Nouveau Zoo : Cages Give Way to Open Habitats Where Visitors, Animals Mingle

Step inside the door and even the air feels different. It’s warm, humid, what you might imagine the air feels like along the Amazon.

Splashes of color can be seen in the verdant trees above--exotic pink birds, crimson birds, straight from the pages of National Geographic.

A waterfall’s murmur obscures the roar of the Santa Ana Freeway, and glossy leaves almost blot out the Xerox office tower nearby. And only when you stare up at the sky do you realize that this whole lush world is enclosed in nylon netting, a huge pod of South American habitat skillfully re-created at the Santa Ana Zoo.

This is a sample of the new world of zoos, where the bars are coming down and people walk right into the exhibits to mingle with the animals.

“Habitat immersion,” they call it. It’s part of the environmental consciousness sweeping zoos nationwide, including the two zoos in Orange County.

Old-fashioned, barren cages stinking of disinfectant are out. Ample vegetation and wide-open display areas are in.

Even as the new 9,000-square-foot “Colors of the Amazon” aviary entices visitors at the Santa Ana Zoo, the nearby Orange County Zoo hopes to erect an even grander aviary: a massive space for Southern California birds with a pond, two islands, a dock and even a fog machine to add to the ambience of “Pelican Landing.”

The spirit is part Sierra Club, part Disney.

As zoos gear up for the next century, they must appeal to a public that’s more environmentally aware, sensitive to animal rights issues and accustomed to sophisticated theme parks like Disneyland and Universal Studios.

So zoos are presenting themselves as conservationist, humane--and, at the same time, almost glitzy.

For small zoos like the two in Orange County, the challenge is even greater as they juggle to position themselves between two Goliaths: the world-famous San Diego Zoo to the south, and the Los Angeles Zoo to the north.

Like many small zoos nationwide, they have found niches of their own.

The city-owned Santa Ana Zoo is transforming itself into an exhibit space for animals from South America, while the county-owned Orange County Zoo is building on its specialty of native Southwestern wildlife.

It’s a far cry from the traditional notion of a zoo populated by lions, elephants, rhinoceroses--the so-called “charismatic megavertebrates” that still can be seen just down the coast in San Diego, where the 100-acre zoo has a whopping annual attendance of 3 million and a collection of 4,000 animals.

Boosters of Orange County’s zoos think they can succeed sans elephants.

“We do not compete with the San Diego Zoo. We don’t have their space. We don’t have their money,” said Connie Sweet, general curator at the 230-animal Santa Ana Zoo, which she thinks actually benefits from its smallness. People like the intimacy, the convenience, she says: “You can spend only half a day, and not go home broke.”

The formula seems to be working.

Both zoos report a steady rise in annual attendance, each drawing about 260,000 in 1991 and a projected 300,000 this year.

And at the Orange County Zoo, which was forced to start charging $1 admission this year (on top of regular park entry fees), the visitor count has still soared following the February arrival of Samson the Bear, the much-publicized, hot-tub loving black bear from the San Gabriel Valley.

Not only has Samson brought new cachet and visibility to the county zoo--which now sells Samson T-shirts and Samson hats--but he appears to have added to the inevitable confusion of which zoo is which.

Despite its South American motif, the Santa Ana Zoo still gets inquiries about Samson.

“We had a number of people come here and say, ‘Where’s the bear?’ ” said Santa Ana Zoo Manager Ron Glazier.

Yet in many ways, Samson symbolizes the mission of the other zoo, the smaller 120-animal Orange County Zoo, tucked away in Irvine Regional Park just east of Orange.

Many of its animals have been snatched from possible extermination. Samson, for instance, was scheduled to be put to death until being saved by public outcry.

One of the zoo’s six brown pelicans is a survivor of the 1990 Huntington Beach oil spill. Also residing here are two of the so-called “freeway foxes”--rescued in 1991 from alongside a new extension of the Costa Mesa Freeway--and a graceful mountain lion discovered and rescued after its mother was shot.

The zoo underscores its role in educating the public about native wildlife--a role shared by other facilities around the country, such as the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Natural habitats, and waterfalls, are rampant. Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo just completed its $8-million “Trail of Vines,” in which visitors on an elevated boardwalk can watch orangutans at treetop level. Bars and netting are largely absent.

And three years ago, the fabled Bronx Zoo announced it was changing its name to the Bronx Zoo/International Wildlife Conservation Park to better reflect its preservation goals.

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Such politically correct missions are far afield from the old-style “menagerie” image of zoos that has drawn so much fire from animal-rights groups.

That movement’s most prominent victory--or victim--is in Vancouver, Canada, where voters in 1993 voted to shut down the Stanley Park Zoo following a campaign decrying the practice of putting animals on display.

Southern California’s own dark hour in zoo history came in 1992, when a 5-ton elephant named Hannibal died in a shipping crate at the Los Angeles Zoo during a failed effort to move the animal to Mexico. Hannibal was sedated and led into the crate, where he dropped to his knees and later died.

Animal rights activists denounced his treatment and called for the Los Angeles Zoo’s closing.

Today, zoos nationwide face unprecedented scrutiny from groups such as the Norfolk, Va.-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, where spokeswoman Lisa Lange takes the talk of the “new zoo” with a grain of salt.

“They’re coming along in terms of making zoos look better, but in many cases they’re only cosmetic changes,” Lange said.

Even so, while PETA opposes animal captivity in general, Lange said, “We appreciate the steps individual zoos might take to improve the life of an animal.”

(PETA reports that it has no complaints on file about either the Santa Ana Zoo or the Orange County Zoo. Both zoos are considered in good standing with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Division of Animal Care, which conducts periodic unannounced zoo visits, a USDA official said.)

In Santa Ana, manager Glazier defends the role of zoos in protecting animals and educating people about the need to preserve habitat.

“Most zoo professionals would think we’re animal activists,” he said.

And Forrest de Spain, director at the Orange County Zoo, said zoo critics have a watchdog role to play. “Some zoos look at animal rights groups as a foe, an adversary,” he said. “But there are some zoos that need a quick kick in the backside.”

Even the makeup of zoo staffs has changed from the days when they were run by civil servants who oversaw keepers with little training.

Now, many zoo workers have science degrees. De Spain has a bachelor’s degree in experimental psychology as well as a master’s degree in business administration. Glazier has a master’s degree in animal ecology and did further study in physiological ecology.

Both, as they stroll along winding paths through their respective zoos, proudly point out efforts to provide natural habitat for their animals.

De Spain pauses in front of the Samson exhibit, built entirely through donations. It features a pool, a waterfall and an expanse of grass where workers hide green grapes and vegetables so the bear can forage as he might in the wild.

“We’ll even float an avocado in the pool,” he said.

The waterfall not only adds sound and motion to Samson’s surroundings, but helps cool the air and curbs the noise of excited schoolchildren crowded at the exhibit fence, he noted.

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Farther down the path sits a half-completed aviary exhibit that will house golden eagles and bald eagles, side by side, against a striking natural backdrop of sun-burnished hills.

It, too, will feature a waterfall, although the zoo is still attempting to raise the $14,000 needed to build it.

The aviary is built of “phantom mesh,” a special fencing material that virtually disappears when visitors focus on the animals inside. More expensive than traditional chain link, it contributes to the perception of a zoo without bars.

Fencing, in fact, poses a dilemma for zoo designers.

“I hate chain-link fences,” said Santa Ana’s Glazier, who in 1991 took over management of a 1950s-style zoo full of chain-link cages. He has dismantled some cages and enlarged others, raising the roofs and adding vegetation and other features.

He’s done away with fencing altogether at Amazon’s Edge, using rock walls and a water moat to contain the monkeys and capybara, a large rodent.

And, like a number of other zoos, Santa Ana has moved away from displaying animals separately, like trophies in cases. More and more, it is mixing animals.

The rain forest conservation exhibit, for instance, features six species, from Hoffman’s two-toed sloth to iguanas. It sits alongside an exhibit of bare branches--”to show what we’re doing to the rain forest,” Glazier said.

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Animal Magnetism

Orange County’s two zoos, competing with glitzy theme parks and larger zoos both north and south, are changing their facilities to appeal to a more sophisticated public. Here’s a profile of the two attractions:

Orange County Zoo

Location: Irvine Regional Park, Orange

Specialty: Animals and plants of southwestern U.S., including California

Coming attraction: Golden eagle and bald eagle exhibit; hope to add prairie dog exhibit, bison and large aviary to include pond, islands, dock and fog machine

History: First animals displayed in 1905; formally opened in 1985 as Irvine Park Zoo, later renamed Orange County Zoo

Owner: County of Orange

Size: 120 animals, covering 37 species, on 8 acres (three developed); staff of eight

Annual budget: $350,000

Projected 1996 attendance: 300,000

Hours: 10 a.m.-3:45 p.m. daily; closed Dec. 25 and Jan. 1

Admission: $1 for those 6 and older; 5 and younger free

Information: (714) 633-2022

Santa Ana Zoo

Location: prentice park, santa ana

Specialty: Animals of South and Central America, other species

New display: “Colors of the Amazon” aviary

History: Opened in 1952; land donor J.E. Prentice specified facility must continue to provide a home for at least 50 monkeys

Owner: City of Santa Ana

Size: 230 animals, covering 95 species, on 20 acres (8 acres of exhibit space); 12 full-time, 15 part-time employees

Annual budget: $1 million

Projected 1996 attendance: 300,000

Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m., daily, Labor Day through Memorial Day; weekends until 6 p.m. from Memorial Day to Labor Day; closed Dec. 25 and Jan. 1

Admission: $3.50 for those 13 and older; $1.50 for children 3-12, seniors 61 and older; free for handicapped and those 2 and under

Information: (714) 835-7484, 836-4000

Sources: Santa Ana Zoo, Orange County Zoo