Fresno Chaffee Zoo is closing one of its oldest attractions, ending a nearly 40-year run on an exhibit that invited “nature lovers to take a walk on the wild side.”
So, wrote The Fresno Bee on the opening of the Tropical Rainforest Aviary in 1988.
The half-acre enclosure was designed with mesh roping, vines and tropical foliage meant to “take on the shadowy, surprise-at-every-turn characteristics of a real jungle,” The Bee wrote. There was a suspension bride and skywalk, a waterfall and a population of animals that included hummingbirds (a whole exhibit’s worth), plus “toucans, tanagers … iguanas, turtles and toads … and six golden lion tamarins,” according to The Bee…