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Family: Zoo Reopens

San Jose's Happy Hollow Park and Zoo shows off its two-year renovation at reopening ceremony Saturday, March 20

by Michael S. Gant on Mar 19, 2010
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AFTER TWO YEARS and $72 million in renovations, San Jose’s much-beloved Happy Hollow Park & Zoo reopens to the public Saturday. The zoo has been extensively retooled and expanded, with a grand new entrance, some whimsical bronze sculptures by Tom Otterness and an array of new climbing and sliding equipment for busy children, as well as a 21st-century carousel featuring endangered species. All of the new construction is environmentally friendly, even unto hay-bale walls at the learning center. The past, however, has not been swept aside. Many of the cherished attractions that have drawn visitors over nearly 50 years remain in place, including the iconic Danny the Dragon ride.

The endlessly fascinating red-ruffed lemurs have moved into a spacious new enclosure with an enormous glass wall that allows for uninterrupted close-up views of sunning primates. On a very new note, the zoo also welcomes a rare fossa; this member of the mongoose family sits at the top of the food chain in Madagascar, which accounts for the nervous curiosity the creature has aroused in the ring-tailed lemur enclosure across the way—know thy predator seems to be the thinking there.

HAPPY HOLLOW PARK AND ZOO, 1300 Senter Road, San Jose. Ribbon-cutting ceremony, 9:30am, Saturday (March 20); zoo opens to public at 10am. (www.hhpz.org)



by Michael S. Gant on Mar 19, 2010
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