Lions and tigers
and jaguars, oh my

By Diane Villano
Times Staff Writer

When the Bank of America Big Cat Falls exhibit opens on May 25, visitors to the Philadelphia Zoo will be so close to the lions, tigers, leopards and jaguars that they’ll be able to see the pads on their feet.
The $20 million exhibit, featuring three habitats representing Asia, the Americas and Africa, gets its name from a 12-foot waterfall that is part of the Amur Valley habitat, which recreates Russia’s Amur River Valley.
The zoo worked with the Morris Arboretum, at the University of Pennsylvania, to select plants and trees to mimic what you’d find in a forest where Amur snow leopards might roam.
Big Cat Falls features a state-of-the-art, naturalistic habitat on 1.7 acres. It is the first of three capital projects in the Philadelphia Zoo’s Wildest Dreams capital campaign.
A restoration and expansion of the zoo’s 1916 bird house, which will be known as the McNeil Avian Center, and a new Hamilton Family Children’s Zoo are projected to be completed by 2009.
A new elephant habitat also was part of the original plan, but it has been put on hold because of finances, said zoo spokeswoman Ginette Meluso.
Philadelphia Zoo president Alexander "Pete" Hoskins, who plans to retire after Big Cat Falls opens later this month, spearheaded the revitalization of America’s first zoo.
Hoskins said that seeing the project — planned more than a decade ago — come to fruition is "rewarding and exciting." He’s looking forward to opening day and watching the reactions of children and their families when they see the big cats.
Zoo-goers will find Big Cat Falls right off the main path, next door to the elephant habitat and across from the PECO Primate Reserve, where picnic tables once stood between the lion and tiger habitats.
The circa-1950 Carnivore House, which was once designated as an air-raid bomb shelter, fades into the background of the exhibit. The house, similarly hailed as a state-of-the-art feature at the time it was built, will be used for visitor viewing areas, zookeeper space and behind-the-scenes events offered to zoo members.
The zoo’s two tawny lions, Merlin and Zenda, and white lions Jezebel and Vinkel will soon return from the Columbus Zoo to their new digs modeled after the Okavango delta region in Botswana, a South African republic. Rock outcroppings resemble anthills native to the region, and there are special heating elements to keep the cats warm during cold weather.
The new exhibit affords the cubs a lot of places to exercise, Meluso said.
There are three educational pavilions connecting each area of the exhibit — Africa, the Americas and Asia. Visitors can learn about the cats’ natural habitats and might be lucky enough to get an up-close look at the animals.
Large sliding doors reveal a mesh fence, where cats are corralled and their keepers can demonstrate different behaviors used to help manage them for veterinary care and feeding.
For instance, they might press their pads on the fencing or open their huge mouths the way they would to have their teeth checked. One jaguar is already trained to lean his hip against the side of the cage for injections, according to assistant curator Jim Ronemus.
"The tough part will be training animals to come in one at a time. That in itself is a trick, in an area where they know they get food rewards," Ronemus said.
Bamboo plantings skirt the outdoor path between the African pavilion and Big Cat Theatre. Three large video screens (where benches had been situated so people could watch animal feedings) flash an emotional video montage, including such images as a huge pink tongue dipping into a ladle for a drink of water and a lion doing a running leap to catch a bird, Meluso noted.
When visitors exit the theater, they might be surprised to see a big cat overhead in one of the tunnels or enclosed catwalks connecting the habitats.
Also interspersed alongside the connecting paths are bronze sculptures of animals native to the cat habitats, such as a toucan, the brightly colored bird that is native to Central and South America.
The rock design for the jaguar habitat also mimics a Mayan ruin in a Central American rain forest.
While the lion and tiger habitats are open overhead, those for the jaguars, pumas and leopards are enclosed with mesh to give them plenty of vertical climbing space.
Ronemus said the new concepts reflect a change in how habitats and exhibits are designed.
"The idea (of modern zoo planning) is moving away from the pits, to get (the animals) up," he said. "Before, they had to look up at people. Now they’re literally looking down at the people. They’ll probably be up on top of the rocks."
The tunnel system incorporated into the design of Big Cat Falls allows for the cats to travel between habitats, thus encouraging natural behaviors.
For instance, a cat will enter his or her habitat and sense that another animal has been in their territory, so they’ll go around sniffing and scratching and marking their area, Ronemus explained.
Children can get a virtual sense of what it’s like to be a big cat at the exhibit’s Base Camp, with interactive computer screens.
Youngsters can take a cat personality test and watch as their face morphs into a cat’s face. They can follow a jaguar’s journey from Mexico to Arizona, as he navigates the challenges along the way, or learn about the problems between ranchers and lions in Africa — insights that are imparted by two of the zoo’s conservation projects, the Mexican Jaguar Project and the Laikipia Predator Project.
The zoo has provided a whole new way to look at these beautiful creatures. ••
The Philadelphia Zoo is at 34th Street and Girard Avenue. For schedule, ticket and program information, visit the Web site at www.philadelphiazoo.org or call 215-243-1100. To download free Bank of America Big Cat Falls wallpapers and screensavers for your computer, check out the selection by visiting the Web site at http://www.philadelphiazoo.org/index.php?id=2_2_5_2
Reporter Diane Villano can be reached at 215-354-3036 or dvillano@phillynews.com