Colorado’s wealth of spring activities already got the attention of USA TODAY 10BEST readers, but they also went wild over the state’s zoos in the publication’s readers’ choice awards.
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs and the Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance each picked up honors from the readers. Both were recognized as having one of the 10 best zoo exhibits in the country, while Cheyenne Mountain was also recognized for its membership benefits and its overall offerings as a zoo in recently released honors.
Here are what the zoos were recognized for in the USA TODAY 10BEST Readers’ Choice Awards.
Colorado Springs has one of the nation’s top zoos
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo repeated as No. 2 in the USA TODAY 10BEST Reader’s Choice Awards for best zoo, extending its streak in the top five to seven years.
The zoo’s hundreds of animals come from around the globe. They include a herd of giraffe (which you can feed), meerkats, African lions, Cape porcupines, vultures, and colobus monkeys. Its Mountaineer SkyRide offers views of Colorado Springs and the zoo grounds from high above.
Colorado has two of the top-10 zoo exhibits in the country
The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s Rocky Mountain Wild exhibit, featuring Colorado’s wildlife, ranked No. 2 in the awards. Over three acres, it hosts a moose, mountain lions, Canada lynx, river otters, Mexican gray wolves, a bald eagle and grizzly bears along the mountainside.
Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance’s Toyota Elephant Passage ranked No. 8. The exhibit is “one of the most complex and extensive elephant habitats in North America, with three distinct sections, each reflecting a different habitat of tropical Asia,” USA TODAY 10BEST wrote. The 10-acre exhibit includes two miles of trails for people to walk and has a variety of terrain for the elephants and other animals living in the exhibit.
Cheyenne Mountain has one of nation’s best zoo memberships
The membership program at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo ranked second in the nation, according to USA TODAY 10BEST readers.
Membership includes free daytime admission year-round, early entry on Saturdays and free evening visits to Electric Safari in December. It also provides discounts on the Mountaineer Sky Ride and events such as Boo at the Zoo. Members also get to vote on which projects the zoo focuses on, such as the conservation of Panamanian frogs or Amur tigers.
How are USA TODAY 10BEST Readers’ Choice Awards decided?
USA TODAY 10BEST says a panel of experts nominated zoos and various offerings in each award category, with the final nominees selected via editorial review by its editors. Once the nominees in an award category were announced, the public had four weeks to vote online for their favorites. People could vote for one nominee in each category each calendar day.
Nate Trela covers trending news in Colorado and Utah for the USA TODAY Network.
