Fixing the KC Zoo (ongoing)

[dukuboy1]

I like to hear about these new improvements, and excited to know the zoo continues to add new exhibits and fill in all of the wonderful space they have for new development & exhibits. The aquarium makes sense in that it is an indoor major attraction that can do business in the cooler winter months. I recently took a weekend trip with the family to Omaha & went to the zoo. Their Zoo is awesome but they do have some very nice indoor exhibits to go along with the outdoor ones. The nice indoor stuff really serve the Zoo well when the weather is cold, hot, or rainy. KC would be wise to look at opportunities to create major attractions both indoor and outside as the look to the future.

[beautyfromashes]

I guess I wonder why the aquarium wasn’t added to the lagoon part of the zoo to make use of that natural feature.

[Major KC Fan]

Two good reasons:

The lagoon is in Africa and the aquarium is going to be an “all world” exhibit as I understand.

The former “Valley” area being developed ties in the Africa (elephants) section and the main original area of the zoo.

[flyingember]

One thing that's clear is the overall goal across many years is reducing walking distances to see animals.

The original way to walk to Africa was via the long way past the flamingos. The tram was very popular and people really didn't stop at the elephants. they used to have a tram stop and a food booth at the top of the bridge when Africa opened due to the distances

adding the polar bears in 2010 and the new orangutan stairs + exhibit off the path to Australia. this cut the distance to the Asian animals from the entrance

adding the pengiuns and sting rays before the barn from the entry and the exhibits built for the temporary koala exhibit.
the camel feeding station make it so seeing these animals didn't mean walking the long walk towards the sheep
the goats off the barn added something big from the lower exit

the restaurant cuts distances to the tropics house, you could eat lunch and to/from it. before the closest food booth to this spot was all the way back at the entrance building
The shortcut to Africa opened in ~2006 and now adding an aquarium plus the new tram stop at the spot

so the zoo is much denser in three directions from the entrance. There's still lots of space for new animals but it's a much better zoo today than even ten years ago.

[Major KC Fan]

I agree. All the steps mentioned have helped to tie the exhibits together, with more to come. Any chance we could rename this thread “Enhancing the KC Zoo”?

[Highlander]

One thing that's clear is the overall goal across many years is reducing walking distances to see animals.

The tram was very popular and people really didn't stop at the elephants. they used to have a tram stop and a food booth at the top of the bridge when Africa opened due to the distances

We usually walk to Africa and ride back so we can see the elephants along the way. One of the problems with the elephant exhibit is that it's entirely stand alone. One of the things the zoo is generally good at is creating places for small animals where some of the bigger attractions are. A good example of this is is the meerkats and all the smaller animal exhibits around the lion exhibit. It would have been nice had they included theses type of exhibits around the elephants so that one doesn't have to make a major effort just to see an elephant.

[flyingember]

Yeah, the African entry is the same way. You get there and one direction there's nothing until the other side of the lake and then there's two animals and a big gap.

The other direction the cheetas and warthogs are often out of sight, so there could be no visible animals until passing the bridge crossing.

The Lied Jungle is about 93,000 sq feet with paths around
Without moving any animals there's about 100,000 sq ft of space, give or take, at the African entry area

I would like to see all the current entry buildings removed and a major structure put in with a jungle exhibit. End the tram inside the building where you enter a tunnel and there's a giant glass walled jungle scene across from the line. Keep the boat house as is, but setup covered walkways with level access. Enclose the beginning of the sky safari so as you're going up you are above part of the jungle and you exit out over the water. There can be two big doors that can be closed and have gaps for the the cable in winter.

Setup a rooftop restaurant with views over the plains animals or a lower level interior view of the jungle