Zoo gains grrrrand new digs

Standing outside the new digs for snow leopard Dawa, you can hear the big cat breathing, smell her wet fur and see her tail wrapped neatly between her paws.

It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience to stand mere feet from an 83-pound carnivorous feline, and an endangered species. But the new $6 million Asian Highlands exhibit at Hogle Zoo, which opens today, puts the public and big cats practically nose-to-whiskers.

"We've used a lot of glass to let people get up close and personal with the animals," said Craig Dinsmore, the zoo's executive director. "The philosophy behind Asian Highlands is we wanted to design homes for our animals, not just exhibits."

Unlike most zoos, which put the carnivorous cats hundreds of feet away and separate humans and felines by vast yards, large ditches and chain-link fences, Asian Highlands takes a unique approach, putting human and beast face-to-face. Through landscaping and architecture that utilizes thick glass, strong mesh and the Utah hillside, the cats are clearly visible from numerous viewpoints.

For the felines, the zoo's hills — usually flattened for exhibits — proved to be an advantage when creating the replica Himalayan village. The cats love jumping and climbing, and it's instinctive for them to go to higher ground, said Stephanie Natt, animal-care supervisor and a primary caregiver for the Amur leopard, two Amur tigers, two snow leopards and three Siberian lynx.

The cats' hillside home is a naturalistic environment, complete with pools, waterfalls, trees and shady huts. The area features 15,000 square feet of outdoor habitat and five separate yards. "This is so different from any other exhibit we've done," Natt said.

Dinsmore agrees. "The main thing for me that I'm so proud of is we have dramatically improved the quality of life of the places where the cats live," he said.

The cats' old building confined them to indoor cages with concrete floors. That is not what the "new zoo" will reflect, Dinsmore said. The new approach to Asian Highlands is what he hopes to do with future exhibits.

Asian Highlands showcases the region where the animals are from. New education aspects put a kid-friendly feel on the exhibit and tell a story of the tigers, leopards and lynx through an eco-explorer that teaches about the felines, a sense station to hear, smell and feel like a big cat, three large touch-screen kiosks, a fact-spewing grandma and a mini stage that will showcase the felines' training and enrichment exercises.

"The animals are so important, and they're vanishing so quickly," Natt said. "I hope people will want to learn about them."