitats being challenged by human encroachment and climate change, he said, adding, “We also know that people like animals that are black and white.”
Bringing penguins back was something zoo officials said they intended to do since the time of the Kovler's closure. The new polar bear habitat, meanwhile, will reflect the latest science and understanding of how the animals best thrive. The exhibit will bring visitors closer to the polar bears in five separate viewing areas, while providing more of the terrain that biologists now understand polar bears prefer. The new exhibit will feature a stream and pool, but only about 30 percent of the water volume that's in the existing exhibit, which is dominated by a deep pool. Both facilities are designed with breeding in mind, officials said, and the initial plan is for a pair of polar bears and a dozen or so penguins.
As demolition approaches, homes at other zoos will be found for the displaced animals as well as for the zoo's lone polar bear, the female Anana, officials said. But the hope, they added, is that when the exhibit is ready, the polar bear population management program among North American zoos will allow Anana to return, along with a mate.
source
No comments:
Post a Comment