Up close and personal at Portland's zoo
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PORTLAND - With a world-class zoo at home in Seattle, why would anyone bother to go to Portland's zoo?
But during a family trip to Portland, my daughter wanted to visit the city's Oregon Zoo. It's smaller than Seattle's zoo, I grumbled in protest. It's raining. Why don't we go to a nice museum instead, I suggested.
The zoo, of course, won. And, during our half-day visit to the zoo, I was won over.
The right stuff
The Oregon Zoo is just 10 minutes from downtown Portland by car or MAX, the city's enviably efficient light-rail system, with an underground stop right by the zoo.
The zoo, which sits among the tall firs of the sprawling Washington Park, is significantly smaller than Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo. It has about 200 species of animals in exhibits spread over 64 acres compared to Seattle's 337 species and 92 acres.
Yet smallness has its advantages. The Oregon Zoo is more compact and easier to explore. And what it lacks in sheer numbers it overcomes with inventive exhibits, including two promising ones that will open this summer, the Cold-Blooded Kingdom and Amazon Flooded Forest.
Already, the zoo must be doing a lot right: Last year, it had almost 1.3 million visitors, a record number.
Among the zoo's current crowd-pleasers is the two-year-old Lorikeet Landing exhibit, where visitors can feed dozens of bold little tropical birds that swoop down to perch on people's arms or heads. The tropical lorikeets especially favor visitors who hold out mini-cups of apple juice to feed them (purchased for $1 from a kiosk by the aviary).
Children - and some adults - flock to Kongo Ranger Station, a mock ranger's outpost in the Africa Rainforest exhibit. Kids can climb into an old-fashioned Land Rover and rummage through displays on African wildlife and conservation in a wood-sided hut and crates.
Elephants are always a hit at any zoo, and the Oregon Zoo is renowned for its Asian elephants. Seattle got excited over the birth of an elephant at Woodland Park Zoo earlier this year. Twenty-seven elephants have been born at the zoo in Portland (although the youngest is already about 7).
There are some new baby-animal stars, however. Ozzie, a Southern sea otter, was born at the Oregon Zoo in January, surprising zoo keepers who didn't know his mother was pregnant. He draws crowds of doting viewers as he frolics with his mother.
Water world
When Portland's drizzle turned into a downpour during our spring visit, we ducked into a watery world - the Steller Cove exhibit - for cover.
Opened last summer, it's home to Steller's sea lions, corpulent, 10-foot-long sea mammals, and sleek sea otters, including Ozzie.
A winding walkway in the exhibit led us underground, out of the rain, where a picture-window in the sea lions' 190,000-gallon tank gave us a bottom-feeder's view of the creatures.
What also captivated kids was a mock sea-mammal research office, tucked into a dark corner by the viewing window. They could sit at a desk, surrounded by books and notes, and tap on a computer, answering questions on the decline of sea lions in Alaskan waters.
On a summer weekend, the lineup for the one computer could be daunting. On a rainy weekday, it was no problem.
A Northwest focus
Steller Cove is the second exhibit in the zoo's new Pacific Northwest focus. The first was Cascade Crest, a rocky habitat by the zoo entrance where mountain goats perch picturesquely on a mound of boulders.
Coming next year is an eagle and salmon exhibit and eventually a family-farm exhibit where children will be able to pet Northwest farm animals.
Another reach-out-and-touch-something exhibit opens on June 9 for the summer. Called Cold-Blooded Kingdom, it will have snakes, lizards and frogs that people can touch, said zoo spokesman Bill LaMarche. It also will house an American alligator (a no-touch).
The zoo's big effort of the year is the Amazon Flooded Forest, due to open Aug. 4.
It will be transform much of the primate area, parts of it currently an uninviting, cramped 40-year-old structure. The new 2,300 square-foot, permanent Amazon Flooded Forest will mix about 30 species in a re-created slice of the South American rainforest (where regular river flooding creates a rich ecosystem).
Howler monkeys will swing from realistic-looking artificial trees and vines. Poison-dart frogs will lurk in the greenery. And an anaconda (the snake can grow to 30 feet and can swim) will undulate through the exhibit's 11,000 gallons of water.
Ride the mini-train
For those seeking something more soothing than watching a massive snake swim, there's always the zoo's miniature train.
The Washington Park and Zoo Railway offers a 35-minute round trip, around the zoo and through thick forest, to a viewpoint overlooking the city and the International Rose Test Gardens, one of the crown jewels of the park.
The little open-sided train, with bench seats and a chugging mini-engine, is beloved, drawing 350,000 riders a year.
After riding the train and seeing almost all the exhibits, I was ready to call it a day.
"Can we come back tomorrow?" my daughter asked as we left the zoo.
Next trip, I promised.
It will be a pleasant promise to keep.