Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium: Forest Passage

The Pittsburgh Zoo, founded in 1898 as the Highland Park Zoo, is a mid-sized Zoo (77 acres).  It is also the beneficiary of my new rating system Impact/Opportunity.  Impact refers to the amount and difficulty in walking the grounds, and Opportunity refers to the amount of species available to be seen/and seen on any particular visit.  This was my 5th visit to the Pittsburgh Zoo since 2003.   It is a High Impacts zoo with at least 80% of the pathways presenting some noticeable degree of incline.  It offers a Moderate-to-Moderately High Opportunity to see Species, the Aquarium contributes significantly to this rating.

I will share my images from the visit in a roughly equivalent manner to my pathway through the zoo/aquarium (and, remember, animals have choices in ALL good zoos.  If they're not in the mood to be seen, next time, Miss Devine).  Once you scale the monster escalator and make it into the zoo proper, you traverse a viaduct under a park street and enter a little area dubbed Forest Passage.  There is no other rhyme nor reason to the animals you will see here.  The habitats are very well landscaped and many bear the evidence of time to make them appear even more natural.  Here I got to see: Amur Tiger, Canadian Lynx, (Both sleeping in secluded areas of their habitats) Komodo Dragon, Caribbean Flamingos, and Amur Leopard (The latter two are listed in the African Savannah section fauna, but neither are native to Africa and their proximity to the ubiquitous Forest Passage seemed to make more sense.)

Before any animals you encounter a couple of ice age mammal skeletons to tease you into paying extra for a chance to walk among some animatronic replicas...  First, there were dinosaurs...

AMUR TIGER

Panthera tigris altaica

CANADIAN LYNX

Lynx canadensis

KOMODO DRAGON

Varanus komodoensis

CARIBBEAN FLAMINGO

Phoenicaopterus ruber

AMUR LEOPARD

Panthera pardus orientalis