Colorado Springs’ Cheyenne Mountain Zoo opened its newest attraction in May, a 4.5- acre African Rift Valley exhibit.

The exhibit is the first project undertaken in the zoo’s US$50m Master Plan to rebuild and modernize the park.

Accessed by a winding boardwalk, the new exhibit is centred around the zoo’s giraffe herd and features a number of activities built around the animals.

These include feeding stations, a daily "stampede" through the exhibit and a cut-away model permitting visitors to learn about the organs of a pregnant giraffe.

Few interpretive text panels are provided but an interactive journal/passport is available, throughout which parallels are made between Colorado Springs and the African Rift Valley. Visitors learn about similarities in terrain, water issues, poaching problems and even wildlife.