Columbus Zoo's Polar Frontier: Now Open

[PREMiERdrum]

Columbus Zoo's Polar Frontier exhibit is now open, featuring Polar Bears, Alaskan Brown Bears, and Arctic Fox.

The Polar Bear habitat is the largest of its kind in the world, and features a large grass yard, a tide pool, a large pool with live fish for the bears to catch, several fallen real trees for enrichment, and several viewing opportunities: From above the bears, at eye level with the bears in the pool, and even below the bears as they swim.

The Alaskan Brown Bear exhibit, home to Brutus and Buckeye, also features a large yard, giant pool, and great viewing opportunities.

The area is also home to a family of arctic foxes, whose exhibit is built to look like an abandoned work shed, going along with the Alaskan Mining Town theme of the whole area.

Link to article, slideshow, and interview with the Columbus Zoo's Dale Schmidt, from WBNS TV.

LINK - 10TV.com

Construction plan of the area, which gives you a great sense of the huge scale of the area and the multiple different viewing areas for the bears.

(Image used from ZooChat.com)

[Go Browns]

Wow this looks really cool and I love bears so I'll have to go check this out. Columbus Zoo really is a quality Zoo and I'm glad to see they are always expanding and improving.

[DaveStroem]

My wife and PKIBoy were there this morning. They said it was crazy busy. I plan on going tomorrow morning before work.

[DegenRider]

I can't wait to go see it. Maybe I will make a run this weekend.

[pkiboy]

Just came from the Columbus Zoo Wow What a neat zoo. The new Polar Bear Frontier is Amazing and I actually got to Meet Jack Hanna twice today what a heck of a guy. I highly recommend visiting the Columbus Zoo this summer Also remember that the zoo has A coaster Sea Dragon.

[coaster_junky]

so, is "glacier run" that's being built at the louisville zoo going to be about the same size as this one?

http://www.louisvillezoo.org/glacierrun/

[DaveStroem]

I stopped by this morning for a few minutes before work and got a some shots.

[PREMiERdrum]

so, is "glacier run" that's being built at the louisville zoo going to be about the same size as this one?

http://www.louisvillezoo.org/glacierrun/

While I think that Glacier Run looks awesome, from what I've seen the actual habitat for the bears is much smaller, which isn't a negative thing necessarily, as the yards in both Columbus' Polar and Alaskan Brown Bear habitats are simply enormous. So long as Louisville looks to Columbus and Detroit's designs (arguably the 2 best anywhere) and decide to give the bears large grass yards instead of a sea of concrete mock-rock, they'll be just fine.

As an aside, we were at the Indy Zoo a few weeks ago, and the only exhibit that I was really disappointed with was their Polar Bear habitat. Even though the entire Zoo is only 20-ish years old, the poor bears had a flat exhibit with a small pool and the entire thing was made of concrete mock rock, except for 1 small gravel digging pit. The lone bear in the enclosure spent the entire time we were there pacing back and forth in front of the door to her den.

Dave: Excellent pics! I know that the Polar Bears are the stars of this area, but did you get any shots of the other animals? I've only seen a few pics so far of the Foxes, and nothing that shows off their enclosure at all. I'm also curious to see if they add on another yard for the male Polar Bear they're supposed to get from Toledo next year. You don't usually see a male bear in the same enclosure as the females.

[DaveStroem]

The Zoo opened at 9:00 and my shop opens at 10:00. I only had 15 minutes at the exhibit once I parked, and walked back there to leave enough time to get to work.

I plan on going back soon as we have season passes.