Here’s why The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens chose to make Australia its new exhibit

News Channel 3's Caitlin Thropay has been exclusively following the progress of the new "Australian Adventures" exhibit at The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Palm Desert.

We spoke with the zoo's President and CEO, Allen Monroe on why the organization chose to highlight Australia.

“Deserts make up about one-third of all the land masses on the Earth and so there’s an important story to tell,” Monroe told News Channel 3.

Highlighting deserts from around the world has always been a key focus of the zoo. “Australian Adventures” is a continuation of their vision.

“Australia was having very similar issues that we have in southern California where a prolonged drought is leading to wildfires which are causing animal concerns and so that’s when we decided it’s time to add the Australian deserts to our mix here," Monroe said.

They hope to change the way people think of deserts.

“People have an impression from movies and such that deserts are vast wasteland where nothing can live or would want to live but the reality is there are all kinds of fascinating plants and wildlife that call the desert home,” he said.

However, these desert dwellers didn’t come from down under.

“These are not animals from the wildfires in Australia," Monroe said. "These are captive born species that have come from other zoos with active breeding programs," he added.

This new exhibit offers unique educational experiences to park guests.

“One of the things we are really passionate here at The Living Desert is the education of all of our guests," he said. "Whether that’s preschoolers that come here on a field trip all the way up to senior citizens that have the chance to come and learn all about what we’re doing here,” he added.

One opportunity to learn happens at their new weather station.

“We will have a weather station which will show real-time weather both here in the Coachella Valley as well as in Australia so you’ll be able to say okay it’s 80 degree and sunny here, what is the weather like in Australia this time and of course the seasons are reversed and so it’ll be great to have the connection internationally about things like weather and climate,” he said.

Whether you’re learning about weather, Australian deserts or the plants and animals that live there, you’ll experience something new as you wander with the wallabies through the exhibit.

“By the time you leave here you’ll have met the animals, you’ll have learned more about the biology, what makes them so unique and then what we can do to help both in Australia and also here in the California deserts so that we can help protect some of these amazing habitats,” Monroe said.

The exhibit opens Saturday. March 21, 2020. There will be a grand opening ribbon-cutting ceremony at the exhibit that day.