Fresno Chaffee Zoo Fresno Chaffee Zoo News - 2020
- Thread starter snowleopard
- Start date
I mean it does hurt if one of the otters gets killed.
You know they had orangutans with Asian smaller clawed otters at some zoo in the United States right?? The orangutans could’ve hurt the otters at anytime but that turned out ok
Orangutans have been housed with A.S.C.O.s in European zoos too. Cohabitation is one of those things where individual personalities can make or break it. (Obviously things like lions and gazelles couldn't cohabitate, but you get my point.)
Species mentioned in the press conference and video include malayan tiger, siamang, orangutan, sloth bear/asian-small clawed otter (mixed), rhinoceros hornbill, komodo dragon, indian rhinoceros, false gharial, and asian songbirds.
Yet another temple-themed Asian habitat. C'mon, Sunda Forest was a perfectly good theme! You could put clouded leopards, nix the rhinos and put tapirs in with babirusa or Visayan warty pigs, bring in sun bears rather than sloth bears and even a host of Southeast Asian invertebrates and herptiles! I'm glad they are at least maintaining the orangutan exhibit and adding hornbills in a similar organic treetop habitat instead of yet another temple facade. Plus the komodo habitat looks to be in a natural streambank, so... overall some good elements and some nice choices (tomistoma!!!). At least it's better for the animals husbandry-wise and this'll give the zoo a much-needed boost in the wake of the pandemic, so, all in all a mixed bag.
It is unique in terms of highlighting tomistoma and having more naturalistic orangutan, hornbill, and komodo dragon habitats juxtaposing the more temple-themed tiger, bear/ASCO, tomistoma (and hopefully flying fox...) set of habitats. I really wish they went with tapirs rather than Indian rhinos, but other than that, I'm excited for the more naturalistic habitats, and I'm somewhat underwhelmed and disappointed at yet ANOTHER temple-themed habitat.
The tomistoma replaced what was originally shown in the concept drawings as a flying fox exhibit.
There were Malayan tapirs at the zoo in the former rhino exhibit, but I think that they both died of old age. My understanding (which may be outdated) is that Malayan tapir numbers in American zoos are below replacement levels and they are disappearing from former holders. Apparently that is why DAK went out of the species and transformed their former tapir exhibit into a macaque exhibit.
If AZA is running out of Malayan tapir numbers as you mention and below replacement levels, it would seem they have made the choice to stick with Baird's tapir and the like???
Last time I checked there should be around 40 Malayan tapir and around the same number of Baird's tapir in North American zoos (excluding Mexico and Meso Americas). In both the position would be to manage at a global level with Malayans combine with European and Asian breeding programs.
Their were 48 in the SSP as of last year (including the rum creek animals). The program was classified as red though as reproduction has been a major issue, barely keeping pace with deaths. About 2-3 births a year at this point. From what I know many of the tapirs were in non-breeding situations, so the SSP has been prioritizing getting the species into breeding situations.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/abc30.com/amp/fresno-zoo-kingdoms-of-asia/6547492/
According to this article the kingdoms of Asia expansion costs $38 million and the project is a total of 3 acres
According to this article the kingdoms of Asia expansion costs $38 million and the project is a total of 3 acres
Fresno's upcoming Kingdoms of Asia looks like a slightly more expansive and expensive version of Tulsa Zoo's Lost Kingdom...right down to the mock-rock ruins everywhere.
I mean almost every zoo is building an Asian exhibit based off of ancient ruins and etc. However I will say that Fresno is so far one of the more impressive Asian exhibits I’ve seen so far. And let’s be real here. Lost kingdom honestly didn’t turn out the best it could’ve been in my opinion
I will say this exhibit will be planted much lusher (maintaining pre-existing trees as well) and that'll make a world of difference. I do get afraid this will turn out like Woodland Park's exhibit though.
Species mentioned in the press conference and video include malayan tiger, siamang, orangutan, sloth bear/asian-small clawed otter (mixed
Of course this news drops during the two days I'm mostly offline
Overall I'm really pleased with with the reveal, especially the tomistoma exhibit. The one big surprise is the otters, due to both the sloth bear mix and the fact they're bringing in a new otter species at all. I'm not huge on carnivore mixes and the like, the potential for long-term stress or tragedy for an otter is quite real, hopefully they manage things carefully. The footprint of the future tiger exhibit includes the current spotted-necked otter exhibit, and I figured they were going to incorporate them into the planned + funded African river complex. Either they'll have two otter species, or more likely we'll just have the small-claweds from now on.In terms of species selection, a lot of this is working with what the zoo already had on hand. I feel you on the clouded leopards though
The two male greater one-horned rhinos arrived in 2017 and have become extremely popular, to the point that the zoo runs two different behind-the-scenes experiences for them specifically. So I don't really see them getting moved elsewhere. Sun bears are a phase-out as far as I'm aware and the zoo's two sloth bears are breeding at other zoos, so their return has been intended for years. They currently have a pair of babirusa, though! Not included in Kingdoms of Asia for some reason, so maybe not a permanent addition, but they're in the ex-Malayan tapir exhibit. Fresno held a pair of Malayan tapirs from the mid-90's until 2017, though I know they weren't always the same pair, after either a death or transfer a new male came in from St. Louis in 2011. Despite having them that long, they never had breeding success (though I'm not sure how rigorous those attempts were), and after the male died at 29 in 2016, the sent the 24 year-old female to San Diego for a final breeding attempt in 2017. I can imagine the red-classified SSP combined with two decades of no success is discouraging, I didn't picture them trying to bring in the species again.
Also worth mentioning: I understand that zoochatters are sick to death of temples, and I heavily favor naturalistic exhibits and theming as well. But as far as I know (and definitely correct me if I'm wrong), this is the only large zoo in California that'll have the dreaded temple theme. So for the average zoo-goer here there's a novelty factor.
This seems to be intended as a new event space and guest-centric experience as well, something that Fresno lacked before African Adventure brought in the well received Kopje Lodge, so it makes sense that they're favoring a less naturalistic vibe to duplicate that. You could heavily plant that area of the zoo and stick with Sunda Forest, but that's less conducive to the environment they're trying to cultivate for fundraisers, corporate events, etc. Human-landscape immersion over natural-landscape immersion, I suppose
This seems to be intended as a new event space and guest-centric experience as well, something that Fresno lacked before African Adventure brought in the well received Kopje Lodge, so it makes sense that they're favoring a less naturalistic vibe to duplicate that. You could heavily plant that area of the zoo and stick with Sunda Forest, but that's less conducive to the environment they're trying to cultivate for fundraisers, corporate events, etc. Human-landscape immersion over natural-landscape immersion, I suppose
Last edited:
@Xenartha: can you please walk us through what part of the current zoo that the Asia complex will cover? The former Asian elephant/current Indian rhino exhibit, Australian aviary, and orang exhibit will stay intact. Are they tearing down the current tiger exhibits and building new ones, or expanding the existing exhibits? What old exhibits are included in the footprint of the Asia complex?
Sure thing! Snagged a quick screenshot of the current map (pandemic-updated, so exhibit closures are noted). Obviously not perfectly to-scale, but it's a decent illustration.
And here's a quick snapshot of the video's planned layout for comparison, though it's covered by the title unfortunately
So far, it's looking like:
- Orangutans/siamangs + holding will remain intact, but the viewing deck is expanded for the rhinoceros hornbills.
- The Komodo dragon exhibit is sitting in a currently empty pocket west of the rhinos, that as far as I know has mainly been grass/plantings/storage since the 90's.
- The central plaza with the restaurant and seating area will be replacing a very outdated enclosure that previously held black-footed cats and a handful of other small species (currently empty and unmarked on the map).
- One tiger exhibit will include the current footprint, and will swallow up the current serval exhibit and a portion of the tortoise exhibit. The other tiger exhibit appears to be replacing the former bear grotto (currently aoudads) as well as part of the spotted-necked otter exhibit. The original tiger holding is being retained, and from the looks of things an additional building is being added for the second exhibit. They've had a lot of success with breeding Malayan tigers over the years, so they seem to be really going all-out now that they don't have to juggle their pair between a single enclosure!
- The main entry plaza + songbird aviary + tomistoma exhibit are resting on the current main path, some of the spotted-necked otters, as well as the former giraffe barn.
- The two sloth bear (and now otter) exhibits will be occupying a portion of the 0.5 acre paddock that once held giraffes and other hoofstock, as well as the path and planting north of the petting zoo.
- Last but not least, it appears that the petting zoo, Valley Farm, will be relatively unaffected though squeezed up against the back of the sloth bears, and the babirusa exhibit will be untouched. A path will be wrapping around the back of Kingdoms of Asia and connect the rainforest aviary, peccaries, and other species to the zoo in an altered loop.
Attachments
For now. I would just like to remind you it looks like SDZ will be redoing their Asian exhibits next but I have faith they will make a good decision when redoing this (nervously looks at elephant odyssey). But in all seriousness, I think they will go more naturalistic like what they did with tiger trail. Now Los Angeles is getting a major overhaul and right now it looks like Asia is gonna stay naturalistic but anything could happen because of Corona Virus. They want the exhibit done by the Olympics in LA and I could imagine they have already been set back a bit and the temple would cut their planning time in half, but probably not. I am excited to see this zoo get the makeover it needs, and if a temple theme is what they think is best so be it.