Take a trip to The Islands at the Pittsburgh Zoo this summer

If you’ve visited the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium recently, you may have seen a massive construction project underway near the newly opened Jambo Grill. This work site will soon be home to a brand new exhibit area, The Islands, slated to open by the end of June.

Families who take a trip to The Islands will be transported to the tropical habitats of Asian and South American islands, complete with cascading waterfalls, ponds, palm trees and sand. Visitors can also make some new animal friends, including Philippine crocodiles sunning themselves on an outdoor beach, noisy siamangs (a primate closely related to the gibbon) swinging from branch to branch, mohawk-coiffed Visayan warty pigs wallowing in the mud and acrobatic clouded leopards playing in a 16-foot-tall jungle gym. The Islands will also be home to the Galapagos tortoises, who made their debut at the zoo last year.

The entire exhibit will span 22,000 square feet and feature both indoor and outdoor components. And outside the animals’ habitats, there will be spaces for both kids and parents to have fun and relax. Kids can congregate at the sandy Nature Sensory Play Zone, while parents can take in the sights from surfboard benches and colorful hammocks surrounded by palm trees. There will also be an interactive water feature for hot summer days.

The Islands, however, are not just about fun. Bringing species like the Philippine crocodiles, the most endangered reptile in the world, and the Visayan warty pigs—who are now 95 percent extinct on all but two islands—is a major conservation effort that has been built with education in mind.

“The opportunity to introduce our visitors to these wonderful new animals is a chance for us to educate them about their populations in the wild and how serious their continued existence is,” says Zoo spokeswoman Tracy Gray. “It is important for us to encourage them to support conservation efforts not only at the zoo but also worldwide.”

Featured photo: New The Islands exhibit at the Pittsburgh Zoo, Photo courtesy of the Pittsburgh Zoo