The Internet allows us to virtually go anywhere in the world that we want to. But, since it is a virtual experience, we are unable to become immersed in the journey because our five senses are not totally utilized.

Visiting a zoo also allows you to go on a virtual journey through the use of landscape immersion. This adventure is a little different than a journey through cyberspace. Zoo guests from Louisville to San Diego are personally transported to African savannas, polar playgrounds, and to ancient canyons where the rare California Condor flies.

Through landscape immersion, Landscape Architects and zoo personnel team together to bring curious observers closer to exotic animals and their natural habitats.

Louisville Zoo

The picture of the African Savanna shows a palette of native grasses that include little bluestem and taller switchgrass. For color, cone flower, sunflower, aster, swamp thistle and wild rose are used.

Guests of the Louisville Zoo in Louisville, Kentucky start their zoo journey not in a far away land, but in Kentucky.

"We believe when people come to the zoo they are departing on a journey," said Mark Zoeller, Louisville Zoo's Horticulture Manager. "The journey begins of course in Kentucky. Our front plaza areas are landscaped with native plants like Kentucky Coffee trees, buckeyes, and limestone planters which are prevalent in Kentucky.

"This is a strong message to our visitors about the geology of our region as well."

The plantings are not just for the discovery of those visiting Kentucky, but for residents who may not get to see the wide variety of Kentucky plants.

Jim Bassett of Bassett Associates in Lima, Ohio developed the botanical master plan for the zoo and stated that with so many unique plants in the region, it is hard for even locals to see everything.

"There is a full range of plant materials, especially on the edges of the wetlands that are neat in this part of the country," he said. "Unfortunately, a lot of people don't get to see them."

Once guests leave the front plaza area they begin a journey that takes them to exotic parts of the world that they may never get to see in their lives.

The Historic/Perrenial Garden allows visitors a chance to enjoy a variety of special plant collections. According to the Botanical Master Plan of the Louisville Zoo, thematic gardens include a unique collection of shade tolerant plants; a fragrance garden full of sensory delight; and a changing display of annuals.

According to the master plan, the African savanna replicates the character of the environments being recreated from Africa. Collections of ornamental grasses in key locations demonstrate the wide diversity in color, size, and texture such as blood grass, miscanthus, and blue oat grass. Hybrid lilies mimic the beauty of the African glory lily, while black-eyed Susans and yarrow provide dry summer blooms.

Zoeller explained that if the Zoo is unable to grow a plant native to a certain area, they find the next best thing.

"We can't grow Acacias here," he said. "We can grow locust, and that's pretty close. We try to find a palette of plants to imitate the natural area."

Native Honey locust and cockspur hawthorn re-create the silhouette of African trees in the savanna, while broadleaf evergreen shrubs such as holly, pyracantha, and winter honeysuckle represent the vegetation found in the kopje rock formations along the edges of the plains.

Making the area as real as possible will not only to make the guests feel like they are in Africa, but the animals as well.

"We keep both the guests and the animals in mind," Zoeller said of designing areas. "For the animals, we look at things like protection for the smaller animals. Smaller species get into an area where they are browsing on plants and there are places for nesting.

"For instance, flamingos don't nest in wide open areas, so we had to design a hidden room where they could have privacy."

Cascading water and colorful annuals greet visitors as they arrive at the Zoo's entry complex. Figs, palms, rubber trees, bamboo, lilies, orchids, and Amazonia water platters are a sampling of some of the plants used in entry complex.

Bassett added that an important design element is shade for the animals.

"We have to determine the activity of the animal," he said. "It is hot here in the summer, so the placement of the shade depends on whether guests can see the animals and how close they are.

"Also, where they are fed and the interfamily relationship of the animals plays a part in the density of the plant materials."

The Kentucky wetlands and the Asian lowlands provide a plant-rich environment that creates a unique setting for many water related exhibits in the Zoo.

Cattails, pickerelweed, duck weed, water lilies and arrowhead all grow in shallow water, while wild iris, meadow beauty and joe-pye weed all thrive in moist soils at the water's edge. On the higher ground, sweetbay magnolia, red maple and river birch all do well. For an exotic jungle look, ornamental rhubarb and miscanthus, ligularia and royal fern will create an exotic jungle look in habitats re-creating tropical characteristics.

The Kentucky wetlands, is the setting for many water related exhibits in the Zoo.

According to Bassett's master plan, the Asian lowland areas use domesticated rice paddies that illustrate the conflict between man's need for food from the rich soil in these areas and the carefully balanced ecosystems that support such a rich variety of plant and animal life.

"With the climates in Kentucky, we find a lot of native plant material that is rather exotic, such as sumac and pawpaw," Bassett said. "These kinds of plants help to develop an illusionary part of the exhibit."

A wide range of forest types, including temperate, tropical, savanna woodland and African gallery, are needed to provide dynamic new environments for Zoo exhibits.

Where exhibit habitats required a temperate forest environment, the addition of understory plants such as dogwood, viburnum, wild hydrangea and azalea, along with naturalizing ground covers, provide an enticing landscape setting within the existing woodland areas.

The botanical master plan states that exotic textures and plant forms characterized by compound and large leaves, such as Kentucky Coffee tree, horse chestnut, pawpaw and saucer magnolia, immerse visitors in a tropical forest setting as they journey to various animal habitats.

Bassett said that ground plane plantings of ferns, hostas and daylilies, along with native ginger and huckleberry, create a rich layer of understory vegetation to further enhance the image of a tropical environment and provide a sense of anticipation and mystery to the Zoo experience.

San Diego Zoo

The San Diego Zoo is a registered botanical garden and boasts more than 6,500 plant species. The Zoo has a large palm collection with over 400 species, 150 species of aloe, more than 800 species of orchids and over 31 species of bamboo.

Their extensive collection came in handy when Polar Bear Plunge and Tiger River were created.

Polar Bear Plunge, a 2.2-acre summer tundra habitat is an Arctic playground for polar bears, Siberian reindeer, arctic foxes, yellow-throated martens and diving ducks. A 130,000 gallon, 12-foot-deep chilled pool enables visitors to catch a glimpse of these bears swimming from an underwater viewing area.

More than 50 types of plants and trees were specified for the exhibit and include blood grass, cotoneaster, and California Redwoods. Although there are many plant materials involved here, rock and concrete were used more than plants to achieve an Arctic look.

"It was named Polar Bear Plunge to get the point across that this was summer tundra," said Mike Bostwick, Associate Horticulturist at the Zoo. "It is an Arctic region, but it is summer tundra."

The challenge facing the Zoo was to find plants that resembled Arctic summer tundra in Southern California. Redwoods are on the fringes of the exhibit providing shade for the animals, while mahogany-barked manzanita are at the entrance. There are also wildflowers in bloom as well as grasses and a lot of pines, immersing Polar Bear Plunge in what was existing in the area along with material similar to what is in the Arctic.

"Animals killed every redwood on the slope until we finally put really pointy material up, divided the exhibit in half, and put hotwire in," Bostwick said. "Things are growing good now and passage ways will be opened up so the animals can go back up there. They won't have access to the whole thing but that will be shifted around as areas get used up a little bit. It's kind of like moving cows from one pasture to another."

At the Tiger River exhibit, both visitors and species are immersed in a Southeast Asian rainforest. Guests look out over a riverbed at 10 animal enclosures housing more than 100 animals including, Burmese pythons, mousedeer, Malaysian tapirs, gavials (narrow snouted crocodile), Chinese water dragons and of course tigers.

The tigers are not always easy to see, but that is exactly the point.

"We hear from zoo guests that they can't see the animals at every level," said Tiger River designer, Maren Coleman of Jones & Jones Architects in Seattle. "We explain to them, that is an old style zoo design. That is not going to bring out the natural behavior of the animals, it is very boring for the animals and the people as well."

Coleman explained that immersion, and giving the animals a place to hide is better for zoo guests because it gives them a look at the animals natural behavior and it is better for the animals mental state as well.

"We try to give animals a visual advantage by making them higher than eye level to the guests," she said. "By creating an immersion path it works to the animals advantage, and it makes the zoo guest work a little harder to find the animals.

"It is just like being in a rainforest, looking at the animals in a natural habitat."

Tiger River is designed to keep the animals entertained with fallen logs, waterfalls, grasses, and fallen logs built into the hillside for the tigers to climb on.

The exhibit was built into an existing canyon which presented a lot of design challenges for Coleman.

"The existing terrain was a real challenge, it was pretty steep," she said. "We had some grading challenges to work with, we researched that part of the world to match the existing canyon to the natural topography of Southeast Asia."

When plants were specified for the exhibit, Coleman and others from Jones & Jones worked with the Zoo staff to find what plants with low toxicity would best meet the animals needs.

"It's getting more and more vital that we look at those things especially with the higher availability to do research," Bostwick said. "A lot of stuff we traditionally use, has some real bad toxic problems. Zoos all over are really looking into the toxics now."

With 8,000 plants in place, a computerized irrigation system provides a rainforest humidity for guests on the meandering pathway through the three acre site.

San Diego Wild Animal Park

A polar bear plays in the 130,000 gallon, 12-foot-deep chilled pool at the San Diego Zoo. Although 50 types of plants and trees were placed in the exhibit, more concrete and rock was used than plant material in order to give the exhibit an Arctic look.

The 1,800 acre San Diego Wild Animal Park is a wildlife preserve where many rare animals roam together in herds and flocks in vast expanses similar to their native homelands. More than 3,200 animals represent more than 400 species.

The Park is an accredited botanical garden with more than 3,500 species of exotic plants. It is operated by the Zoological Society of San Diego which also manages the San Diego Zoo and the Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species.

Condor Ridge, which opened on May 27, 2000, at a cost of $3.48 million, is designed to celebrate the diversity of North American habitats and the rare and endangered animal inhabitants including more than a dozen species of birds, mammals and reptiles.

"We've designed Condor Ridge to introduce guests to unique animals from our own continent in a setting that utilizes inherent views and spacious surroundings of our park," said Bob McClure, Wild Animal Park General Manager. "Condor Ridge affords us the opportunity to educate our guests about the importance of preserving our native species and local habitats."

The San Diego Wild Animal Park allows animals to roam in a much bigger area, more like their native lands. Landscape immersion allows zoo guests to go to far away lands and become a part of an animals natural habitiat.

Guests enter Condor Ridge through the Park's mature Conifer Forest, which is planted with pine, spruce, fir and redwood trees. A winding path takes guests to the first habitat of the exhibit which is a pine forest.

The pine forest habitat provides roosting places for endangered thick-billed parrots, which once lived in forests across Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico.

A grassland habitat is home to rare aplomado falcons and Eastern wild turkey, followed by a prairie ecosystem that features a series of exhibits for endangered black-footed ferrets and desert tortoises as well as black-tailes prairie dogs, Western burrowing owls, American magpies, Western Harris hawks and Northern porcupines.

At the end of the 430-foot-long trail is an observation deck with an interpretive center that focuses on California condor and bighorn sheep recovery efforts. From the observation deck guests get a look at the sheep on the rocky hillside and on the boulders and cliffs inside a six-story aviary sits the California condor with its 10-foot-wingspan.

An interesting element to the design of Condor Ridge is that it is an ethnobotanical interpretive walk. The exhibit highlights the plants that were once used by the local Kumeyaay people for food, clothing, tools, shelter, medicine and religious ceremonies.

"The Kumeyaay used a lot of the plants indigenous to San Diego to make shoes and sandals," said Cary Sharp, Horticulturist at the Wild Animal Park. "There is a lot of educational value to this experience. It is void of any signage, so you tour on your own. There are some pictoglyphs and rock scratchings that depict what the Kumeyaay did."

Plant materials specified for Condor Ridge include, coast live oak, arroyo willow, white sage, yucca, deer grass, buckwheat, and existing native vegetation.

Maren Coleman with Jones & Jones Architects said that the goal of designing a zoo exhibit is to bring out the natural behavior of animals, keeping them healthier and providing zoo guest with a better time on their journey.

The Heart of Africa gives guests the opportunity to set out on foot with field guides to experience a safari adventure, immersing them in Africa. A winding trail that runs alongside and across shallow waterways, takes guests through changing African habitats. Along the way, guests encounter more than 260 animals, representing 20 species of birds and 11 species of mammals.

Okapi, bontebok, warthogs, giant eland, cheetahs and duikers are some of the mammals that traverse the animal preserve. Giraffes, rhinos, wildebeests and several species of gazelle and antelope are out on the open plain, and often sneak to the water's edge throughout the day.

The varying terrain includes forest, wetlands, savannas and open plains that allow guests amazing access to the animals with no apparent barriers.

"It looks like there is no moat between you and the animals," Sharp said. "There is one, and it is called a ha-ha moat. We put plants in strategic locations and it gets people saying, 'How come those cheetahs can't get to me?'"

Ha-ha moats give visitors the experience of an up-close and personal view of animals in their natural habitats, while visiting the Heart of Africa. Sharp said that there is no danger to guests or animals, because a ha-ha moat creates an illusion that animals are closer to guests than they actually are. If a person is on the animal side of the exhibit, they could see plant build-up and the moat. To guests, it just looks like a cheetah can run right up to a curious guest and observe unfamiliar species in its habitat.

As the trip progresses, guests see twisting streams that eventually connect to two thundering waterfalls that empty into a lagoon. The lagoon contains five islands: two primate islands bridged by deadfall are home to kikuyu colobus monkeys; flamingos occupy a third island, while the very rare shoebill storks inhabit a fourth. On a fifth island a man-made research station provides a spot to observe the other islands.

The research island sits in the center of the lagoon and is accessible through a floating walkway, enhancing the experience of the African journey.

The research camp features simulated living quarters with a tent, kitchen and a shower. A cargo container converted for use by the researcher, a fire ring with seating for special lectures, and African wildlife brought to guests attention for closer observation, help in the immersion.

Landscape immersion can bring zoo visitors to the far reaches of the earth to see exotic plants and animals in their natural habitats. No passports required. LASN