Brookfield Zoo Visit Report: 7/10/20
My first visit to the zoo since the reopening. It was great to finally make a return after so many months. The extreme heat of the past couple of weeks had decided by die down and today was a very sunny, breezy day which was great as all of the buildings are closed. The zoo was filled with animatronic dinosaurs for the special "Dinos Everywhere" event, and while there I don't have too much news to report on, it was still a very enjoyable day. However, I also took the time today to examine some areas that need work. More than ever the zoo is really looking tired. I may be reiterating some of what I have said previously, but I have much to discuss at the end of this post in regards to the problems with the zoo.
Restaurant Improvements:
Several new restaurants are now open. I have uploaded pictures of all of the eateries to the gallery. Not to mention many existing eateries have been rebranded. Its a minor change, but outsourcing their food and gift shop operations earlier this year was probably one of the smartest moves the zoo has done in recent memory. They are saving money, renovating their eating areas, and the food has also drastically improved.
Animal Highlights:
- Hudson the polar bear put on a show, vocalizing while walking around his yard, before quickly jumping into his pool. However, the underwater viewing area for the bears was closed, so no good look at him underwater sadly.
- The painted dog pack, with their seven most recent additions, was great to see, chasing each other on the rocks and gnawing on bones.
- Other new additions like Brutus and Titus the lions, and the Amur leopard cub were visible, but didn't feel like doing anything particularly interesting. Still always great to see new additions.
- The aforementioned rhino keeper chat was very endearing. Great to see such large animals up close.
Discussion with a Pachyderm Keeper:
I was able to catch the tail end of a keeper chat with the zoos older male black rhino. At the end of the presentation, I asked a few questions in regards to what the zoos future holds when it comes to pachyderms. Here are a few key details
- Lets get the elephant in the room out of the way. Are elephants slated to make their return to Brookfield in the upcoming master plan? Yes. However, it is not the zoos priority at the moment. It will still be at least several more years until elephants will be returning, and it won't be in the pachyderm house. Speaking of which...
- Whats the future of the pachyderm house? The 9 decade old building is ancient and has become a maintenance nightmare. The building is sucking up a ton of the zoos up keep investments, and while I had suspected it would be kept around because of its history, it appears that won't be the case. Within the next decade, the pachyderm house will likely be demolished.
- I was given some insight on to what the original plan for elephants was going to be. Shortly after the zoo last elephant departed, the plan was going to be to covert the pachyderm building into a dedicated elephant complex. Yards would have taken up both sides of the building and rhinos, hippos and tapirs would have displaced. A massive indoor dayroom would have taken up about 3/4 of the pachyderm house and there is actually a rendering of this that can be found in the gallery. However, the numbers were crunched, the infrastructure was examined, and it was determined that the plan was far too impractical to go through. Mainly because there is a large basement under the pachyderm building, and having a ceiling that can support multiple elephants would be far too ambitious of a task.
- Lastly, whats the future of the zoos rhino breeding program? Unfortunately, it appears unlikely that Layla will ever be pregnant. This is because of her life threatening infection that requires constant surgeries for essential the rest of her life. She will soon be introduced to the younger male, King, but once again calves are likely not happening.
Problem Areas:
While at the zoo, I wanted to photograph the zoos biggest problem areas - aka areas that are underutilized, abandoned or unkept - and address all of them and what their issues are. I photographed a total of 11 areas that I considered to be "problem areas" and there are more that I either didn't get around to photographing or didn't have the time (former vampire bat cave, former stingray bay, that empty dirt mound across from the west most zebra yard). Here is a brief rundown of all of the areas that are bringing the zoo down.
- Bear Grottos - To be fair, I'll cut the zoo some slack on these ones. These ancient grottos have sat empty for a decade and while they are eyesores, they would be quite expensive to destroy and there are many more pressing matters that need the zoos attention. fixing older areas is more important than buildings something brand new. These remnants of the past will have their day, eventually.
- Aardvark House - What many considered to be the zoos hidden gem, the aardvark house closed in 2016 when its last resident was sent to a different facility. Since then, the building has been left to deteriorate and the path to the house has been blocked off.
- The Nature Stage - Next to the east most black rhino lies a small stage known as the nature stage. Do you know whats its for? Because I certainly don't. I have never seen it used, and I doubt many guests even know it exists. Today, it is clearly not set up for any sort of presentations and essential wasted space (a common theme here).
- Festival of Flight Arena - The former bird show that was a hit with guests only ran for two years in 2015 and 2016. The arena was dismantled and the area became yet another empty field. Why the bird show was dropped in baffling as it featured many species that couldn't be found anywhere else in the zoo (harpy eagles!).
- Nile Hippo Exhibit - The zoos last nile hippo was sent elsewhere in 2012 and was briefly used by one of the pygmy hippos. However, after the pygmys took a disliking to the exhibit, the pool was drained and the exhibit has been vacant for several years now.
- Woofield Gift Shop - Not a massive loss, but still a confusing one. Woofield gifts - located next to Reptiles and Birds - was abandoned a few years back for an unknown reason. Only the buildings shell remains.
- Beer Garden - An oversized beer garden located behind the old bear grottos that is essentially a whole bunch of nothing. There are wooden picnic tables haphazardly spread out on mulch, surrounding an older exhibit that hasn't held an animal in years. From my understanding, it held the last few elderly ibex when the ibex island was destroyed to make way for Great Bear Wilderness.
- Abandoned Building - So across from the snow leopard grotto is whats seemingly an abandoned building that sits empty. I can't seem to find any history for what its for exactly, but its certainly an eyesore. Any idea what this is or was?
- Empty Fields - The zoo has an arguably ridiculous amount of empty fields. However, there are two that bother me most. One being the empty field east of the giraffe exhibit and old aardvark house, and the other being the picnic area in between the condor flight cage and the bald eagle aviary. Empty plots of land that can easily be used to build expansions of nearby areas.
- Empty Pavilion - Last up, the empty pavilion across from the discovery center by the north entrance. Simply an empty area with nothing going on and no reason for being as large as it is.
Phew, that is a LOT. I get there are times when zoos will have empty areas, but the truly great ones know how to make the most of the space they are given. Brookfield was once a truly great zoo and it still is a very good zoo. However, its no secret that while other zoos have continued to progress Brookfield has remained stagnant and has arguably regressed, by getting rid of things, then not using the space at all. Its truly disheartening to read comments in the media gallery that talk about new exhibits and renovations that never came. Next year is the Chicago Zoological Societies centennial and its then when I believe the zoo will release their master plan. The zoo will also be getting a new director next year, so I can only hope that new leadership and a new vision plan can be a turning point. There are some promising additions down the pipeline, such as outdoor ape habitats and a possible exhibit for togo slippery frogs. I'm ready to see some truly radical change to Chicagos premiere zoo. Only time will tell.
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