Paging all future veterinarians

Denver Zoo is home to Red-Ruffed Lemurs, Frilled Lizards, a One-Horned Rhinoceros and more than 3,000 other animals. Caring for the animals is the veterinary staff at the conservation center’s new 22,000-sq ft Helen and Arthur E. Johnson Animal Hospital—made visible to guests via an elevated platform. The expansion adds two treatment rooms, a diagnostic lab, a critical-care unit, a surgical suite as well as indoor and outdoor animal wards to the zoo.

With highly advanced technology, such as a CT scanner specifically made for zoo inhabitants, these areas are equipped to hold animals as large as 800 pounds, like bears, while extra-large fauna such as elephants and giraffes remain in their own habitats for treatment. The unique hospital ward serves a dual purpose: when live surgeries are not being performed, or creatures are not receiving other treatments, the area doubles as an educational exhibit displaying interactive videos to pique the interest of all the young animal lovers and future vets in the room.