Category — Cats

Cat Canyon construction is coming along nicely. I got the chance to check out the site yesterday afternoon. It helps to be able to visualize where we will be able to place our interpretive elements, e.g. signs, interactives. We wrapped up the design and layout of the signage this week and will be sending that out to production very soon. Now the interpretive team will move on to tweaking some of the interactives planned for the tiger exhibit and planning out the audio elements. I also need to put together an interpretive guide for our staff and volunteers, which provides background information they need to be able to talk to visitors about the cats and the exhibit. Our Education Department is putting together the curriculum for programs and classes, including summer camp, that will incorporate the new exhibit, too. It’s all coming together and we’re getting very excited to be able to showcase tigers and snow leopards again by the end of June!

Twigs snap. Leaves rustle. You get a prickly feeling on the back of your neck as you wonder whether someone, or something, is watching you, stalking you, hunting you. It’s an eat-or-be-eaten world and, in the Cincinnati Zoo’s new Cat Canyon exhibit opening next summer, you are the prey.

A fishing cat crouches in its Night Hunters exhibit. (Photo: Brian Jorg)

Cat Canyon will encompass and link up the new Night Hunters experience (opened in May 2011) with the former Tiger Canyon area and include new exhibits for cougars, tigers, and snow leopards. (The cougar exhibit actually opened already.) Cat Canyon provides an exciting, sensory adventure into the world of our great predators, the wild cats, while strengthening the Zoo’s commitment to the conservation of threatened species through education and scientific research in the wild and at the Zoo. [Read more →]

We’ve been collecting some great feedback from those of you who have experienced the new Night Hunters exhibit. Thanks to all who have shared their thoughts and advice via Facebook, blog comments, exit surveys, and so on. It is much appreciated and greatly helps us in being able to provide the best experience possible.

One of the major concerns that visitors have expressed is that it’s too dark. Yes, it is a nocturnal exhibit, but we certainly don’t want people stubbing their toes or losing their loved ones! We’ve added in more of the twilight blue lighting along the front hallway recently that should help with that. We’ve also added a bit more light to some of the darker exhibits such as the potto and Burmese python. [Read more →]