New Aquarium building
The aquarium is, in fact, the first for Arizona, but, at a mere 180,000 gallon capacity, its only a small and somewhat simple attraction by aquarium standards.
Simple viewing windows and lack of signage at the WWZ's new Aquarium Expansion.
The new aquarium is an expansion of the private Wildlife World Zoo in the West Valley, and is part of a larger 10-year plan for the Zoo. This expansion cost an extremely budget-friendly $7 million.
However, not to seem cynical, I must congratulate the Zoo on continuing its effort to bring education about wildlife to an area lacking quality facilities. The Zoo currently sees approximately 405,000 visitors annually, and will surely see an increase.
Exhibits at the Aquarium include what looks to be a nice black-footed penguin habitat, a small (30′ diameter) shark tank, and several touch zones. The Zoo also incorporates rides into exhibits, including a log flume through one of the Aquarium’s tanks, to make for a true Edutainment facility.
Black-footed penguins
More penguins
Viewing penguins
Shark tank from above.
Shark tank under construction
One touch tank
Sting ray touch
Check out the rest of the Wildlife World Zoo here.
December 30, 2008 at 5:06 am
Going to go check it out tomorrow. Based on the rest of the zoo, I don’t have too high of hopes.
December 30, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Please let us know your impressions! If you take any pictures, send them on to me, if possible, and I’ll post them for everyone.
Thanks!
January 11, 2009 at 6:58 pm
My impressions were much what I expected. This zoo is not exactly on the forefront of exhibit design, and some exhibits I found to be downright inadequate. The aquarium was fairly nice, but not nearly as good as any stand-alone aquarium I have ever seen. The shark-tank was the largest exhibit, and it was quite small, and the interpretation was minimal. I have some pictures which I will email later.