Sunday, April 6, 2014

Heart of Africa Opening Date

While there's been no official word from the Columbus Zoo, DublinLife magazine announced the Heart of Africa opening date as Thursday, May 1st, 2014. I myself was anticipating a Memorial Day weekend opening and after visiting today it looks like there is still a lot of work to do. We've heard the African lions will be moving into their new digs within two weeks. It's been rumored the old lion exhibit will be converted into a snow leopard exhibit. The Columbus Zoo currently keeps two snow leopards that are part of the Jack Hannah Promotion/Education Department. Look for them to acquire at least two more.

Fencing along the pedestrian path in North America between the Mexican Wolves and Bison/Pronghorn exhibits is being replaced. A couple of trees have been removed which has me wondering if they are going to expand the pathway by a few feet in anticipation of more foot traffic heading back towards Heart of Africa.

Last Columbus Zoo update I showed the location of the new tram station. Today, I found where the other station is going to be, just inside the old zoo entrance on the right. Pictured below is an overhead drawing of the location of the stations and the service road the trams will take. Honestly, if the wait is more than 5 minutes you might as well walk.

heart of africa opening date

A surprising new project underway is a large renovation on both front yards of the zoo's Pachyderm Building which are going to be used for black rhinos.
Black rhino area

And here's a short Vine video I took of the polar bears: