The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo is a zoo in Cleveland, Ohio. The Zoo is divided into several areas: Australian Adventure; African Savanna; Northern Wilderness Trek, The Primate, Cat & Aquatics Building, Waterfowl Lake, The RainForest, Asian Highlands, and the newly added Susie's Bear Hollow. Cleveland Metroparks Zoo has one of the largest collections of primates in North America. The Zoo is a part of the Cleveland Metroparks system.
The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo (CMZ) was founded in 1882. It is one of the most popular year-round attractions in Northeast Ohio with an attendance of 1.32 million in 2023.
History
The Zoo, originally named the Cleveland Zoological Park, first opened in 1882 at Wade Park where the Cleveland Museum of Art now stands. During its early years, the Zoo only held animals of local origin. In 1907, the city of Cleveland moved the Zoo to its current location in Old Brooklyn, and the Zoo acquired its first elephant. The park was informally known (and referred to) as Brookside Zoo for many years. Beginning in 1910, the Zoo constructed Monkey Island, sea lion pools, and a moated bear exhibit. By 1940, the Zoo was home to three elephants and its first (permanent) elephant resident since 1924. That same year, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History assumed control of the Zoo.
Between 1955 and the transfer of management to the Cleveland Metroparks in 1975, the Zoo experienced rapid expansion despite setbacks due to flooding: the Zoo's reptile collection and several other buildings were lost when Big Creek overflowed in January 1959. Although the Zoo had recovered by 1962, it would not have another permanent reptile collection until the opening of the RainForest thirty years later. Ostrich races proved popular in 1965 and 1966 and a large public swimming pool sat on the grounds from 1930 until the 1960s.
Construction began on the Primate & Cat Building in 1975 (the Aquatics section would be added in 1985), later followed by the RainForest in 1992, Wolf Wilderness in 1997, Australian Adventure in 2000, and the Sarah Allison Steffee Center for Zoological Medicine in 2004. Newer exhibits include the Asian highlands and Tiger Passage opened in 2017 and 2018, and The Rhino Reserve was completed in 2020.
The Zoo's official website states that it currently has 3,000 animal residents representing more than 600 different species.
Development history
The following is a timeline of the creation of selected buildings, structures, exhibits and attractions: 1882: Cleveland Zoological Park opens at Wade Park (now University Circle) 1884: Wade Hall is built 1907: Cleveland's City Council moves the Zoo to its current location; the Cleveland Museum of Art is built 1934: Monkey Island is completed 1956: Pachyderm Building is built 1970: Wade Hall is moved to its current location on the shore of Waterfowl Lake 1975: Construction began on the Primate & Cat Building 1985: Aquatics portion of the Primate & Cat Building is added 1992: The RainForest is completed 1997: Wolf Wilderness is completed 2000: Australian Adventure is completed 2004: Sarah Allison Steffee Center for Zoological Medicine opens 2008: Pachyderm building closes to make room for African Elephant Crossing 2011: African Elephant Crossing opensAfrican Elephant Crossing, 2015: Ben Gogolick Giraffe Encounter opens 2016: Rosebrough Tiger Passage opens 2018: Asian Highlands opens 2019: Monkey Island is demolished to make way for Rhino Reserve 2020: Rhino Reserve opens 2021: Eagle Zip Adventure opens 2023: Susie's Bear Hollow opens 2024: The RainForest closes to make way for Primate Forest.
Emeritus directors and staff Leonard Goss (1913–1999) was a veterinary pathologist and retired from the Cleveland Zoo (later renamed the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo) as its director in 1979. Goss conducted clinical, epidemiological and pathological research in collaboration with eminent field zoologist George Schaller.
Inspired by the TV show Zoorama, zoo director-emeritus Steve H. Taylor, began his zoo career in 1972 as an animal keeper at the Los Angeles Zoo. According to his website, he is now a "Zoo Consultant and Entertaining Speaker". Taylor resigned as director of the zoo in Sacramento to accept the directorship of the zoo in Cleveland. In his memoirs, published in a newsletter, Taylor described the CMZ to be poorly managed and "undistinguished" when he assumed the position as its 9th director. He credits himself for improving the conditions for both animals and staff over his 24-year career in Cleveland.
Dan Moreno joined the CMZ after serving three decades at the helm of the Cleveland Aquarium as both its director and curator under the auspices of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Until his retirement in 1997, Moreno managed the aquatic animal collections at the Cleveland Zoo under General Curator Don Kuenzer. He supervised animal husbandry programs for the Rainforest and Aquatics exhibits.
Don Kuenzer retired after a 40-year career serving in multiple capacities, including senior curator, general curator and acting director. In 1961, Kuenzer began his career at the Cleveland Zoo's Petting Farm as an attendant animal care technician. After serving as an animal keeper, he was promoted to Assistant General Curator in 1975 by zoo director Goss. Kuenzer was credited with designing The Rainforest, a state-of-the art indoor naturalistic living exhibit dedicated to the display of tropical and subtropical species from multiple continents.
Exhibits
The Cleveland Metroparks Zoo (CMZ) is divided into several bio-thematic areas that house animals from different regions of the world. Each area is themed for the particular region of the world they represent, although the older areas (such as the Primate, Cat & Aquatics Building) are less thematic than those that were constructed more recently. Upon entering, visitors arrive in the Welcome Plaza which features administrative buildings, an amphitheater, food court, and the Zoo's largest souvenir shop. Numerous smaller concession/souvenir stands are located throughout the park.
Aside from walking, Zoo patrons may opt to ride the "ZooTram" line which shuttles visitors between the Welcome Plaza (near African Elephant Crossing) and the Primate, Cat & Aquatics Building.
The RainForest The RainForest, opened in 1992, is one of the most popular exhibits at the CMZ. It is contained in a large, two-story building with over of floor space, making it one of the largest indoor tropical environments in the world. The RainForest boasts more than 10,000 plants, and over 600 animals, from the tropical regions of Australasia, Africa, and the Americas. The opening of the RainForest also introduced the Metroparks Zoo's first permanent reptile collection since the flooding in 1959. The RainForest's herpetile collection includes Amazon milk frogs and tree boas, Baron's green racers, Burmese pythons, climbing toads, dwarf crocodiles, Fiji banded iguanas, green-and-black, blue-and-black and 'Mint Terribilis' poison dart frogs, green tree monitors and pythons, harlequin frogs, Indian gharial, Indochinese box turtles, Madagascar leaf-tailed geckos, magnificent tree frogs, spider tortoise, Panamanian golden frogs, prehensile-tailed skinks, the aquatic tentacled snake, tiger ratsnakes, tomato frogs and Yemeni veiled chameleons.
The RainForest is housed in a large glass and granite building, just outside the main entrance to the Zoo. The structure is divided into an outer ring—featuring an assortment of tropical plants, exhibits containing small mammals, a cafeteria, and a gift shop—and an inner area that contains the principal animal exhibits. Animal habitats are located on both floors of the RainForest. The exhibits contained on the ground floor are collectively known as the "Lower Forest", and those on the second floor are known as the "Upper Forest".
Upon entering the RainForest, visitors are immediately greeted by a cascading, waterfall and a rush of hot, humid air, as the entire complex is heated year-round to an ambient 80 °F (27 °C). All around the waterfall is a lush, tropical garden of epiphyte and lithophyte plants, growing vertically, rooted to the different trees and rock wall; botanical species here include various types of bromeliads, aroids, and orchids. The entire garden display grows steadily towards the sun, soaring upwards of two stories. The walls behind the waterfall resemble Ancient Mayan temple ruins; as visitors walk around the water feature, exhibited creatively within the walls are a series of (geographically appropriate) diminutive New World monkeys, including the pied tamarin, Geoffroy's tamarin, white-headed marmoset and the endangered golden lion tamarin.The RainForest,
The outer ring of The RainForest is home to a wide variety of tropical plants including lancepods, ficus, Dracaena, philodendron, prayer plants, Clusia (or balsam apple), Indian-almond, bixa/achiote (or lipstick trees), numerous varieties of orchids, a kapok tree (Malvaceae family), and the annual-blooming Titan arum (corpse flower). The central "Tropical Rain Storm" exhibit is a life-like recreation of a rainforest "island", with a large tree in the center, surrounded almost entirely by a moat stocked with tinfoil barb and pangasius catfish. The island itself is inhabited by several Cape porcupine. Several times daily (seasonally-dependent), a simulated tropical thunderstorm occurs; darkened ambience, flashing "lightning" and rumbling thunder sound effects signal the several-minutes-long event's commencement. Above the moat and encircling the island, a vertical "wall" of water provides visitors a glimpse of a tropical downpour, with water streaming down into the river below. After the "storm" passes, a sense of tranquility is created as fog fills the entire exhibit.
The core animals of The Rainforest are the Bornean orangutans, of which the zoo has five: males Tiram and Zaki, and females Kera Wak, Kayla, and Merah. Zaki is the most recent orangutan baby at the zoo, born in 2021 to Tiram and Kera Wak.
Animals contained in the RainForest include the binturong, red-rumped agouti, a large group of free-flying straw-coloured fruit bats and Rodrigues flying foxes, the giant anteater, a group of capybara, scarlet ibis, the prehensile-tailed Brazilian porcupine, white-faced whistling ducks, green aracari, Prevost's squirrel, leafcutter ants, ocelot, clouded leopard, Luzon bleeding-heart pigeons, roseate spoonbill, yellow-spotted river turtles, Asian small-clawed otter, François' langur, and fishing cats. Additionally, visitors will encounter numerous smaller, "discovery"-type exhibits featuring tropical invertebrates, Australian rainbowfish, upside-down catfish, jewel cichlids, red-bellied piranha, small mammals, and many reptiles and amphibians.
In 2024, CMZ announced that it will permanently close the RainForest on September 9, 2024. The area will be remodeled and expanded to create a new, 140,000 square foot "Primate Forest" that will serve as a multi-story habitat for gorillas and orangutans. The new Primate Forest, which zoo officials described as a "world-class indoor destination", is scheduled to open in 2026.
African Savanna The African Savanna area is located near the park entrance. Visitors can observe African lions, flamingos, giraffes, zebras, bontebok, a variety of African birds, and eastern black rhinos. the African elephant crossing contains elephants and meerkats. On February 7, 2018, a baby rhino, named Lulu, was born to parents Forrest and Kibbibi. On August 20 of the same year, another baby rhino, named Nia, was born to parents Forrest and Inge.
The Sarah Allison Steffee Center for Zoological Medicine