Zoo Boise, Idaho: More than Lions, Tigers and Bears
There are bigger zoos than Zoo Boise, Idaho, but few with such a rich concentration of creatures for kids and parents alike to admire and ogle. Zoo Boise, Idaho, is all about getting up close and personal with the animals; and it’s an impressive collection of animals that pack the 11 acres in Julia Davis Park.
More than just the usual cast of creatures that you’ll find at other mid-sized zoos, Zoo Boise features the unusual, too. It’s one of only six U.S. zoos with a striped hyena, for example, and also one of six with a giant elephant shrew. The sloth bear (with its own hammock), Asian bearcat, six meerkats (think Timon), gator-sized komodo dragon, red pandas and 90-year-old desert tortoise are also eclectic favorites.
Don’t worry that you won’t see the animals kids come to expect from a zoo, though. The African Plains exhibit opened in 2008, bringing the big African mammals to Boise. Primates are seen on a lagoon ride ($1) from a solar-powered pontoon boat. And the newest exhibit (May 2011) spotlights South American species—giant anteaters, maned wolves and rheas—plus the return of the butterfly house, absent for three years.
In deference to Boise’s climate, you can see and do almost everything at this zoo year-round, thanks to numerous indoor and sheltered areas. Lion viewing and the cafes are both indoors and out. The giraffes can be seen inside their barn in the winter. And the rainforest building is kept at 80 degrees all year, which delights the spider monkeys.
Interactivity is big at Zoo Boise. Zookeeper talks (sometimes with feedings) happen twice a day. Kids can feed the giraffes ($3) daily at 10:15 a.m.; walk with wallabies and kookaburras in the new Wallaby Walkabout; crawl through tunnels to pop their heads up in skylights on the prairie dog mound; and feed goats and llamas in the petting zoo.
All these attractions make Zoo Boise the state’s second-most visited attraction (behind Craters of the Moon National Monument). The zoo raises about $200,000 per year (50 cents of every admission) for conservation efforts.
HelloBoise Tip: Every Thursday is Family Day, with admission dropping to $4.25 for adults and $3 for kids (ages 4 to 11).
Posted on May 13, 2011 by Bob Cooper
