Zoo Evolution: Moncton’s Magnetic Hill Zoo Blossoms Into One of Canada’s Finest
Source: By JENNIFER KENT
Posted: 09/01/09 11:30AM
Filed Under: Canada Travel Guide
With over 400 animals, the Magnetic Hill Zoo is the largest zoo in Atlantic Canada. But it is the Zoo’s tireless commitment to improvement, conservation and public education that has garnered national respect and recognition for this favourite maritime attraction. Identified by Saltscapes Magazine as one of the “10 Great Places where you should bring your kids before they grow up”, the Magnetic Hill Zoo also recently won the prestigious Environmental Enrichment Award from the Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums for their new Cougar exhibit. It was also ranked the #4 zoo in the country by Day Trips Canada.
Not content to rest on past achievements, however, zoo manager Bruce Dougan is pushing forward on several new construction and improvement projects, including a roomy, new Jaguar exhibit.
Magnetic Hill Zoo
This brightly painted caravan is a poignant reminder of what zoos used to be like before animal well-being became a priority. Now used only to house a pair of cockatiels on a limited basis, cages like this one once would have held animals as large as a wolf or cougar.
JENNIFER KENT
This tarantula is just one of the creepy-crawlies you'll spy in "The
Container" exhibit.
JENNIFER KENT
A bear sunbathes in the serenity of a lush Atlantic Canadian forest -- just one of the naturalized exhibits at the Magnetic Hill Zoo. The foliage is dense enough that the bears can disappear into it if they wish. If you don't spot them right away, be sure to look up... these bashful bruins have been
known to climb the trees in their exhibit!
JENNIFER KENT
Visitors to the Magnetic Hill Zoo have lots of opportunity to interact with a variety of animals... but always on the animals' terms! The wooden beam is a barrier beyond which no humans may pass... although the deer may come and
go as they please.
JENNIFER KENT
The playful otters are a perennial favourite with their aquatic antics.
JENNIFER KENT
Committed to a policy of constant improvement, the Magnetic Hill Zoo staff forges ahead with the construction of the new Jaguar exhibit.
JENNIFER KENT
“We’re proud of our accomplishments so far, but we’ve still got a long way to go,” says Dougan. Such a response is typical from the man who has worked relentlessly for the past 20 years to turn this place into something special. Since being hired as General Manager and director of the zoo in 1989, Dougan has spear-headed a transformation that is nothing short of remarkable. From its humble beginnings as a Game Farm in the sixties and seventies when the animals were simply put on display in small, empty iron cages, the Magnetic Hill Zoo has blossomed into a model for zoo habitat design and enrichment.
Long gone is the horrific concrete “bear pit” of the seventies. The Zoo’s current bevy of bears bask blissfully in a fence-free forest, complete with their own stream-fed pond and berry-bushes. In the petting-zoo areas, the animals are free to either mingle with zoo visitors and sample some zoo-sanctioned “treats” from little hands...or retreat into the “human-free” area of their exhibit for some rest and privacy.
Zoo keepers give talks and demonstrations to interested visitors throughout the day. Spider monkeys play on an elaborate jungle gym or hunt insects in the lush, grassy foliage of their spacious outdoor exhibit; a pot bellied pig ambles over for a back-rub; the otters perform their own impromptu synchronized swimming routine to a delighted audience while a lion roars in the distance. It’s ‘education meets entertainment’ at its best.
Many exhibits also have an educational component, such as “The Container.” This display is ingeniously designed to look like a shipping container on a cargo ship. Inside, crates and trunks line the walls, plastered with shipping stickers from foreign climes. Looking through their glass-panelled sides, visitors get an up-close look at some of the denizens known to “hitch a ride” on such trans-continental exchanges. Kids will ooo and ahhh over such massive creepy-crawlies as tarantulas, hissing cockroaches, scorpions and the nefarious bird-eating spider. On the wall, a placard explains the environmental impact of these multi-legged “illegal immigrants.”
In spite of momentous jumps forward there is still much to be done, Bruce Dougan insists, as he stops to watch the progress of an excavator and a bee-hive’s worth of bustling workers clambering around the site of the new Jaguar exhibit. His restless enthusiasm is contagious and his impatience almost palpable, leaving no doubt that under his direction the Magnetic Hill Zoo will continue to evolve as a haven for humans and animals alike.
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