The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens Things I Would Like To See Done/Changed

BigNate

BigNate

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
Note: This is for the zoo in Palm Springs, California

This is also only a rough outline, haven't gone fully in depth yet.

Some minor switches
1. Amur Leopards out, African Leopards in- pretty straight forward, African Leopards are obviously from Africa, and will be more suited for the desert weather.
2. Striped Hyenas out, Spotted Hyenas in- this is more of a personal preference I suppose, but stripes are also found throughout Asia to India, while spots are ingenious to only Africa, which would make them for better suited in the African section of the zoo.
3. Pronghorn exhibit enlarged, and bison move in. A couple other zoos have this pairing, and it's worked pretty well. Heat might be a problem, but they would probably be able to adapt, especially if the Amur leopards could.

Medium Changes
1. Expanding of the Madagascar garden, with room to display multiple lemur species( other than ring tails) and fossa, etc.
2. Removal of the whole African species then American species concept in the North American section. From memory that could be caracals and maybe servals. It just doesn't fit. Perhaps a rename to "The Americas" would be better and anteaters/capybaras and new world monkeys could share these exhibits? After all, they do already have jaguars...
3. The other smaller mammals across the path hornbills and gazelles in the concrete, chains link box exhibits, as well as the servals and caracals from above, get moved to their own "zone", still haven't figured out a design that's really works, but an upgrade is clearly needed.

Big Changes
Here's where things get crazy...
1. So the most recent Zoo plans call for lions and rhino (and hyena) exhibits being built by the new entrance

See image here:
https://www.desertsun.com/story/new...-lions-zoo-palm-desert-indian-wells/72224524/

I propose it is made into one large exhibit with a mix of rhinos (black or white) and cheetahs. Where will the lions go then? well in the now former cheetah exhibit, following some renovations for safety.

2. While looking at google maps of the the zoo, I noticed a golf course behind the zoo which I didn't realize was there. Now if that golf course could be turned into zoo property somehow, it would make a great area for future expansion with an Australian section, and perhaps hippos and elephant enclosures in the more distant future.


These are just some of the thoughts I've had regarding my favorite zoo, what are your thoughts/ opinions/ or questions on any of this.
 
No ZooChat member is going to favor removing a rare animal like striped hyena in favor of a more common spotted hyena.

The pronghorn on exhibit are peninsular pronghorn from Baja California, so bison do NOT belong in with them. This facility is devoted to desert wildlife (which automatically excludes bison).

Which is why monkeys will never belong here - there are no desert monkeys.

The cheetah exhibit is fine - no need to change it (and no need to redo the plans for upcoming lion exhibit).

The one thing I do agree with you on is replace Amur leopards (same with the ones at San Diego's Africa Rocks). Unfortunately this will probably never happen because there are few if any pure African leopards in USA and the AZA is only working with Amur.
 
Alright...

Did not know that on the pronghorns, my bad

As for monkeys, trust me, that's one of my favorite things about the zoo, if I want monkeys I could go to the Santa Ana zoo. But this is the same Zoo that's planning for penguins and shark Aquariums. That makes me think they are wanting to open up a little more to other habitats, which like you, I disagree with. But nevertheless if that's the direction they've decided to go, im willing to bet at least smaller monkeys are coming.

In addition, jaguars are also not from the deserts, even on the Living Desert website states that it's habitat is "Forest, swamps, grasslands and mountainous areas."

Jaguar - The Living Desert
 
As for the rhinos and cheetahs combined in a larger enclosure, it provides a interesting mix that I've heard of other zoos doing, and would be an unexpected mix to casual zoo guests

As for the lions in the cheetah exhibits, it will give them a larger area that's what it appears they will get in the planned expansion ( see link in original post) and the renovations (to be fair, only if their needed) would be to transition the area from the more nimble cheetah, to the bigger lion.

Hope that clears at least little bit up
 
Jaguars are an interesting topic. While they don't live in harsh desert floors, they do live in mountains within desert areas. I know because there are jaguars in the mountains south of Tucson where I live. There are also jaguars in the Gran Chaco of South America, which some might describe as a desert area. The exhibit at Living Desert specifically replicates the habitat of Sonoran jaguars in the mountains of southern Arizona and northern Mexico, so it is very fitting.
 
Speaking of which, what you think is the best exhibit at the zoo. I think the only possible choices would be

Mountain Lion
Big Horn Sheep
Cheetah
Giraffe Ostrich Kudu
Jaguar

And I'd have to go mountain lions
 
BigNate said:
Speaking of which, what you think is the best exhibit at the zoo. I think the only possible choices would be

Mountain Lion
Big Horn Sheep
Cheetah
Giraffe Ostrich Kudu
Jaguar

And I'd have to go mountain lions
Click to expand...

I presume that you're asking about what peoples favourite exhibits are, and I'd say that it's easily the Bighorn sheep exhibit. All the exhibits you mentioned are very good, but the Sheep exhibit is simply special and it might be one of my top 5 favourite exhibits ever. The height of the mountain, how much it reminded me of my previous day hiking in Joshua Tree national park and the sight of seeing a large group of Sheep clamber down their mountain all contributes to this incredible exhibit
 
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