JungleWorld

Opened in June 1985 at a total cost of $9.5 million, including $4.1 million donated by patron Enid A. Haupt, a board member of the New York Zoological Society, JungleWorld recreates several Southeast Asian ecosystems across about 4,000 m² and 17 meters of height: volcanic scrub forest, mangrove, swamp, and rainforest. The building was designed to eliminate visible barriers as much as possible: the 210-meter wooden trail running through it has only short railings, with animals separated from visitors by ravines, streams, or simulated cliffs. Nearly 800 species have been exhibited there over the years, including otters, gibbons, and clouded leopards, in galleries that remind visitors that 150 acres of rainforest disappear every minute around the world. This immersive approach, innovative for its time, strongly influenced the later design of major tropical zoo greenhouses in North America, such as Omaha's Lied Jungle and Cleveland's The RainForest, both opened seven years later. JungleWorld remains today one of the Bronx Zoo's iconic buildings, the largest urban zoo in the United States.