The Topeka Zoo (formally the Topeka Zoological Park) is a medium-sized zoo in Topeka, Kansas in the United States. It is located within Gage Park, just off I-70 in the north central portion of the city. Despite its size, it houses over 300 animals in a number of exhibits, including one of the first indoor tropical rain forests in the United States. It is one of the most popular attractions in Topeka, with over 250,000 visitors a year.
The Topeka Zoo is an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).
History
The Gage Family donated to the city of Topeka in 1899 to use for a public park. Over the years, the park has accumulated playgrounds, a swimming pool, a fishing lake, a mini train, a rose garden, and a carousel.
The zoo was opened in the park in 1933. Additional exhibits were constructed over the years, and in 1963 the city hired its first zoo director, Gary K. Clarke. The first major facility at the zoo was constructed in 1966 to house large mammals. Clarke went on to get many of the current exhibits constructed, including Gorilla Encounter (1985), the temporary Koala Exhibit (1986), Lions Pride (1989), the Tropical Rainforest, and Discovering Apes.
The zoo lost its accreditation with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums in 2001, due to mismanagement, poor conditions for some of the animals being exhibited, and the deaths of several animals. In 2003, after a major overhaul of the zoo and the addition of several new exhibits, the Topeka Zoo regained its accreditation.
In 2011, the City hired a new zoo director by the name of Brendan Wiley. After this hire, the general demeanor of the citizens toward the zoo has been more positive.
Exhibits
Kansas Carnivores
Kansas Carnivores, opened in 2009, features cougars and river otters in side-by-side exhibits.
Hill's Black Bear Woods
Hill's Black Bear Woods was built in 1997, and features animals from North America. Units house Virginia opossum, eastern screech owl, and red-tailed hawk. Living in tall flight pens are golden eagles and eagle-owls. An exhibit nearby is home to pronghorns and wild turkeys, and another exhibit for striped skunks. Four American black bears live in a spacious enclosure with trees to climb. They can be viewed from an elevated walkway, or a ground level window.
Waterbird Lagoon
Waterbird Lagoon features three ponds. Waterfowl such as trumpeter swans live in these ponds. Many wild waterfowl visit these ponds such as mallard ducks, wood ducks, and herons.
Jungle Cats
The Jungle Cats exhibit features rare Sumatran tigers in thickly planted, side-by-side exhibits (one was previously home to a black-coated leopard). Both yards have water features. 3 Sumatran tigers cubs were born in May 2014.
Tropical Rainforest
The Tropical Rainforest was the first indoor rainforest exhibit in the United States. Birds, such as scarlet macaws, Bali mynah, roseate spoonbills, and scarlet ibis, are free roaming, as well as Hoffmann's two-toed sloths, and Indian flying foxes. Individual exhibits house golden lion tamarins, three-banded armadillos, Cuvier's dwarf caimans, yellow-spotted river turtle, red-footed tortoises, and greater mouse-deer.
Animals and Man
The Animals and Man building features exhibits for small animals, such as black-and-white ruffed lemurs and Cape porcupines. This building also serves as the indoor house for the zoo's hippopotamus, African and Asian elephants, and reticulated giraffes. They all have large outdoor yards, and the giraffes share theirs with East African crowned cranes.
Camp Cowabunga
Formerly Lion's Pride, this exhibit has three lions in a spacious exhibit, painted dogs in an adjoining yard, and patas monkeys in an exhibit spanning the entrance to Camp Cowabunga, mixed with Kirk's dik-dik, African spurred tortoises, and helmeted guineafowl. The main feature is a central plaza where guests can view various artefacts from Africa, sit in a canoe used in the Zambezi, and view the animals from safari tents. In the future, this area will feature a viewing area into a couple of exhibits for giraffes, ostriches, crowned cranes, and species of antelopes.
Lianas Forest
In the Lianas Forest (formerly Discovering Apes) building, Bornean orangutans live behind glass in an enclosure replicating the treetops in Borneo. They also have a spacious outdoor yard, meant to emulate Camp Leakey. The Treetop Conservation Center is now part of the building. A tunnel leads visitors through an outdoor enclosure which now houses Malayan sun bears that once housed western lowland gorillas.