Down Under but on top: ABQ BioPark zoo wins awards for Australia, Asia exhibits

On a quiet Wednesday at the Albuquerque zoo, Jan Alongi waited with her two grandchildren for a chance to see a big cat creep outside, despite the chilly morning air. To their luck, Arya, a Malayan tiger, dashed across the long-spanning exhibit and over a bridge overlooking zoo visitors. Her 4-year-old grandson, Charlie, squealed as Arya zoomed across, and the trio followed her to the other side of the exhibit.

Arya moved into the space just over a year ago, arriving in Albuquerque just in time for the Biopark’s largest expansion in decades. The $33 million Asia habitat, spanning 4.5 acres, opened in October 2023 and has been winning awards since.

Most recently, the Asia habitat was recognized by NAIOP New Mexico, a commercial real estate organization, for the community-oriented project. The BioPark raked in another award in the same category for phase 1 of its new Australia habitat.

Both exhibits won Merit awards in NAIOP’s community and public project category for the organization’s 2024 Awards of Excellence. Both projects were funded by gross receipts taxes approved by Albuquerque voters.

The Australia habitat opened most recently. The zoo launched phase 1 in July 2024. It includes the Australian Shores, featuring little penguins and birds like the hardhead and wandering whistling ducks, and the Lorikeet Experience.

Bruny and Leo, both born in January, are the newest additions to the little penguin exhibit, bringing the total to eight little penguins. And over in the Lorikeet Experience, Frasier the Kookaburra is getting to know his new girlfriend, Tiny, though she’s not yet out in the habitat.

Studio Southwest Architects designed the habitat and submitted the project for the NAIOP award. The space was formerly a sea lion exhibit.

A major consideration in designing the exhibit was taking a cultural approach, said Tori Fox, zoo science education coordinator. The zoo worked with Aboriginal practitioners to bring in relevant murals and artifacts, she said.

The second phase of the Australia project, also being designed by Studio Southwest Architects, will continue bringing in First Nations elements as well as animals like kangaroos, emus and wallabies. There’s no set opening date as the project is in the design phase.

Northwest of the Australian shores, the 4.5-acre Asia exhibit was the first major habitat introduced to the BioPark in decades.

Once a cottonwood grove, the space became a flex habitat — allowing animals to move to different areas on different days — for snow leopards, Malayan tigers, Steller’s sea eagles, siamangs and orangutans.

“People love Asia,” Fox said. “It's just really incredible to see that the animal wellbeing has increased, and guests have just really been enjoying it.”

With the exhibit, the zoo wanted to teach visitors about biodiversity, she said.

“We wanted to teach guests about those areas and how, ‘Yes, these very charismatic and impressive species are important, but they're also interconnected with a really small frog or a walking stick or a fish,” she said. “All of it is so interconnected.”

Hartman+Majewski Design Group submitted the Asia project for the NAIOP award. Since its October 2023 opening through May 2024, BioPark attendance increased by 12.4%.

Earlier this year, the Asia exhibit also won a significant achievement Exhibit Award from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums for the exhibit design and live animal display. The Albuquerque zoo was one of three facilities to win for 2023, Fox said.

“So that is just a huge deal,” she said. “And Albuquerque should be super proud of it. To be winning on an international level — that is really impressive.”

It took a lot of different people and organizations to get the Asia and Australia exhibits off the ground, Fox said, from the voters approving the GRT bonds to the designers to the construction teams.

“The zoo is something that Albuquerque can and should be so proud of,” Fox said. “And everyone played a part in these new exhibits.”

Indeed, Alongi, while watching for Arya the Malayan tiger with her grandchildren, said she would take Charlie to the zoo at least once a week as a baby. Now that he’s in school, they try to come out as often as possible still, weather permitting.

She takes them to different exhibits to fully immerse them in the experience, learning about all the different animals.

And Charlie’s favorite animal?

“All of them,” he immediately responded.

(But if he had to dial it down? He said his favorite is the tiger or elephant. Don’t tell the other animals.)