Captain Callum's Zoo Builds

[Captain Callum]

Woodland Park Zoo: Zone highlight - African Savanna

First up lets have a look at a good view of the zoo so far:

Lots of sand paint has been placed thanks to the useful mesurement tool from google earth to hopefully get the scaling as correct as possible (note the red numbers are edited in not actually ingame ) The numbers of course depecit the habitat zones to build making progress actually exciting as i slowly fill up the boxes rather than having a giant green space

• 1 - African Savanna - the largest zone full of iconic african animals
• 2 - Tropical Rainforest - the most complicated zone to build. Houses the most exciting tropical habitats in the zoo
• 3 - Tropical Asia part 1 - features the large rhino reserve and trail of vines which of course has a massive orangutan habitat
• 4 - Tropical Asia part 2 - banyan wilds - bears, otters and tiger are featured here in a reletively small space
• 5 - adaptations building - a long building featuring komodo dragons and meerkats all indoors
• 6 - Australasia - snow leopard and outback animals
• 7 - raptor education center with one basic yard habitat
• 8 - living northwest - full of animals from the northern climates

African Savanna

Today lets look at the first zone out of the above lists because im eager to start building upwards through the zoo since i have now completed the scaling efforts of the western portion. The west entrance is work in progress as gift shop work can be a chore.
Alright the african savanna can be considered the entrance zone for the southern part of the zoo (like if you were entering via the south entrance). The savanna zone features 5 habitats and one static walkthrough aviary. Pretty much everything is green since we are in a pacific northwest where dry ground isnt exactly something you are gonna find in seattle of all places

Key habitat - Savanna (yes i know what a suprise)

The savanna habitat is a wide open habitat that is an impressive size holding Giraffe, zebra, gazelle, and ostrich (add helmeted guineafowl for the full collection). The picture above shows exactly what is in store for many of the habitats in the more impressive areas of the zoo - no sightlines of barriers or guest gates, no view of animal buildings and just vast amounts of natural scenery to immersive ourselves searching for the animals. So how exactly do we hide barriers - ditches, low level barriers and lots of foliage

The most impressive views is actually right in front of the south plaza. This is a viewpoint in a african village with a classroom building with a large viewing area to spot savanna animals. It could easily be a challenge to find the animals or maybe the keeper will feed the animals right in front of us, who knows

Hippo habitat

Wait a minute - are hippos not aggressive to other animals and shouldnt be kept with the giraffes? Yes you are correct but those hippos are in a second habitat fenced away from the savanna animals. How? Ditches and low level barriers, you can see a barrier pole right between the 2 hippos which is a brilliant idea to give the hippos and zoo guests the idea of the hippos are roaming with the rest of the animals

Of course it isnt a hippo habitat without a giant pool of water. No i aint giving the hippos their demanded requirement which is just downright ridiculous. To view the hippos there will be 4 seperate viewing areas all from above, sadly no underwater viewing here

Patas Monkey habitat

Patas monkey? WHERE MONKE , well then i guess i have to use ugly proboscis monkey or some female mandrills instead. Anyways yeah so a pretty basic but naturalistic habitat of some ruined branches for climbing with views into the back of the savanna habitat (would be great views if the giraffes are behind this rock). A simple raised rock gives us a savanna feel without being too complex. Probably the weakest habitat in the zone as it is nothing that special

Lion Habitat

An old image above (from the 80's ) but we can clearly see how wonderul of a habitat this is for the mighty lion. Very rarely do we see a zoo that has a lush naturalistic lion habitat with ample trees, tall grass and large rock outcrops for the lions to sunbathe on. There are quite a few viewpoints around this habitat including a building with glass panels to get a closer look at the lions. I cant actually find a modern picture with some lion in it but oh well you get the idea

Warthog Habitat

Ah last habitat for this zone then, the warthog habitat. A typical earthy habitat with some cool rockwork for indoor shelters, not really much to point out with this habitat exactly apart from it looks cool and houses warthogs i guess

 

[Captain Callum]

Woodland Park Zoo: West entrance, Rainforest food pavilion and completion of parking lots

West Entrance:

This is the second and the main entrance to the zoo with this being the most visibly modern zoo addition while the south entrance boasts a more traditional american entrance with the use of brick walls and slate roofing. A wonderful use of wood panels, white panels, wooden slats and black girders makes this entrance one of the most visually pleasing entrances i have seen. Also noticeable is the use of concrete slab paths rather than just having a single layer of concrete which also improves the appeal of the entrance.

On the right hand side of the entry plaza is the ticket building. 3 info counters are placed inside so the guests will hopefully use these, just the generic planet zoo videos are playing on the tv screens.

Inside the zoo we find the most visually pleasing aspect of the west entrance - the gift shop. I love the modern aspect of the glass and wooden panels. Of course the inside is fully decorated although with some lower piece count shelves to save the piece count as it was already nearing 3000 pieces inside

Rainforest Food Pavilion:

There are only actually 2 food shops in the entire zoo one near the west entrance and another on the oppisite side of the zoo. The rainforest food pavilion is the main zoo cafe with many food and drink options with ample seating for guests. Its always nice to make realistic buildings with full interiors, no skipping the details on the windows here, The hardest part is actually ensuring the roof looks good enough inside while maintaining the correct angles and shape outside

Completed Parking:

Every single parking lot has been recreated in this build which means that is 1089 spaces all counted up, just missing the mark with 1300 spaces noted on the zoo map in real life. Its a whole load of pieces which half of which i wont see as 3 of the parking lots are away from the entrances. Only the 2 major lots, the otter (west) and hippo (south) are going to be seen by guests and players who download the zoo who want to walk from a parking lot to the entrance

Hippo Lot - 157 spaces with 6 bus spaces

Flamingo lot - 237 spaces

Penguin lot - 70 spaces

Otter Lot - 299 spaces

And theres the bear lot with 321 spaces but its hidden away in trees at the north end of the zoo and i ran out of pictures for this post so can easily miss that one out - you can see a corner of it in the otter lot picture anyways

 

[Captain Callum]

Woodland Park Zoo: Penguin Habitat

While real life has humboldt penguins here, african penguins are pretty much identical for a substitue. So the west entrance is now fully complete with the latest addition of the penguin habitat. Rocky cliffs, underwater viewing, a cool rowboat and anchor for decorations and of course custom media to bring the habitat to life. The pathing for this habitat was a nightmare naturally

Edited a cool looking rowing boat from the workshop to match the one from in real life. Simple decoration areas like these imrpove the aesthetic of the entire area

A closeup of the penguins hanging around their nice tray of fish , there is 12 in total

Passing the entrance area, a viewing panel then starts to go downhill as we will eventually see the entire underwater area for some great views. A great length of the rocky cliffs can be seen here aswell

The lowest viewing points for the penguin habitat have nice large underwater vieing which you can see penguins doing 180 degree turns as they then swim back. There is also 2 round viewing windows just to the right of these

Heres the entrance for the penguin habitat if coming from the temperate forest, tropical rainforest or rainforest cafe

Behind the rocky cliffs is the staff area for the penguin habitat and general zoo management area. It also contains the water filtration system for the penguin pool

Full overview of the habitat with the rainforest cafe to the left and the west entrance to the right

Real life pictures for comparision:

We can notice the real pictures show penguin burrows, weathered and varied textured rock, darker water color and realistic bird droppings. Of course basically all of these are really hard to implement in game.

 

[Captain Callum]

Woodland Park Zoo: Tropical Rainforest - Jaguar Cove

Alright a change of plan has been made since i briefly started the africa savanna area to only realise that i may run out of room for the tropical rainforest if i mess up alignment so heres the tropical rainforest up next!

Looking at the below picture we can see work in the area between the west entrance and temperate forest. This will be the second major habitat zone to complete with lots of habitats to fill in here. Most obvious is the tropical house building with an impressive glass dome roof which i will cover when in complete the tropical house. I will admit i borrowed the dome roof from the workshop. First up though the area above the tropical house is complete and one of my favourite habitats yet - the jaguar cove

The jaguar cove is praised by the zoochat experts who mention the jaguar habitat in the woodland park zoo is one of the best in north america. The immersive habitat design along with the excellant guest viewing brings us to one of the most notable habitats in the entire zoo. To mention there is 5 key habitats in the zoo which are standouts - jaguar cove, the africa savanna, the orangutan habitat, gorilla habitat and the grizzly bear habitat.

So the jaguar cove has quite the entrance through a broken kapok tree entrance to the long viewing path which is covered by a really big kapok tree. The kapok tree is custom made of the planet zoo logs in the construction menu. The tree is then decorated with vines for a rainforest theme, the same rocks found in the penguin habitat have also made their way across as i found the aquatic rocks really add character compared to the bland tropical rocks. Also seen is custom media teaching us about jaguars

The habitat is topped with a mesh roof to prevent the jaguars having lunch at the nearby cafe, while it may detract the viewing experience we have to keep it realistic. Large glass windows allow guests to get great views of the big cats when they decide to show their faces, yes while the immersive habitat design looks great the jaguars love to hide in the foliage. This is actually exactly what the jaguars do in real life so bonus points for that i guess

The second half of the viewing is my favourite which is where the pool is for the jaguars. I do wish the water level could be a tiny bit deeper for an underwater view but really impressed how it came out. A tropical colored pool, a waterfall, the background foliage and angled rock shelter make this area picturesque

Having reached the tropical house we turn around and get this view. That completes the tour of the jaguar cove

Of course some bonus pics of the jaguars

 

[Captain Callum]

Woodland Park Zoo: Tropical Rainforest - Tropical House

Right next to the jaguar cove is a quite large tropical house with many exciting animals inside. Lets move on from the jaguars and step into the warmth of south america:

Entrance of the tropical house

Tropical plant room right inside the entrance

First section of the tropical house includes: Sunbittern (static aviary), Clouded leopard habitat (ocelot irl) , 2 exhibits for turtles and a tanager bird aviary.

View of the clouded leopard habitat. Yes this is only 100m2 which is rather small in real life never mind the game

In this corner there are 2 exhibits for snakes - the yellow anaconda and the boa constrictor. Of course the boa is rather hard to see

This section of the tropical house contains - green aracari aviary, 2 exhibits with frogs and a capuchin monkey habitat (golden lion tamarin irl)

Cant miss a cute picture of one of the most deadly frogs in the world

The third section of the tropical house here contains - a second capuchin monkey habitat (white faced saki irl), 2 aviaries of tanagers (paradise and brazilian) and a toucan aviary. Anyone wondering yes that is custom media providing the wonderful backgrounds to the habitats and aviaries of the tropical house

And saved the best for last. A walkthrough rainforest aviary with lots of birds and a cool dome roof finishes the tour of the tropical house

 

[Captain Callum]

Masterlist of future projects Update:

Having a short break from lemur habitat building, i took the chance to have a look at all the possible future projects possible within the usa to have a much better idea at what kind of zoos are actually possible to build ingame. The woodland park zoo provided me with a scale that i used for every single appealing zoo in the country and went through various stages of elimination.

The stages begun as follows:

Stage 1: Zoos that exceed map size

• Henry Doorly Zoo - Omaha, Nebraska
• Bronx Zoo - new york city, new york
• Brookfield Zoo - chicago, Illinois
• Fort Worth Zoo - Fort Worth , Texas
• Oklahoma City Zoo - Oklahoma city, Oklahoma
• Kansas City Zoo - Kansas City , Missouri
• St Louis Zoo - St louis, Missouri
• Minnesota Zoo - Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Detriot Zoo - Detriot, Michigan
• Columbus Zoo - Columbus, ohio
• Los Angeles Zoo - Los Angeles, California
• Zoo Miami - Miami, florida
• Disneys Animal Kingdom - Orlando, Florida

Stage 2: Zoos that have not enough sources for recreation:

• Hogle Zoo - Salt lake city, Utah
• Birmingham Zoo - Birmingham, Alabama
• Riverbanks Zoo - Columbia, South Carolina
• Cleveland Zoo - Cleveland, Ohio

Stage 3: Zoos with way too many habitats

• San Antonio Zoo - San Antonio, Texas - total of 74 habitats
• Denver Zoo - Denver, Colorado - total of 89! habitats

Stage 4: Final Stage - Zoos already being recreated by another player

• Houston Zoo - Old Country is recreating this zoo
• Smithsonian National Zoo - Having discussed this with a person on reddit

Zoos that made it through for possible future projects

• Zoo Atlanta
• Lincoln Park Zoo
• Audobon Zoo
• Nashville Zoo
• See first post for updated considerations

 

[Captain Callum]

Woodland Park Zoo: Tropical Rainforest - Lemur Habitats

Moving on from the large tropical house we come across 2 island habitats followed by a simple woodland habitat for monkeys (used by lemurs in the unmodded version). Here we enter the tropical rainforest of africa as the focus of the previous areas were the tropical rainforests of south america. Starting off with the africa areas then is a red ruffed lemur habitat:

The trusty bamboo climbing frame continues to see great usage throughout the zoo which is great since the lemurs use it to great extent unlike many of the climbing frames found on the workshop for whatever reason, i only have 2 climbing frames in blueprints that animals actually seem to like.

2 viewing areas for this lemur habitat which is the most impressive out of the 2. If any zoo has a more impressive lemur habitat i would love to see it

Moving on to the next lemur habitat, this is a second island which holds ring tailed lemurs. Far more iconic to spot these lemurs, this habitat is slighly different than the red ruffed lemur mainly the lack of a large climbing frame but rather more trees and vines are placed on this island. 2 smaller climbing frames are still provided to keep the lemurs happy. The first viewing point here is a low bridge with a nice open view of the island. The weeds overgrowth on the water is best seen from this habitat as the red ruffed lemurs had a bunch of elephant grass blocking it

Heres the second viewpoint for the ring tailed lemurs, the fence is a metal green fence in real life but for the sake of a consistant theme i kept the wooden fence here. There is a toilets building right behind here and a path to return to the main path.

The last habitat to look at today is the black and white colobus habitat which is currently being used by black and white ruffed lemurs. A nice glass window allows for great views into the habitat as a way to get past the mesh barriers.The bamboo climbing frame, mangrove trees and a couple vines complete the habitat for some nice views of the lemurs when they climb up the trees.

Lastly heres a birds eye view of the african portion of the tropical rainforest, the true size of the tropical house is impressive when compared against smaller lemur habitats.

 

[Old Country]

Zoos that made it through for possible future projects! (May add to this selection overtime)

• Zoo Tampa
• Zoo Atlanta
• Lincoln Park Zoo
• Audobon Zoo
• Como Park Zoo
• ABQ Biopark Zoo
• Nashville Zoo
• Memphis Zoo

My vote is for Nashville Zoo 100% want to see you recreate that one. Easily one of my favorite Zoo's!

 

[Captain Callum]

Woodland Park Zoo: Tropical Rainforest - Gorilla Habitats

Lets finish off the tropical rainforest with another fantastic natural habitat area for the woodland park zoo. The gorilla habitat is regarded as one of the finest at the zoo which the habitat itself dates back to 1979, it can easily be considered one of the better gorilla habitats in american zoos despite its age.

Approaching the gorilla habitat from the last monkey/lemur habitat greets us with a small statue area. The statue is a memorial to "Bobo" the gorilla which is the most famous gorilla from the woodland park zoo.

We reach the first gorilla habitat which is the smallest out of the 2 gorilla habitats. Thick bamboo and rock walls encase the habitat, the gorillas here have a decently sized climbing frame, bedding right next to the visitor glass and thick foliage to allow the gorillas to rest away from view.

Next up is the second gorilla habitat which is the far more impressive sight. At least double the size of the first habitat, this time with wide open grassy areas, a larger climbing frame, a waterfall into a pool of water and tall trees at the back of the habitat for a great immersive habitat experience.

 

[Captain Callum]

Woodland Park Zoo: Where are we so far?

Above is a birds eye view of the just completed tropical rainforest. The most dense, detailed part of the zoo which rounds out to about 6000 pieces all together to create an immersive journey throught a tropical rainforest from south american habitats with the jaguar to african rainforest habitats ending with the gorilla habitats. It can be rather hard to pinpoint the exact path layout which is exactly true when you have a look at the zoo on google maps.

A annotated view of the tropical rainforest (writing with a mouse is harder than i thought ) :

But where actually are we in terms of the full zoo? Below we have the full zoo on screen, the red outline is the tropical rainforest which is pretty much the center of the zoo. The yellow outline is the next expansion which is the banyan wilds, the first area of tropical asia. Tropical asia consists of 3 zones which the majority is the bottom left box. Why am i not continuing the african savanna area right now? I need to find how wide the african area needs to be by reaching the eastern main path before contiuing southwards in the african areas.

Yes thats the entire map from bottom to top covered by this zoo, Its way bigger than the oregon zoo surely

 

[Captain Callum]

Woodland Park Zoo: Banyan Wilds

What? an entire zone completed so soon? Yes the banyan wilds is a rather compact area with four new habitats when comparing to the tropical rainforest. The banyan wilds area is the first part of tropical asia completed with the new additions of asian small clawed otters, sun bears (sloth bear in real life), and bengal tigers (also malayan tiger in real life). Development around this area should be fairly quick and easy to do however I'm gonna head back down and work on the extensive african savanna first

Banyan Wilds Entrance:

First habitat we find right next to the entrance is a large family of asian small clawed otters, these guys are so loud

After the otters we come across the first sun bear habitat, this one is home to a single male and is the larger out of the 2 habitats. The sloth bear habitats are called the worst habitats in the entire zoo by zoochat, not that bad really but yeah these are just simple bear grotto habitats

The second viewing area looks into the second sloth bear habitat, housing 2 females

Next to the sloth bear viewing area is the center plaza of the banyan wilds area. The building ahead is the infomartion area for the tiger habitat, also comes with a glass viewing window into the tiger habitat

Further along is the training wall for the tigers, which in real life keepers feed tigers with a milk spray for enrichment. Instead there is the restraint feeder so we can see the tigers pull some meat right in front of us

The last part of the banyan wilds before rejoining the main path is a glass viewing area for the tiger habitat. The viewing area has fig tree roots for decoration

 

[Captain Callum]

Woodland Park Zoo: African Savanna part 1

Alright this may be a long one over several posts considering the african savanna zone is really big. Roughly 25,000 m2 of habitats to cover , so lets introduce the african zone with some above views first:

Compare that red outline to the banyan wilds one and you might see the huge difference however it was nowhere near as complicated to build considering most of the african savanna is just a grassy plain with some trees. Similar to the temperate zone in overall size but only 5 habitats make up the area, we cant skip over the fact the savanna habitat is 17,000m2 - yes guests complain about the view but uh thats the point

So lets look closer at the savanna zone looking at the below picture. The zone can be considered the entrance area for the southern entrance considering the family farm is a bit lackluster for an entrance area. Quick access from the south plaza will bring us to the first viewing area of the savanna habitat which is the african village. The next habitat viewed from the savanna trail path is the hippo habitat which basically meets the ingame requirements to house hippos, shortly afterwards we pass the (empty) giraffe house where in real life is the giraffe's shelter however of course we cant have giraffe's crossing the guest path when they please. After the giraffe house there is a short path leading to the lion and mandrill habitats , then ending the african savanna is a warthog habitat before rejoining the main path.

Lets get a better look at the savanna habitat which is the star of the african savanna and largest habitat of the zoo. We have a overview of the habitat and all the key points for animal viewing:

Lets start at the south plaza and enter the african village:

This is a basic african village for a nice introduction to the african savanna

Head inside the school building for the best view of the savanna habitat. The savanna habitat is a 17,000m2 mixed species habitat with giraffe, zebra, ostrich and gazelle . Lots of grass and temperate trees due to the fact it would be pretty hard to maintain a dry savanna habitat in the pacific northwest where it rains pretty much non stop

To the right of the school overlook, there is a path that follows the savanna habitats border and brings us to the first savanna viewpoint (not counting the school). Not exactly the best view here considering this is the far edge of the habitat that very few animals are clearly in view.

Leaving the african village path to join onto the main savanna trail path we reach the second savanna viewpoint which offers us an alternative angle to the school overlook.

 

[Captain Callum]

Woodland Park Zoo: African Savanna part 2

Next up is a small aviary which compared to the tropical building is pretty lackluster

Missed on the post one map of the zone is savanna viewpoint #3 , one of my favourite views when giraffe's are eating from their tree enrichment

We finally arrive at our next habitat, hippos! This is actually my first time ever using these animals, the habitat meets the required space requirements despite so many people saying it is too excessive for realistic habitats , well this is a real habitat so HMMMM. So a 'hidden' barrier divides the hippo habitat and the large savanna habitat because we dont hippos roaming free with gazelles

Shortly after the hippo habitat we come across a static giraffe house. In real life this is where the giraffes are kept at night with a barrier gate over the guest path to allow the giraffes to cross from the savanna habitat into the house.

 

[Captain Callum]

Woodland Park Zoo: African Savanna part 3

Lets finish up the african savanna tour in this post so after the giraffe house there is a seperate path that can take us to the lion and monkey habitats. First up is the lion habitat with 2 viewpoints, a water moat seperates the lions and guests

Opposite the lion viewing areas is the monkey habitat which is occupied by mandrills in the unmodded version. Signs note that vervet monkeys (or patas monkeys in real life) should be the animals featured here. A slightly lackluster habitat in its own, the view behind with the savanna habitat habitat makes this habitat much more appealing. Harsh sunlight in this area does detract viewing however

Returning to the main savanna trail path we can visit a small cave which has views of the lion habitat and warthog habitat, the closest lion viewing will be from here as the open viewpoints are rather far from habitat center

Moving on to the last habitat , the warthogs occupy a really nice habitat. Custom rock work and rock shelters for the warthogs adds a really nice barrier to the habitat. This habitat used to feature african wild dogs but these days muddy warthogs roam this habitat

 

[Captain Callum]

Woodland Park Zoo: Trail of Adaptations and Australasia

Another 2 sections of the zoo that are fairly lackluster and dont match the quality of immersive habitat design that has been seen in the bigger habitat areas. Both are located between the tropical asia areas and northwest trail in the north of the zoo. I would argue that the only worthwhile habitat in this area is the snow leopard habitat which is fairly natural enough.

Trail of Adaptations:

A rather misleading name considering this is not a trail of any sort but rather a long building holding several habitats, all indoor habitats are of course not fun to build and lighting at times can be hard to make realistic in any degree. So lets introduce everyone to the adaptations builidng:

As we can see, its not that appealing just a large brick building with the lowest possible effort entrance. The aviary we can see to the right is a kea aviary which is cool enough new zealand gets some representation. Although it could be part of the australasia section just behind rather than part of the adaptations building.

Entering the building we come across 2 small indoor meerkat habitats, i mean really? is it that hard to make an outdoor meerkat enclosure. Minus the staff door the habitats are pretty much true to life size which only features 3 meerkats per habitat. At least the use of custom media panels makes the indoor habitats lively enough

We miss adding a red rumped agouti habitat simply because i out of room to accomodate space for the upcoming habitats, no ingame animals suitable to replace the agouti anyways so no loss. However lets look at the next habitat, an indoor tortoise habitat is more appealing than tiny meerkat rooms. I got some small sized aldabra tortoises in here to work as some tiny looking tortoises. Could be greek or similar tortoises in real life.

Next up is a jungle themed fruit bat exhibit, this is a creative design by me to liven up the exhibit rather than following the rather bland room that flying foxes are in.

The next 2 habitats take up half of the entire building, these are the komodo dragons, sadly we only have one dragon per habitat so it can be challenge at times trying to find them.

Australasia:

Heading outside again we find ourselves in a small habitat area that is based around the australasian animals however we have one outlier here - a snow leopard. I have no idea why a snow leopard is in an australasia section but its a nice habitat for them so whos to argue

Next to the snow leopard habitat is a small kookaburra aviary, i did not have enough room to add in the lorikeet building but they are unlisted from the website so i dont even know if that building is still open.

And the last habitat to look at todat is an outback themed habitat. A decent sized grass yard for some emu and red necked wallaby finishes off the australasia zone

 

[FoxyDee]

Great enclosures, look very realistic!

I love the Komodo Dragon enclosure, I wanted to build something similar but they need to much space outside of sandbox.

 

[Captain Callum]

Great enclosures, look very realistic!

I love the Komodo Dragon enclosure, I wanted to build something similar but they need to much space outside of sandbox.

Thanks! The Komodo dragons enclosures were about 400m2 each as I had 2 of these side by side, one could be able to remove the middle wall and have one large enclosure with the 2 dragons together. But yeah I get what you mean, the space requirements of the Komodo dragon is ridiculous

 

[Captain Callum]

Woodland Park Zoo: Northwest Trail part 1

A 2 part post will look at the new exciting addition to the zoo. The northwest trail is considered to be one of the finer parts of the woodland park zoo which is full of immersive habitats from the northern parts of north america , afterall it is themed on the alaskan wilderness. This part of the zoo is solely the reason why i built this zoo after seeing a wonderful picture of the grizzly bear habitat.
If anyone is wondering at this point, yes performance is subpar maxing out at a lovely 23fps as the zoo approaches 50 habitats. Right now with the completion of the northwest trail , the zoo features 45 habitats equally about 90,000m2 in total. The zoo will be finished with 51 habitats as the tropical asia zone will generally have quite a few smaller habitats like siamangs and babirusa.

Lets start at the entrance to the trail, we have just left the australasia zone and just across the main path is this entrance. As we can already see, tall north american fir and pine trees line the path

The first habitat we come across are some arctic wolves, now the zoo describes these as generic gray wolves that have white coats. Whether these are gray wolves or arctic wolves, heres some white wolves . We get a first look at what the style of habitat design the northwest trail offers. Typically a dry moat with a mesh fence blocking the animals from climbing up - this provides us with a clear naturalistic view of the animals. Whats in the background though?

Thats right! The elk meadow is right behind the wolf habitat providing both a wonderful view for the guests and enrichment for the wolves who get to look at some tasty animals behind a barrier of course. The elk meadow is being occupied by red deer right now, similar enough to the american elk. Notice the barrier here is located below the main sightline of the zoo guests. This is how immersive habitat design works by adding a barrier into a ditch

Just past the wolves is a new habitat for lynx, i have no idea how accurate this habitat even is because i only had one reference picture from zoochat to work with. Can anyone spot the lynx? they love to blend with the foliage. Due to the size of habitat needed for the lynx, i did lose the snowy owl aviary but it wasnt anything that special

Reaching the end of the top part of the trail we reach the first viewing area for the best grizzly bear habitat i have seen. A step into the alaskan wilderness allows us to see a pair of bears wander through a meadow with even a running water stream leading into the large pool below. There used to be old style wood fences here but newer modern fences have been added for whatever reason, the old ones added a much needed charm to the trail

The first viewpoint is located at the top of the trail so lets go down to explore the rest. The right path is the path we came on with the wolves.

The second viewpoint for the bear habitat greets us with a wide view of the full habitat. We can now see the water stream and rockwork, the taiga forest in the background and even the first views of the mountain goat habitat in the far right. A enrichment feeder is located at the bottom of the broken tree to allow guests to easily see the bears nice and active

To get an even closer look at the bears, lets enter the river house. The river house is a low level building which provides us with underwater views of 2 habitats

The first habitat of course is the final viewing area for the grizzly bears and the best view of the habitat personally

Watch the bears swim right in front of you

 

[Captain Callum]

Woodland Park Zoo: Northwest Trail part 2

In the same river house building the other side features the only viewing area for river otters. Of course asian small clawed otters occupy the habitat. Right behind is the mountain goat habitat with a much clearer view of the climbing rocks and the animals themselves unlike the grizzly bear habitat. A ditch hides a 2 metre mesh barrier to stop the otters getting comfy with the goats

Lets exit the river house and join onto a boardwalk which will bring us closer to the next habitat

As expected the mountain goat (dall sheep) is right in our faces, the rocks allow the dall sheep to climb up high above us as to mimic the natural environement of the high alpine peaks that mountain goats and dall sheep can be found. Due to the easy slope for the sheep to climb, keepers also have access to the top of the rocks allowing for food to be placed here. This allows guests to see the sheep often climbing around the rocks as they search for food.

The boardwalk winds around the slight curve of the habitat giving guests some great views of this habitat

After the mountain goat habitat we reach a long aviary building. This contains the stellar sea eagle which isnt actually native to north america but can be found in the far western alaskan islands. I guess this is due to the lack of rescued bald eagles for the zoo considering 1980-90 documents can be found describing this as an immersive bald eagle aviary

Inside the aviary we can find a single stellar sea eagle in one of the trees

Exiting the aviary we reach the final stretch of the northwest trail. The boardwalk ends at a viewpoint for the elk meadow which is fairly impressive. A 13,000m2 (downsized from 20,000) contains a herd of elk with one male for realism purposes. Im not actually sure what the ratio is in real life

 

[wowman]

looks detailed and very life-like. Love it