Closed Zoo Exhibits You've Visited

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JVM

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I was inspired both by snowleopard's recent thread here and recent conversation in this thread about Brookfield where we have been discussing closed exhibits. I would like to focus on exhibits that have been fully closed, heavily renovated or rethemed, not where the paint has been changed or certain species have changed but the exhibit remained conceptually the same.

I've been to the former Large Mammal House, Lester Fisher Great Ape House, Penguin-Seabird House, Kovler Lion House, as well as the original bear line and technically the original Children's Zoo at Lincoln Park Zoo but my memory of that is next to nothing. I'm happy to give thoughts on any of these but they seem fairly well-known for closed exhibits. I may mention the LMH was pretty much pure concrete and water with hay for substrate, nothing like African Journey besides the megafauna list; and at some time, it held a tapir as well.

For Brookfield, I have many memories of Baboon Island and the Bear Grottos, and some of Ibex Island, the Reptile House, and Perching Bird House before it was rethemed into Reptiles and Birds. It really feels like the zoo is missing something without baboons or caprids, and I still missed the old Reptile House for several years before the zoo really built back up its reptile collection.

I'd been to Milwaukee and seen Wolf Woods, Australia, the moose exhibit, the Dall sheep exhibit and very briefly the original Big Cat house shortly before renovation. I was particularly fond of the first three exhibits in particular. Does any other zoo have a dayroom for kangaroos or wallabies? My main memory of the old cat house was that they held cougar at the time and the animals were extremely active on the visit. Feels like the only time I've seen them.
 
The first thing that came to mind was the Australia House at Milwaukee - along with the parts of North America that have closed.

The incredible Crabs! exhibit at SEA LIFE Minnesota (lots of exhibits there actually, I visited it before it was re-branded, I seem to recall a beach-themed exhibit and one called Minnesota Woods).

Some species temporary exhibits at Shedd Aquarium. It always feels disappointing that these are merely temporary because every time the quality and collection knocks it out of the park. I remember Jellies, Amphibians and Underwater Beauty, the latter of which is my favorite of the three.
 
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The Cat Complex at the Omaha Zoo, the Bear Pits, Children's Zoo, old sea lion exhibit, and Chain of Lakes at the Saint Louis Zoo, and the old Orangutan and tiger exhibits at the Kansas City Zoo.
There was also a short-lived exhibit at the Saint Louis Zoo called Awesome Amphibians! in the Living World (entry building) that I doubt most people on here are familiar with, as it only ran for a year or two. The highlight were giant salamanders, I do not recall whether they were the Chinese or Japanese species. There aren't any photos in the gallery so aside from a couple off-hand mentions its kind of lost to time on this site.
 
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For me the the first thing that comes to my mind was Bronx Zoo’s World of Darkness and Monkey House. I am extremely graceful that I saw those exhibits before they got shut down with WoD impressing me at a very young age (and being the gateway to my affinity towards nocturnal houses.)

There’s the old children’s zoo in Ueno that we only entered and left some time before it got closed and got made into another giant panda enclosure.

Before Kobe Animal Kingdom’s North American section “Rocky Valley” was built the entrance by the parking lot was an area called the Animal Promenade. The area had birds of prey, meerkats, cape hyrax, fennecs, and servals in very underwhelming conditions. Of course Rocky Valley” still is an exhibit that has its own share of flaws. Kobe animal Kingdom also had a parrot feeding aviary that got replaced with the nocturnal animal area. And there was also two walkthrough shoebill enclosures which both got converted for Rocky Valley for bald eagle and wolf(dogs) respectively. The eagle enclosure was then converted into a tiger enclosure.

When I was 12 years old I saw Artis Zoo in Amsterdam’s camel island (which also housed large domestics such as reindeer, watusi, and llama) before being made into a scimitar oryx enclosure.

JVM said:
I would like to focus on exhibits that have been fully closed, heavily renovated or rethemed, not where the paint has been changed or certain species have changed but the exhibit remained conceptually the same.
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This makes it difficult for me to decide whether or not I should list Berlin Zoo’s carnivore+nocturnal house. In the end the exhibit still has the same function, but it has been changed by a great margin with a species reduction and a change of exhibition style from toilet tile and concrete indoor enclosures to something that is more tangible. And the carnivore house has a lot of new signs around the visitor path explaining the visitors about carnivore stuff like physical characteristics and such.
 
PossumRoach said:
For me the the first thing that comes to my mind was Bronx Zoo’s World of Darkness and Monkey House. I am extremely graceful that I saw those exhibits before they got shut down with WoD impressing me at a very young age (and being the gateway to my affinity towards nocturnal houses.)
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Could you write a bit more about what World of Darkness was like? I have always been very curious but there are barely any pictures of the interior or other information about the building’s exhibits online.
 
ZooElephantsMan said:
Could you write a bit more about what World of Darkness was like? I have always been very curious but there are barely any pictures of the interior or other information about the building’s exhibits online.
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I was nine years old and until I visited Bronx I didn’t have a good idea of what zoos could do due to my local zoo at the time, so seeing bats fly in a dark enclosure looked like something from the future for me. Since I didn’t know any better, I didn’t take any notes on what used to be kept and my mother of course couldn’t take pictures in this dark building. I do recall there being a scorpion enclosure that showed how scorpions glowed under black light (which I couldn’t see to my dismay). I also remember seeing tubes for naked mole-rats. Otherwise I don’t think I can give any accurate details as much as a New Yorker who may have seen this exhibit at an older age in the past so I am sorry for not having enough good info.
 
I'm sure I'm missing some (especially from zoos that I haven't visited for a while and might not remember that some exhibits have been closed since), but here's a smattering

Bronx Zoo - World of Darkness
National Zoo - Australia House
National Aquarium in Baltimore - Wings Under Water
Maryland Zoo - Reptile House, Mammal House, Main Valley (as it originally was), Hippo House
Virginia Zoo - Old Reptile/Small Mammal House, Pachyderm House
North Carolina Zoo - Aviary
Henry Doorly Zoo - Cat Complex
Columbus Zoo - old predator/prey exhibits
Lincoln Park Zoo - old bear grottos, seabird house
Milwaukee County Zoo - exhibits removed for African Adventure
Dallas Zoo - Wilds of Africa Monorail, now-closed parts of Zoo North
San Diego Zoo - Horn and Hoof Mesa, Dog and Cat Canyon
San Diego Wild Animal Park - Asian Field Exhibits (still there, but closed to public except on certain tours)
 
PossumRoach said:
Now this sounds interesting. Do you know if the National Zoo kept common brushtail possum around that time?
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If they did, I don’t remember them. I remember tree kangaroo, echidna, singing dog, kangaroos, and a Great Barrier Reef aquarium
 
I only saw it once when I was quite young, but I saw the defunct Herbivora Building at the Cincinnati Zoo. It existed for over ninety years (1909 until 2000), and was such a legendary (but kind of bad) exhibit.
 
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Blijdorp: Nocturnal/Monkey House
Chester: Monkey House, Small Cat Area
London: Antelope House, Aquarium, Deer House, Insect House, Parrot House, Pheasantry, Wild Dog Area
Stuttgart: Kiwi Haus
 
Nothing noteworthy, but three exhibits that I actually liked when I saw them are the reptile house in Dresden Zoo, the coastal aviary in Hannover Zoo, and the walkthrough aviary in Skandinavisk Dyrepark. As for Dresden, the building was probably on its last legs, looking a bit rundown (though the exhibits were generally fine enough); as for Hannover, the aviary was demolished to make room for their new ape area, and I'm not sure about Skandinavisk Dyrepark. They probably just thought that a bunch of geese and storks were not appealing enough to the average guest compared to the shelter camp they replaced it with (shelter camps have been popping up like crazy in Denmark since the first covid lockdown, and well, renting out shelters generates extra income).

Edit: Oh yeah, I did visit the aquarium in London Zoo back in 2009. That's probably considered a relatively noteworthy exhibit in here.
 
This seems to be a North American thread thus far, so I’ll mention parts of London Zoo that no longer exist:
*the whole Mappin Terraces when occupied by wild sheep, goats, bears, wild swine, and flamingos/gannets/King Penguins (at various times) on the pond.
*the Aquarium
*the old Monkey House
*the Reptiliary
*the Seal Pond
*the Baikal Seal pond in front of the old Children’s Zoo
*the old Children’s Zoo itself
*both the Pheasantries
*the Owl aviaries
*the British Owls’ Aviaries
*the British Crows’ Aviaries
*the Park Paddocks
*Wolf Wood
*the Parrot House
*Birds of Prey Aviaries
*Lion House and later the New Lion Terraces (now incorporated into Land of the Lions I believe)
*Old Bear Dens
*Cattle Sheds
*Wolves’ and Foxes’ dens
*Insect House
…and probably others over the past sixty years!
 
FBBird said:
This seems to be a North American thread thus far, so I’ll mention parts of London Zoo that no longer exist:
*the whole Mappin Terraces when occupied by wild sheep, goats, bears, wild swine, and flamingos/gannets/King Penguins (at various times) on the pond.
*the Aquarium
*the old Monkey House
*the Reptiliary
*the Seal Pond
*the Baikal Seal pond in front of the old Children’s Zoo
*the old Children’s Zoo itself
*both the Pheasantries
*the Owl aviaries
*the British Owls’ Aviaries
*the British Crows’ Aviaries
*the Park Paddocks
*Wolf Wood
*the Parrot House
*Birds of Prey Aviaries
*Lion House and later the New Lion Terraces (now incorporated into Land of the Lions I believe)
*Old Bear Dens
*Cattle Sheds
*Wolves’ and Foxes’ dens
*Insect House
…and probably others over the past sixty years!
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….oh, and the hippopotamus house at one end of the Giraffe House, and the Stork and Ostrich House before it was absorbed into newer exhibits
 
FBBird said:
This seems to be a North American thread thus far, so I’ll mention parts of London Zoo that no longer exist....
…and probably others over the past sixty years!
Click to expand...
All the ones you've already mentioned plus:-
  • the North Mammal House
  • the Central Mammal House
  • the South Mammal House
  • the old Antelope House
  • the Sealion Pond
  • the Southern Aviary
  • the Eastern Aviary
  • the Great Aviary
  • the old Wading Bird Aviary
  • the old Pelican Pool
  • the old Hummingbird House
  • the old Elephant exhibit
 
A few other UK examples that I have seen:

- Crocodile Swamp at Paignton Zoo.
- Nocturnal House at Paignton Zoo.
- Sea Lion Splash Arena at Whipsnade Zoo.
- Squirrel Monkeys at Whipsnade Zoo.
- Tropical House at Marwell Zoo.
- Anteater Enclosure at Marwell Zoo.
- Penguin Enclosure at Longleat Safari Park.

I am sure that there is more that I am forgetting, particularly from Marwell, but that is all off the top of my head.
 
Pachyderm Building at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo (and former tiger, bear, etc. enclosures in the park's Wilderness Trek section)
Farmland and Wild Prairie at Akron Zoo
 
Tim May said:
All the ones you've already mentioned plus:-
  • the North Mammal House
  • the Central Mammal House
  • the South Mammal House
  • the old Antelope House
  • the Sealion Pond
  • the Southern Aviary
  • the Eastern Aviary
  • the Great Aviary
  • the old Wading Bird Aviary
  • the old Pelican Pool
  • the old Hummingbird House
  • the old Elephant exhibit
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I’m afraid I don’t remember seeing the Antelope House or the Great Aviary. All the other you mention, yes. Also a couple of small enclosures just North of the Lion House, one of which had Paradise Shelduck in the last time I saw it.
I would like to have seen the Elephant House that was demolished between the wars (the one you refer to is presumably the ‘island’ one with underground dens); I’ve a sneaking suspicion it may have been a better one than the Casson…...
 
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