French zoos evolve with exotic themes

LA FLECHE, France: Forget trekking to the Arctic. French tourists are opting for the luxury way to spend the night with a polar bear: Beside a log fire not far from home.
Since it launched “A night at home with the bear” in October, La Fleche zoo in western France has booked up its comfy lodge overlooking Taiko the polar bear’s enclosure until the end of 2015.
Safari-style lodges are part of a strategy by French animal parks to update ageing structures and attract new visitors. They follow a worldwide trend, from an Africa-themed resort at a zoo in Canberra, Australia, to party nights at zoos from London to Los Angeles. La Fleche zoo, which opened in 1946, was in need of boost when it opened its first lodge in 2013.
Visitor numbers soon increased and the park now has eight lodges.
Their style reflects the architecture of areas where the neighboring animals would normally reside: Arctic lodges with log fires for observing polar bears, Asian-style lodges surrounded by bamboo and rice-paddies for tiger-watching.
With immense bay windows, the three-star, six-person polar bear lodge costs at least 200 euros (250 dollars) per adult per night.
Visitors can observe Taiko and another polar bear, Katinka, swimming underwater through a massive window connected to the comfortable parental suite.
Champagne and a gastronomic dinner are on the menu, while the howls of Arctic wolves ring out through the night.
“The idea is that visitors feel like they’re in a cocoon suspended in time, totally immersed in the animal environment,” said the zoo’s owner Stephane Da Cunha.
Six other lodges are due to open by 2016, ahead of “a big African savannah project,” to include a hotel complex for business customers.
The project — which cost more than 300,000 euros ($370,000) for the most luxurious polar bear section alone — should be profitable within several years since the accommodation is fully booked, Da Cunha said.
Other French zoos are trying similar initiatives, including Cerza, in western France, and Sainte-Croix, in the northeast, which houses European animals.