Slice Of the Caribbean Coming To Stone Zoo

We can't be sure, but Xena didn't appear to take it personally. The Stone Zoo's female llama, named after a warrior princess, is being replaced, possibly the victim of too much standing around chewing. What do you expect? She's a llama.

But even Xena would be impressed by what's going into the area she once called home. It's called the Caribbean Coast and Zoo New England officials announced Thursday what's been behind the construction curtain.

The familiar but old flamingo exhibit will be reborn in the new $4 million Caribbean-themed exhibit, surrounded by Jamaican iguanas, macaws, scarlet ibis, and for the first time at any zoo in New England, two bush dogs. There will be steel drums to play, a fiesta garden, an event tent and even a yoga area. It will be fun, colorful, active, and thanks to the 54 Caribbean flamingos, maybe even a bit loud.

The project, which is scheduled to open in June, is the unofficial phase two of an all-out effort to change your first impression of Stone. In August the new entry way opened, replacing chain-linked fencing and a shack that served as a ticket booth with a modern and inviting entrance. But behind the new entrance was a chain link enclosure with one animal, Xena. If the first step out of your car left you impressed, your second and third was a letdown.

"When we did our strategic plan we wanted to include a new exhibit at that entry way ... But we didn't have the money when we first undertook that. But frankly, to come in through that beautiful new entrance and then encounter that chain link pen with a llama in it, was sorta like ... " said Zoo New England President and CEO John Linehan, motioning with his hands a high, followed by a low. "We couldn't live with that. We had to make that change and make it quick."

Assistant Curator Pete Costello is in his 30th year working at Stone Zoo and the veteran of both the good and the tough times in Stoneham sounds more like an excited school kid when it comes to the new addition.

"I haven't been this excited about an exhibit since Sierra Madre and that was back in 2002," said Costello. "The other exhibits we've done are great but this is really tightly themed and will offer an experience. It's not just 'look at the pretty flamingo.' You'll learn about other animals that are in this region and some of the culture, with a little music area which I love. Kids love to bang on drums and make a little noise."

Entering the new area, guests will start at Flamingo Flats.

"Clearly the flamingos are the stars of the show here," said Costello. "Everything else is just adding to the experience. And it's going to be something different. Visitors that come to Stone Zoo are very used to seeing our flamingo exhibit where you just kind of stand in front and they're there. This is going to be much more interactive. We're actually going to have an area where guests can go over and feed the flamingos. I think it will be really cool. It's just something different. You'll be a lot closer to the flamingos than you are now. It's going to look a lot more open, more airy."

Leave the flamingos behind and you'll travel the Calypso Trail, an area where guests and children can play steel drums, along with yoga stations that tie in yoga positions to different courtship displays common to flamingos. Next is the fiesta garden, a multi-purpose space with gardens, a lawn, and room for a tent for special events.

The final stop is the bush dogs, a small South American black dog with short legs that is seldom scene, and considered rare. According to Costello, very few are in captivity. Linehan called it "a fascinating species." A male bush dog is coming from a zoo in California, the other, a female, from the Czech Republic. The zoo plans to breed the pair.

Add it all up and the man in charge of Zoo New England since 2002 couldn't be more excited.

"Each one of these things is a step toward really great zoos. Sort of saying good-bye to the old and reaching new heights," said Linehan. "I am very excited about this exhibit. Each exhibit holds new excitement for me as we build in the things that we wished we had before. In this particular exhibit for example, having multiple habitats within the habitat that the flamingos can use, a breeding area, a feeding area, having salt water integrated into it improves the health of their feet and improves the flamingos' overall health even more.

"The interactivity that we were able to integrate into the whole design to have it so that while people are learning they're having fun. Some of the stuff we achieved really well with the Children's Zoo down at Franklin Park. Then, working with endangered species, so not just doing iguanas in here, but doing endangered iguanas, where we're making a difference in bringing back a species that was even at one point thought extinct. Same with the bush dogs, a species if you go around and talk to people, very few people even know what a bush dog is. But in bringing in one bush dog from a European zoo it's going to help diversify the genetic base of the whole North American population."

Xena probably doesn't care about diversifying a genetic base but she isn't complaining. She's now down at the Children's Zoo at Franklin Park and is surrounded by other animals, living the good life.

"You used to walk in the old entrance way, there are a couple graphics, and then the worst bathrooms you've ever seen in your life," said Costello. "Through the trees you can kind of see bald eagles. When you walked in there's nothing to say, cool, or wow. Now you're going to walk in the brand new entry way and immediately have the option of either going to see the bears first or going into the Caribbean Coast. So both are going to offer you this really nice experience. This significantly changes the whole layout of that front area. If you remember what it looked like a year ago, it was just a big square patch of green with a couple trees."

And a llama.

Construction crews showed up in September and the real ground work started in November. February was a good month for construction progress. March, not so much. But the work is on schedule and the 54 flamingos will be carried across to their new home some time in May. There will be no flamingo herding. The birds can still fly and no one in or outside the zoo want to see a flamingo flying down main street.

When complete, Linehan said, "It's going to be the greatest little zoo anywhere, that's what our goal is."

But the most important question remained. Why did the flamingo cross the road, or in this case the walkway?

"To get to its new habitat," said a smiling Linehan.

Photos by Bob Holmes