Zoo/Aquarium Hot Takes

ZooBinh said:
Should they move from their 100-acre facility to a 40-acre one as well, then? ;)
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They wouldn't have any problems filling up their 100 acre site with such animals. Wildlife Explorers Basecamp is 3.2 acres and Africa Rocks is 8 acres. Both those exhibit complexes are based around the type of animals I mentioned.
 
I thought it was more well known but apparently quite a few people forget San Diego Zoo is in the middle of a major change to update the parks older exhibits. Yes the bear exhibits are terrible because their 60+ years old. I will agree some of their newer big cat exhibits are poor but every other peice of the newer exhibits is great. San Diego is world renowned for its great collection and innovative exhibits which it has kept up well with explorers Base Camp and Africa Rocks. You can’t judge a building by the plot of land it will be built on, San Diego is in the middle of an improvement period and cannot be judged as a whole until those improvements are made. We can only judge the newer editions as a guide for what to expect in future exhibits.
 
If the older and more dated exhibits at the San Diego Zoo are still there on my next visit, then I will change my approach to visiting and actively avoid them. There is so much else to see there! I would have enjoyed my last visit there so much more if I hadn't wasted time trying to see everything-including things I didn't personally like.

I agree that the San Diego Zoo has a great future! I would like to visit it again, perhaps a few years from now, and I'm sure that I would enjoy that visit more!
 
Westcoastperson said:
I thought it was more well known but apparently quite a few people forget San Diego Zoo is in the middle of a major change to update the parks older exhibits. Yes the bear exhibits are terrible because their 60+ years old. I will agree some of their newer big cat exhibits are poor but every other peice of the newer exhibits is great. San Diego is world renowned for its great collection and innovative exhibits which it has kept up well with explorers Base Camp and Africa Rocks. You can’t judge a building by the plot of land it will be built on, San Diego is in the middle of an improvement period and cannot be judged as a whole until those improvements are made. We can only judge the newer editions as a guide for what to expect in future exhibits.
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A majority of zoos are currently working on fixing their outdated exhibits. Are we not allowed to judge any zoo?
 
DevinL said:
Warning, hot take incoming...
The San Diego Zoo should focus on primates, small mammals, birds, reptiles, and other small animals and leave the larger hoofstock, pachyderm, and large carnivore exhibits, with a select few exceptions, to their San Diego Zoo Safari Park facility.
Actually, that may not be such a hot take because it seems to be what they're doing and having success with...
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An interesting but honestly bad hot take for a few reasons. The zoo still needs enough big abc animals to maintain a draw for one thing. Most larger hoofstock went to the safari park already, so no real argument there. Perhaps the biggest problem with the take is the current downsizing of the Safari Park's collection. The park has sustained multiple notable losses and by all accounts will continue to do so under the current management. Many of the species the safari park was famous for on this site are gone within the last couple years. Several others will be gone soon enough. The zoo on the other hand is holding species, and doing pretty well managing space it seems. No need to send more species over to where they're actively dropping large species.

Westcoastperson said:
I thought it was more well known but apparently quite a few people forget San Diego Zoo is in the middle of a major change to update the parks older exhibits.
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This is true. I strongly suspect we will be seeing either Center Street or Urban Jungle getting a reno here soon. The zoo has been constantly plowing through the older sections one by one and updating them pretty well for the most part.

Pleistocene891 said:
Are we not allowed to judge any zoo?
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Yes, but judge fairly at least. Zoos don't have 500 million to overhaul everything at once or even as soon as it becomes dated. ;)
 
"Many of the species the safari park was famous for on this site are gone within the last couple years. Several others will be gone soon enough."

@Great Argus Would you mind elaborating on this or pointing me to a more relevant topic? I would be curious to understand this better.
 
JVM said:
@Great Argus Would you mind elaborating on this or pointing me to a more relevant topic? I would be curious to understand this better.
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Species lost include Giant Eland, Gaur, Shoebill, Goliath Heron, and Black Heron. Kafue Lechwe may also be gone. Red-fronted Gazelle, Mandarin Sika, and Black Rhino are either very elderly in the case of the former two or being shipped out (rhino). Anyone's guess how long their Storm's Storks will continue to be around. Mind you most of those species were/are dead-end anyways, but the Safari Park is not the rare species haven it used to be.

Many of the hoofstock species they do still have gone into phase out, for more details see yesterday's posts in this thread: San Diego Zoo Safari Park News 2022 [San Diego Zoo Safari Park]

There is a fair bit of discussion throughout that thread and elsewhere on the site about the current species trends at the safari park.
 
Pleistocene891 said:
A majority of zoos are currently working on fixing their outdated exhibits. Are we not allowed to judge any zoo?
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Well Fort Worth is in the middle of a renovation period at the moment. Should some of the exhibits be judged? Sure, Texas Wild and World of Primates may have small exhibit’s, but the zoo is making an active effort to improve itself.
 
Westcoastperson said:
Yes, you really shouldn’t judge zoos who have committed to improving themselves. Instead you should judge their newest additions as an example of their future exhibits.
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You have to judge a zoo in the present by what it is in the present. It doesn’t matter if it will be the best in the future, as much as it doesn’t matter that some zoos had great collections before the 70s.
 
Westcoastperson said:
Yes, you really shouldn’t judge zoos who have committed to improving themselves. Instead you should judge their newest additions as an example of their future exhibits.
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That's just justifying and accepting mediocrity just because it's old. It's fine (and fair) to acknowledge when something's on the chopping block, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't judge it.

~Thylo
 
ThylacineAlive said:
Detroit's Polk Penguin Conservation Center > St. Louis' Penguin & Puffin Coast in almost every conceivable way.

~Thylo
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Very hard disagree here. I know Saint Louis has had some trouble with breeding, but being able to share a space with penguins is just a magical experience, and I'm sure the guests feel that way as well.

I found Polk Penguin Conservation Center to be a bit overrated. It's certainly a very good penguin exhibit, but it just felt a bit generic. It's a chilled room with some subantarctic penguins and some nice underwater viewing. Other than that the building almost feels empty given that the hallways are covered in screens showing videos of animals when that could have had some nice small animal exhibits.

Saint Louis on the other hand, aside from being a walkthrough, also has the outdoor portion with Humboldts, as well as the cool cliffs for the nesting puffins (and, up until recently a King Eider).

Also, good luck finding a way to get into Polk Penguin Center - they really messed up that building's construction, which is another strike against it.
 
birdsandbats said:
Very hard disagree here. I know Saint Louis has had some trouble with breeding, but being able to share a space with penguins is just a magical experience, and I'm sure the guests feel that way as well.

I found Polk Penguin Conservation Center to be a bit overrated. It's certainly a very good penguin exhibit, but it just felt a bit generic. It's a chilled room with some subantarctic penguins and some nice underwater viewing. Other than that the building almost feels empty given that the hallways are covered in screens showing videos of animals when that could have had some nice small animal exhibits.

Saint Louis on the other hand, aside from being a walkthrough, also has the outdoor portion with Humboldts, as well as the cool cliffs for the nesting puffins (and, up until recently a King Eider).
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Smell aside, the open-air feel is certainly a plus for many visitors, yeah, but that doesn't have anything to do with husbandry. St. Louis's pool is restrictive and the penguins I've heard spend more time on land than is best for them. Meanwhile, Detroit offers more water volume alone than St. Louis does in general, or at least it's very close. More habitats and species does not always make for a better exhibit, nor, again, does it have anything to do with husbandry of the species.

It's not often you find captive penguins torpedoing through the water and porpoising as they swim, and to me that sight says a lot about the quality of an exhibit's pool.

birdsandbats said:
Also, good luck finding a way to get into Polk Penguin Center - they really messed up that building's construction, which is another strike against it.
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I didn't have any trouble on Saturday. I'm actually not really sure what you mean by this tbh.

~Thylo
 
ThylacineAlive said:
I didn't have any trouble on Saturday. I'm actually not really sure what you mean by this tbh.
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It has been on and off closed since 2019 - closed for most of that time, actually, because the building had issues. They kept re-opening it saying it was fixed and then closing it again because more issues were found.

I do really like Polk Penguin Conservation Center and found it be one of the better penguin exhibits I've seen - but it was certainly over-hyped. I've always been of the opinion that a positive visitor experience is one of the most important aspects of exhibit design, and I think Saint Louis does it far better.
 
Several years ago I liked Saint Louis's exhibit a lot - being so close to the penguins really is a cool experience, and few zoos offer it to the extent that STL does. That being said, when I visited ABQ Biopark's fairly new sub-Antarctic penguin building in November 2021 I was blown away by getting to see King Penguins (along with Macaroni and Gentoo) torpedoing around underwater. I was so used to seeing Kings just standing around at Saint Louis that it was the first time I'd ever gotten to appreciate them underneath the surface, where their gracefulness is stunning.

full


It's made me reflect on what I value in penguin exhibits - they're a primarily aquatic species, and Saint Louis doesn't offer that side of them to the same extent. If only the two concepts could be combined...
 
birdsandbats said:
It has been on and off closed since 2019 - closed for most of that time, actually, because the building had issues. They kept re-opening it saying it was fixed and then closing it again because more issues were found.

I do really like Polk Penguin Conservation Center and found it be one of the better penguin exhibits I've seen - but it was certainly over-hyped. I've always been of the opinion that a positive visitor experience is one of the most important aspects of exhibit design, and I think Saint Louis does it far better.
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What were the issues the exhibit has faced?

Visitor experience is definitely a very important aspect of exhibit design, but is it really what's most important if it's at the sacrifice of proper husbandry?

~Thylo
 
Great Argus said:
Species lost include Giant Eland, Gaur, Shoebill, Goliath Heron, and Black Heron. Kafue Lechwe may also be gone. Red-fronted Gazelle, Mandarin Sika, and Black Rhino are either very elderly in the case of the former two or being shipped out (rhino). Anyone's guess how long their Storm's Storks will continue to be around. Mind you most of those species were/are dead-end anyways, but the Safari Park is not the rare species haven it used to be.

Many of the hoofstock species they do still have gone into phase out, for more details see yesterday's posts in this thread: San Diego Zoo Safari Park News 2022 [San Diego Zoo Safari Park]

There is a fair bit of discussion throughout that thread and elsewhere on the site about the current species trends at the safari park.
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Thank you for elaborating. That's all really disappointing to hear. I've not well-read on the Safari Park so I hadn't realized the volume of rare hoofstock before - even not being familiar with all of those species, it's definitely a huge loss, especially because seeing them in a zoo probably does more publicity for them than anything else would. Reading through the thread there is so much more I'd like to understand better about the Safari Park's history of rare species - and apparently high management turnover!

Coelacanth18 said:
Several years ago I liked Saint Louis's exhibit a lot - being so close to the penguins really is a cool experience, and few zoos offer it to the extent that STL does. That being said, when I visited ABQ Biopark's fairly new sub-Antarctic penguin building in November 2021 I was blown away by getting to see King Penguins (along with Macaroni and Gentoo) torpedoing around underwater. I was so used to seeing Kings just standing around at Saint Louis that it was the first time I'd ever gotten to appreciate them underneath the surface, where their gracefulness is stunning.

full


It's made me reflect on what I value in penguin exhibits - they're a primarily aquatic species, and Saint Louis doesn't offer that side of them to the same extent. If only the two concepts could be combined...
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This is the most beautiful exhibit for Subarctic species I have ever seen!
 
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