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GREEN CHIP COMPANY
COCKTAIL FACT
In 1941, the Bronx Zoo became the first to have a predator-prey exhibit, with lions living on an island separated from nyala (think skinny bulls) by a moat.
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home › tip library › Aug 27,2008
Lions and tigers and bears?
The Bite:
Try lemurs, crocs, and boas, instead. A walk through Madagascar, the latest exhibit at the Bronx Zoo, takes you under lemurs swinging from trees, through a dark cave o' crocs, and into a hands-on, bug-filled discovery zone for munchkins. It's all at the revamped Lion House, the circa-1903 big-cat house that's set to become the first NYC landmark to earn LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification. Oh my.
Company Background
When the Wildlife Conservation Society (the organization behind the Bronx Zoo and one of the oldest conservation groups in the world), took on renovating and repurposing its historic (but crumbling) Lion House, it looked to its 20-plus years of conservation work in Madagascar for inspiration. Says Linda Corcoran, Assistant Director of Communications for WCS: "We want to show people that Madagascar isn't just a movie, it's also the earth's eighth continent. Eighty percent of the animals there are endemic [read: nowhere else], and roughly 85% of the habitat is being depleted from logging and crop planting." Conservation awareness is a priority for the WCS -because for native animals, there's no place like home.
Why Care?
- The Lion House on Astor Court , home to the Madagascar exhibit, is in line to become NYC's first ever LEED Gold certified historic building.
- Plants in the zoo's grey water gardens filter and clean water runoff that flows straight from the zoo's sinks.
- Numbers 1 and 2 get composted in the Bronx Zoo's eco-restrooms, and potty-wall illustrations by Susan Goodman (The Truth About Poop) teach kiddies about water conservation.
- Alt power like energy fuel cell technology and a geothermal well (which produces power from the earth's natural heat) run the exhibit.
- WCS is cleaning up the Bronx River (NYC's only freshwater river), which flows through the Zoo's 265 acres, and is gradually reintroducing native herring.
Keeping It Real
So yeah, the Bronx Zoo's still a zoo, but its 265 acres of wooded parkland make it the biggest metro zoo in the nation, with a lotta room for animals to roam. Also, the WCS's travel contributes to their carbon footprint. Corcoran says, "We're always looking at ways we can further reduce our carbon footprint. The WCS is protecting landscapes in more than 60 nations across the globe, so traveling comes with the nature of our work. We're looking into reducing travel by teleconferencing."
