But wait, there's more. Underneath these desert biomes is an intricately designed
subterranean world of faux caves with all the geological features of caverns
and lots of animals from bats, to blind cave fish to insects to reptiles to
amphibians who call such places home. This area was amazing and wonderful. Because my camera was not able to
capture it, I am using a photo found on the Internet.
This eventually opens up into spaces that mimic nocturnal
worlds, and here's were the shine starts to leave the gem. Even nocturnal worlds have natural
light. They have fresh air. Underground, these habitats fail to
include live flora, and they feel confining in a way that maintaining say a
Philippine Crocodile in an external habitat doesn't.
Eventually, you arrive at a huge underground Bayou exhibit with a maze of
wooden boardwalks to traverse that lead you around a series of fake islands and
copious pools of water where a variety of animals reside. Animals as diverse as Nutria and
American Alligators, American Beavers and Bullfrogs live, all shrouded in
darkness and fake flora. As much
as I loved this zoo, and as amazing as the concept for this structure is--I
totally HATED it. It failed on so
many levels and most importantly the quality of life provided to the
animals. Because my camera was not
able to capture it, I am using another photo found on the Internet. And this is a very good proximation of dark and dank environment. The animals live in a cold, dark, concrete world. In a nutshell: Cave-GOOD, Bayou-BAD.
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