Zootourism.com review: Zoo Boise 355 Julia Davis Drive Boise, ID 83702 United States 208-384-4260 http://www.cityofboise.org/parks/zoo/The Boise zoo sits somewhere in the middle of the class as zoos go, with the modern layout of a large-scale urban zoo but the animal collection of a smaller regional one. The zoo has just added an African section, adding to the existing zebras. A lot of what makes this zoo work though isn’t the big animals – indeed, they’ve got tigers, bighorn sheep, and llamas, but it’s the smaller animals and the less-noticed ones that get better attention here. Near the entrance, a small primate house shows off a collection of smaller apes and monkeys alike. Directly across from the primates, a larger series of enclosures shows off the birds – a few more local ones fill the bulk, but some Andean condors really steal the show as they spread their massive wings to sun. A collection of small cats sits nearby ranging from local bobcats to more exotic snow leopards, though the weather conditions will affect the enjoyment a bit here - at the time of our visit every cat was asleep in the midday sun. A rainforest exhibit serves as the foundation of a new emphasis on amphibians and as an anchor for the eastern wing of the zoo, which oddly enough also includes the penguins and some North African animals. The Asian wing includes some relative rarities such as the sloth bear and the red panda, and the “Small Animal Kingdom” finishes out the zoo, with an excellent home for a whole series of animals related only by their diminutive size – lemurs, a meerkat colony, geckos, etc. The zoo is very small at the moment, but the enclosures are fairly nice, mixing naturalistic habitat with viewing conditions such that almost all animals can be both happy and visible at the same time. | |
