alking away from an exhibit at the Buffalo Zoo, I overheard one of the zookeepers talking on his cell phone.

“I was inside the cage with the gorillas! Just me! She was like, ‘Go feed the gorillas,’ and that was it!”

That’s the sense you get at the Buffalo Zoo, a park that many say has undergone a turnaround under the direction of Donna Fernandes, the zoo’s president since 2000. Last week, in frigid temperatures, visitors found the zoo alive and well with inhabitants that appeared aptly cared-for.

This comes after the zoo’s reputation was tarnished after the deaths of four of the zoo’s polar bears in 16 months. Three bears died of disease or old age, while the first bear drowned in a tub of water after being left unsupervised under the effects of anesthetic. The necropsies of the three diseased bears revealed pieces of plastic in their stomachs. When that report was released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Buffalo Zoo was at the center of a local media scandal. The polar bear deaths prompted the anti-zoo People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to begin a campaign calling for the zoo’s accreditation to be revoked by the American Association of Zoos.

The zoo denies that foreign objects had anything to do with the bears’ deaths. “They found a piece of plastic that had nothing to do with her dying,” Fernandes said of a bear named Kelly. Many animals, she said, when a necropsy is performed, have traces of plastic in their stomachs. The bears were either old or sick, Fernandes said, and their causes of death were “taken out of context” by PETA. On one bear, she said, “We knew she was sick, we watched her blood levels, and they were inconsistent with life.” The bears deaths were tragic, she said, but she said they were “blown up” by PETA, an organization, she has said, that has an “anti-zoo agenda.”

The bears do, however, rely on an antiquated exhibit system. The bears are retained by a moat that provides an unobstructed view for bears and people. This enclosure became an issue recently, when the zoo had to turned down an offer to borrow two polar bears from the St. Paul zoo because it could not afford to build the newer barricade necessary for their training. The plan, Fernandes wrote in a press release, wouldn’t make financial sense, with the renovations they plan to make in the near future. The zoo will instead receive two spectacled bears from Binghamton and Panama City, Florida in early spring.

he zoo is set on two-dozen acres of land on the northeast perimeter of Delaware Park. Save for a few houses, depending on where you stand, the grounds don’t leave the visitor with the feeling that they’re still in Buffalo.

There’s a certain childlike quality about it, in the pizza and ice cream stands that are painted in bright colors throughout the park, though they’re shut throughout the winter. The park’s scattered activity panels for children to pull and flip, which are usually administered by an animated animal mascot, teach children animal trivia. Though over 130 years old, the zoo feels youthful.

Though many students, when asked, responded that they had not been to the zoo (public transportation is tricky), those who had been found it to be at least a little lacking.

“You really feel like you’re in a zoo,” said Hayley Sunshine, a senior dance major who visited the zoo with a friend’s young nephew two years ago. “It’s a little stark.” Seated with her was Bekka Bennett, a senior dance and history major, who felt that while the young kids they brought were entertained, she found relatively little entertainment for adults. Overall, they said, “It was dreary. It just didn’t feel warm.”

The students were unaware of the zoo’s proposed renovations, and called them “a great addition.”

The zoo plans to remedy that antiquated feel with a series of renovations to significantly change much of the parts. The museum’s 15-year plan includes many steps, like the new grand entranceway, the new veterinary hospital, and an all-new children’s zoo, which are still years off. The new rainforest exhibit, though, will be completed later this year, as well as a revamping of the elephant house, one of the necessary changes the zoo must make sooner than later.

The California sea lions, the mammals that swim like they’ve been up all night drinking coffee, will be the crowning feature of that $60 million change. That’s for a good reason; they’re possibly the biggest attraction at the zoo, according to Fernandes, swimming around in laps, diving and spiraling through the water. Visitors can observe the swimmers on a bridge in the center of the exhibit, and can even go below water level to observe them behind glass. I got my nose right in there, where about a million other noses and lips and hands have been, to get as close as I could.

The river otters who live next door have what looks like a waterslide in their habitat and, as if it needs to be said, they use it liberally. They’re a lot smaller than the sea lions, but just as entertaining. They just show off less.

Fernandes said that current plans include a new otter and sea lion welcome exhibit right next to the entrance. Since the animals are such big attractions, it makes sense to have them as a greeting for visitors. Water, she said, will be paramount in the design of the new otter and sea lion display, as well as a central theme of the new zoo.

“Water is a critical element,” she said, noting that the new zoo designs will include water as a central element throughout all exhibits. A desert exhibit featuring zebras and ostriches, perhaps, would revolve around a watering hole. An arctic exhibit with polar bears would revolve around ice. And the zoo’s new rainforest habitat will feature a 32-foot waterfall to imitate Angel Falls in Venezuela, the tallest waterfall in the world. The $4 million exhibit is under construction, and will be completed in July. It’s going to be awesome. Tropical birds like toucans will fly free inside the exhibit alongside squirrel monkeys, armadillos, turtles, and dozens of other species. Visitors will be taken up in an elevator disguised within a tree, offering a new dimension within the zoo, similar to the New York Botanical Gardens in the Bronx.

The year-round exhibit will be like taking a break from the snow by entering a “tropical paradise,” Fernandes said. “People will be really excited when the rainforest opens.” Fernandes has a way of speaking where her voice becomes louder when she said certain phrases. “Really excited” was one of those times, and I believed her.

The independent philosophies behind zoos are emotional ones. National groups have called the Buffalo Zoo’s elephant exhibit too small, and the exhibit nearly lost its American Zoo Association accreditation in 2006 for having too small an enclosure. Since then, the zoo has campaigned for donations to bring the interior part of the exhibit from 1,050 square feet to 1,800—600 square feet above the AZA standard.

Several Buffalo citizens have written letters to The Buffalo News insisting that this isn’t enough. Their intention is to have Buki, Sarapa, and Jothi released to an elephant sanctuary in Tennessee, which sits on 200 acres of land. One letter read, “I don’t believe the zoo will be able to supply anything that can come close to a satisfactory living area for such huge, complex and intelligent animals.” The sanctuary is away from the traditional zoo format, and is closed to the public.

The elephant exhibit has been difficult to work with, Fernandes said, since the elephant house at the zoo is a New York state historic site. “We couldn’t make the building any larger,” she said, since the state has specific rules for preserving historic buildings. The zoo instead decided to redesign the elephant house, reducing the viewing area, which currently takes up about 30 percent of the space, to give that space to the elephants. This would reduce the interior viewing room to about an eight-foot strip. “We have a lot of rules because of the historic nature of the building,” she said.

The cage the elephants reside in is certainly small compared to their mammoth size, but the pachyderms are let out frequently even in winter to roam a fairly pleasant outdoor habitat. While we explored the zoo, for example, the elephants spent the time outside, then were herded back inside when we were headed for the exit. They enter and exit through a door that looks not unlike the drawbridge of a medieval castle—these animals are truly huge.

Easy for me to say, but watching the elephants doesn’t represent the criticisms that the exhibit has received. The elephants seem more Animal Planet than Dumbo. A fist is made with the elephant’s trunk to pick up hay spread around the cage, an operation far more efficient than it sounds. The breathing, mammoth trunks look every bit as alive as you can imagine, and seem to explore by themselves, as if they should have eyes at the tip of their snouts. A zoologist would know better the capacity for emotion in these animals, but seeing two animals intertwining each other’s tusks (a sign of affection) gave me a feeling, at least for a moment, that I hadn’t felt before. (By the way, Asian elephants have a certain disposition for homosexual behavior—nearly half of an elephant’s sexual behavior will be with a partner of the same sex).

Also to be noted are the giraffes. Their enclosure includes tropical birds large and small, flourescent and muted. Standing outside their enclosure is a statue of two iron giraffes, with thier long necks intertwined. It’s a nice a touch.

I noticed that, while exploring the Northern areas of the zoos (zebras, tigers, reptiles) the staff does a great job of catering to the imagination. One large exhibit under construction near the reptile dioramas was covered with a plywood barrier, but the barrier had been painted with a rainforest mural. I thought about it—the whole exhibit was saved by that motion, that attention to a person’s zoo experience. That’s the type of change I credit Fernandes with, as well as the guy feeding the gorillas. The zoo today looks like it’s full of people on every level who are genuinely excited about their jobs.

It shows throughout the zoo, from the insides of the exhibits to the charming, wooden benches outside one of the more expansive main enclosures.

Fernandes credits the zoo’s visual appeal to a plan she was introduced to as curator at the Bronx Zoo. Every week, Fernandes was responsible for being sure that the zoo looked as good as it could. “When I was curator I had to go around and do a whole report,” she said. Now, she has the same policies with her curators, and receives reports from them about what needs to be changed, from pruning foliage that can obstruct signage, to litter removal.

It’s all part of the job of making the zoo as enjoyable as possible. For Fernandes, the zoo is a place of education, both for children and adults. “We try to make it fun for people of all ages,” she said. “With increased urbanization, kids don’t get the chance to see animals like this anymore.” Fernandes said that teaching students principles of conservation and zoology at an early age is the best way to shape who they become.

“We have to influence voters at their youngest age,” Fernandes said. “Wildlife, in your backyard.”