Sharon L. Taylor
- Posted:
- October 21, 2010
If you dream of Africa but couldn’t squeeze a safari into your schedule this year, program your GPS for the Houston Zoo. Next month, phase one of The African Forest expansion — the most ambitious project in the zoo’s 88-year history — opens. The immersive, 6.5-acre experience will capture the exoticism of western equatorial Africa, introducing the urban adventurer to chimpanzees, rhinos, antelope, ostriches and more through virtually invisible barriers. It all begins at a village trading outpost (we love the leaf-thatched huts), where you can sign up for guided tours and overnight camps, or gather ‘round the fire pit for storytelling and educational programs. Then head into the wilderness, along winding paths where you’ll commune with a colony of chimps, watch rhinos and kudu mingle in an open setting and get closer to giraffes than ever before in a new habitat that promises eye-to-eye viewing and even feeding opportunities. Now, that’s what we call a zoo “keeper.”
Opening December 10 to the general public (December 2 for members only). Information houstonzoo.org/africanforest.
Image: Courtesy of the Houston Zoo.