Big Cat Tracks Habitat construction is cruising along

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The Big Cat Tracks Habitat construction is well underway at the Potawatomi Zoo. This exhibit will bring more space for our feline friends and will resemble a real predator prey living situation.

ABC57's Sidney Moore spoke with the zoo's Executive Director, Josh Sisk, who says everything is on track for this project.

He says while the project itself is on schedule, it's the small details that may cause a slight hold up, but nothing that should impact the opening timeline. “We're pretty much on track with everything. There's a lot of parts to these projects, like the caging, the fake rock work, all that stuff there was those are kind of national vendors, so they come from out of state to our community to do that kind of stuff, and there's a lot of zoos doing work right now. So really, the delays have been more kind of setting up those different disciplines to come out here.”

Sisk says the zoo could have a soft opening of this habitat as soon as this fall, with hopes of opening to the public in 2027. The zoo sat on 23 acres but was able to work with the City of South Bend to add the park land that sits right next to the zoo, to create a larger space for the cats. The zoo is preserving the trees from that area as part of the exhibit. They also plan to add a male pairing to the female tiger Morgana, for breeding purposes.

Sisk says this upgrade is going to make you feel like you're witnessing these felines out in the wild. “It's going to feel you're going to be able to see a tiger how you would see a tiger in the wild, and then when you flip over to the leopards, I mean, you've got this massive rock wall that they're going to be able to climb on these natural trees inside their habitat. But one of my favorites is how the tiger gets to the exhibit, and that's through a catwalk that's going to be about eight feet in the air, and the tiger actually walks overhead to get down to his habitat. And then living under that Tiger is going to be actually some native deer to their region. So, you're going to kind of that predator prey perspective, and then just being able to see those Tigers walk over to their exhibit through a catwalk is going to be pretty neat.”