SEATTLE — Woodland Park Zoo’s Trail of Vines exhibit received a Significant Achievement Award, which adds another honor to the zoo’s list of national exhibit awards. The American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) presented the award this week during AZA’s 73rd Annual Conference in Albuquerque, N.M. This represents the fourth exhibit award in seven years for the zoo.

The zoo opened the $8.2 million exhibit last summer by introducing the zoo’s orangutans into an open forest canopy. Along an elevated boardwalk, zoo visitors can observe the arboreal apes behaving much as they do in the wild — living and sleeping in treetops, and swinging on vines — without bars or mesh between the visitors and orangutans.

In addition to the Northern Borneo orangutan forest, the 2.7-acre exhibit transports visitors to forests of the Western Ghats in India and a rocky outcrop in Malaysia. Visitors encounter lion-tailed macaque monkeys, Malayan tapirs, siamang apes and Indian pythons. More than 10,000 plants representing 266 species are interspersed among snags and deadfall, grow along artificial vines, provide arboreal pathways, and invoke the structural complexity of tropical rain forests.

"While we proudly accept another exhibit award from AZA, our zoo peers, we have the public and private sectors to thank," said Woodland Park Zoo Director Dave Towne. "Without the financial backing of every King County resident, individuals and corporations, the zoo would not be the award-winning institution it is today. We hope they are equally proud of this achievement."

The project team included: designer/architect, Design Consortium, New Orleans; general contractor, Engineers-Contractors, Seattle; and exhibitry, Jolly Miller Construction Company, Seattle.