Zoo Plays Misty for You With New Rain Forest

The San Diego Zoo on Saturday will open the long-awaited Tiger River exhibit, a simulated Asian rain forest that displays animals and plants from the same climate zones together.

Traditionally, animals are displayed in clusters, with birds of all climates and continents together. Under a new approach in the zoo’s master plan, 10 divisions grouping animals and plants by climate will be created over the next 10 to 15 years.

The $6-million Tiger River: Kroc Family Tropical Rain Forest is named after San Diego Padres owner Joan Kroc, who contributed $3.3 million to the project in 1985. It is the second and most ambitious project in the master plan.

The $1-million African Rock Kopje Island, a simulation of an African plain, was the first project completed under the plan in July, 1986, and won awards for best new exhibit and best education presentation from the American Assn. of Zoological Parks and Aquariums in 1987.

Built over two years, Tiger River, through the use of plants, animals, waterfalls and a sophisticated computer fogging system that uses 300 nozzles to produce a fine mist, will create the feeling of being in a real rain forest, San Diego Zoo spokesman Jeff Jouett said.

Sights, Smells of Rain Forest

“There is 100 to 400 inches of rainfall in a rain forest annually. The visitor will be able to feel the mist as if they were in a rain forest without getting wet,” Jouett said.

Walking down its winding pathways--which resemble a dried-out riverbed with exposed tree roots--visitors will be greeted by the sights, sounds and smells of a rain forest.

Visitors will enter Tiger River at the top of a steep canyon and wander down a mist-shrouded path cut into a 50-foot-high mud cliff and framed by hundreds of plants and trees. There, they will find themselves amid a world stocked with 100 animals of 35 species, including tigers, crocodiles and pythons. The simulated rain forest also contains 5,000 exotic plants of 400 species, such as orchid trees, jasmine vines and ginger lilies.

The exhibit will have educational graphics as well as a machine that visitors can use to reproduce the different sounds of a tiger, Jouett said.

Visitors to the unique, 3-acre exhibit will first view numerous species of exotic flowers and plants before they come upon any animals.

“The plants and flowers are just as important to the exhibit as the animals are,” Jouett said. “They help create the feeling of a rain forest. Because of the climate here in San Diego, we have been able to bring in plants from all over the world.”

Planning for Tiger River spanned more than three years and involved more than 100 staff members and consultants.

It will take more than 10 years to complete the $100-million zoo renovation. The plan calls for the replacement of outdated exhibits, many of which have stood since the 1920s and 1930s, Jouett said.

“The zoo has a great reputation, but it has started to show its age,” Jouett said. “The zoo has long been in need of renovation. Hopefully, we can continue to modernize it so that it can maintain its leading edge in the zoo world.”

Former Cascade Canyon Site

The new rain forest occupies the former site of Cascade Canyon, which had included exhibits of the tapir, African antelope and numerous bird species.

The next area of the zoo to be redesigned will be the bottom half of Bear Canyon, which will become a tropical forest, starting at the end of the summer tourist season, Jouett said.

The completion of Tiger River represents the beginning of a new era in the way animals will be exhibited at zoos in the future, Jouett said.

Grouping mammals, birds, reptiles and plants from the same climate zones together is a new concept in San Diego Zoo display. Like most zoos, the San Diego Zoo has exhibited animals in taxonomic clusters--birds from all climates and continents in the bird yard, reptiles in the reptile house, monkeys from Africa next to monkeys from Asia next to monkeys from South America, and so forth, Jouett said.

Now, visitors will be able to see the animals intermingling in something much closer to their natural habitat.