This is partly why CMZ decided to renovate the 1960s era Aquatics building instead of the much older and arguably worse looking Monkey Pavilion which dates to the 1940s. The zoo had to dump and fill the hippo pools everyday as there was not a modern filtration system and the zoo was wasting millions of gallons of water. Water’s Edge’s filtration is humongous and the zoo will be able to recirculate more water and only need to dump the whole system very rarely. Water conservation is one of the staple conservation initiatives CMZ is pushing.
There is pretty little room for the zoo to expand in any direction. The parking lot at the zoo is pretty much surrounded by the zoo and neighborhoods and a garage is not financially reasonable for the zoo. Since the zoo has increased attendance, parking has been a major issue for guests and the surrounding neighborhoods. They have been offering free shuttles from shared parking lots the past few years including the local high school (which works well as the school is less utilized in the summer) and a former Sears lot. The area doesn’t allow for a new lot to be built anywhere closer unfortunately.
Yes he is the only individual. He arrived from Zoo Tampa in 2016.
Thanks for the info,@Echobeast .
It's really impressive on ground level. Today I went to see the hippos but the penguins stole the show. Two came outside to the guest path and a bunch of us keepers were able to pet them and get really close. IMO the best hippo and African penguin exhibit I have seen.
The plan is to have a breeding herd. The building can house up to 5 hippos (two cows, their calves, and a bull). For work related reasons I can’t say everything here obviously but currently the announced species include African penguins (walkthrough outdoor portion similar to many wallaby yards. Underwater viewing in both indoor and outdoor pools), Nile hippos, ring-tailed lemurs (which will live on the island in the middle of the pool you can see in the video), common warthogs (plan is to mix them in the hippo yards. There are a few “warthog only areas” for them), crested guinea fowl (also mixed in the large yards), and at least one other species that the zoo hasn’t officially announced yet but their exhibit is done and signage is up. Another nice thing that will facilitate more hippos is that there are actually two yards and with gate management, the water space can be divided into 4 with access to different land space both indoor and outdoor. So you can have say a bull in one yard with access to a pool and the females can have access to the other outdoor yard and 3/4 of the pool for instance.