Surviving Construction: Checking in with Cleveland Metroparks Zoo animals still living in the old rainforest  

CLEVELAND (WJW) -- September marks one full year since the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo shut down the rainforest to break ground on its multi-phase Primate Forest. That also meant moving most of the 600 animals that always called the old rainforest home.

But not every species left. The zoo's five orangutans and some of its reptiles stayed put, holding down the fort during construction.

Gharials are a critically endangered species of crocodiles. In fact, there are only about 30 in captivity in American zoos and two of them are right here in Cleveland. Moving them would have been a challenge.

"It's hard to move a gharial," said reptile and amphibian keeper Kristy Becka said. "You would have to wrangle it and move it and that's very stressful, so we wanted to keep them here."

"The gharial gir