Home to species like tigers, orangutans, Steller’s sea eagles, and even a visually impaired snow leopard, this 4.5-acre habitat in the Albuquerque BioPark guides visitors through lush forest, mountain, and coastal landscapes inspired by Central Asia. With animal well-being in mind, the “flex” habitats were designed to be fully-rotational—allowing animals to share the varied spaces at different times—creating additional opportunities for enrichment and encouraging natural behaviors like foraging, climbing, and play.

The landscape design seeks to create an immersive experience to transport visitors to the diverse biomes inhabited by each species on exhibit. However, mimicking the landscapes of temperate and tropical forests of Asia within the high desert of Albuquerque was challenging and required creative planting design using hardy broadleaf evergreen shrubs, deciduous and evergreen trees with varying mature canopy heights, flowering shrubs and trees, dense groundcovers, climbing vines, bamboos and bamboo-like grasses.  Plantings of lush, big-leafed and flowering tropical plants are added in select areas on a seasonal basis for dramatic effect.

The highly innovative and immersive design of the exhibit, paired with the focus on animal care won BioPark Asia a significant achievement Exhibit Award in 2024 from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).