Bronx Zoo Asia exhibit
— — the monorail that crosses into another continent.
Not only on a wall.
“The thirty-eight acres on the far side of the Bronx River that the zoo calls Wild Asia. Indian rhinos, Asian elephants, and Malayan tigers in long meadow runs that opened in 1977. The Bengali Express monorail runs above the tree line from spring through autumn, and the river bends through the middle of it like a held breath.
Bronx Zoo Asia exhibit, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Wild Asia opened at the Bronx Zoo in 1977 as one of the first immersive zoo habitats in North America, set on roughly thirty-eight acres along the Bronx River. The Wildlife Conservation Society runs the park, founded in 1895 and based at the zoo since its opening in 1899. The exhibit holds Indian rhinos, Asian elephants, Malayan tigers, and gaur in open paddocks visible only from the Bengali Express monorail, which runs from May into October. Pelham Parkway and the Bronx River Parkway frame the property to the north and west.
The Bengali Express monorail is the only way to see most of Wild Asia, and it runs seasonally from early May through late October, weather permitting. Adult tickets to the Bronx Zoo run about forty-two dollars in recent seasons; the monorail is an add-on of roughly six dollars per rider. The Asia Gate entrance off Pelham Parkway sits closest to the loading platform. On Wednesdays the zoo offers pay-what-you-wish admission, a tradition the Wildlife Conservation Society has kept since the park's earliest years.
The exhibit reads differently across the year. In May the meadows along the Bronx River come up green and the rhinos move into the long paddocks. By August the heat sends the elephants toward the shade behind the teak posts. October closes the monorail and the canopy above the track turns the colour of the tigers themselves. Winter shutters the loop entirely, and most of Wild Asia goes quiet behind the river until the following spring, when the staff opens the gates again.