Detroit Zoo: National Amphibian Conservation Center

 Leaving the Arctic Ring of Life we considered the final area of the zoo and we considered the LONG walk back out to the parking lot...The long walk beat out the possibility of seeing a Bison, or a wolf, or a prairie dog.  And so we bargain the long walk out.  We used the path on the opposite side of the Fountain and as we were just over about two-thirds of the way back to the entrance, we stumbled upon the National Amphibian Conservation Center.  Wasn't even sure what it was at first, but when I stopped to get a closer look at the architecture, I saw the signage and decided to check it out.

I'm glad I did.  The design is very organic with lots of arching and round elements.  The habitats are well appointed with a nice variety of frogs, toads, newts and salamanders.  It was the perfect last focus visit at the zoo.  

The National Amphibian Conservation Center at the Detroit Zoo.

Emperor Spotted Newt

Neurergus kaiseri

Lake Titicaca Frog

Telmatobius culeus

Smooth-sided Toad

Rhaebo guttatus

Mimic Dart Frog

Ranitomeya imitator

[left] Golfodulcean Poison Dart Frog

Phyllobates vittatus

[right] Black-legged Poison Dart Frog

Phyllobates bicolor

Japanese Giant Salamander habitat.

[left] Striped Newt

Notophthalmos peristriatus

[right] Narrow-striped Dwarf Siren

Pseusobranchus azanthus 

Wyoming Toad

Bufo baxtera

Once thought extinct, a small colony was discovered in the late 1980's by zoologist George Baxter,  Members were rescued and a captive breeding started at the Thorne Williams Wildlife Research Center in Sybille Canyon, Wyoming.  Once the population had increased to about 10,000--Seven Zoos that are members of the AZA received breeding stock to continue the efforts to save this animal from extinction.  Today, efforts to reintroduce the toad to the wild continue, but due to the volatile nature of the work, the Wyoming Toad is still listed as EW (Extinct in the Wild) when as little as 50 years ago the population was stable and plentiful in the Laramie basin region of Wyoming.

Time for overall impressions.  

• Bigger than it needs to be:
• Which is an advantage that a lot of zoos like Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco would wish for.
• The plus side, the habitats where the animals reside can be HUGE by comparison to others zoos
• The down side, you walk you ass off to get to the things that you've come to see.
• A Diamond in the ruff:
• At present, the zoo feels very mish-mashy.  There's a sort of animals go together by region, but there's also a species completely out of place if that were the plan.  Asian Forest has African monkeys, African Savannah has South American jungle creature.  Mongolian horse in North American Wilderness, etc.  
• Golly, I wish I had $150,000,000.00 laying around, I would utterly transform the place.
• Volunteers:  
• I counted 10 different, red shirted, unmistakable volunteers.  Four were clustered together chatting at the entrance of the zoo.  NOT greeting guest, just hanging out.  I went up and asked questions which the gentleman that I made eye contact with first was happy to answer.  And even then, other guests stepping up to the kiosk map and the other three volunteers just kept chatting amongst themselves.  Two others were raking leaves.  The other four were just walking around.  I saw one of them twice in their laps and another one three times.  I never saw a single one engage with a guest, and in fact, I attempted to say hello to one, and unless they were deaf, my kindness was completely ignored.
• To my MD Zoo friends, it's one thing to be a volunteer when the AZA convention is in town, it's another on mid-April Tuesday with sparse visitors.  And what was any of their purposes?  I never saw a keeper or a volunteers doing any sort of interpretation.  I never say a single sign indicating any sort of schedule for a keeper chat.
• Just in general; here are the zoos I've visited in the last decade: Maryland Zoo, Smithsonian National Zoo, Brandywine Zoo (DE), Philadelphia Zoo, Elmwood Park Zoo (PA), Lehigh Valley Zoo (PA), Pittsburgh Zoo, ZooAmerica (Hershey, PA), The Metro Richmond Zoo (VA), The Virginia Zoo, The Lincoln Park Zoo (Chicago), The Great Plains Zoo (Sioux Falls, SD), The Kansas City Zoo, The Denver Zoo, The Woodland Park Zoo (Seattle), The Turtle Back Zoo (West Orange, NJ), The Cape May Zoo (NJ), The Salisbury Zoo (MD) The Toledo Zoo, and the Detroit Zoo.  When it comes to seeing and engaging with Volunteers in a way that is anything close to the Maryland Zoo, only the Turtle Back Zoo need apply.  I've had great encounters with Keepers at the Brandywine Zoo and the Elmwood Park Zoo, two zoos I've visited multiple times and the encounters have been consistent every time.  My recent encounters with a keeper and an education department staff member at the Toledo Zoo would put in the plus column for paid staff.