Tikis at Los Angeles Zoo?

On a recent trip to the LA Zoo... I came upon this one lonely Tiki in the bird aviary:

Was there a Polynesian theme somewhere in the zoo history?

:tiki:

Ha! Never seen this! I live right by the Zoo, which aviary is it?
The only Polynesian Pop architecture/theme I found there were these cool (more African) tall roofed hut structures with no apparent purpose, kind of above the main park, they look like the huts in the Samoan Village Motel in Phoenix, Arizona, BOT page 156, very modern primitive.

..but maybe there was something in the old Zoo part nearby in Griffith park, for a while there were abandoned cages and concrete landscape structures up there..

I found it! Was there yesterday with my son , before I went to Hamburg. I found it at one of the big aviary exits. It looks like an Ed Crissman carving, very much in the style of the Tikis he did at Oceanic Arts for the Tropics in Palm Springs. Nice to see it from the side, with it's Tahitian style mouth. Very decrepid though, from all the humidity.

And the African Huts have been decapitated! Cut off the long peaks! You can still see their shape in the direction signs, but they are flattened now. Too much roofing maintenance, I bet!

Great to hear about a zoo Tiki! I've been sent a drawing of a moai from Chester Zoo (UK) by my 15 year old sister in law. We hope to check it out soon. Zoos are always great anyway!

There are also moai's at the London aquarium in the large shark pool. If it wasn't for the piercing shrieks of small children and the greasy hand prints on the glass, it would be a perfect place to mellow out for an hour or two.

Trader Woody