Do you know what the issues are with the interior of the pachyderm house? I haven’t seen anything said and while it feels old, it was renovated not all that long ago to allow guests to walk through the entirety of the center section, so I’ve been surprised it seems closed indefinitely despite those changes.
Mainly structural issues; the building is just old and maintaining it has eaten up a lot of capital investment in recent years. Most of the inhabitants don't have proper off-show areas either.
Somewhat relatedly, do you read the Winter Zoo plan as indicating that elephants will be off exhibit during the winter? Either way, their housing looks smaller than the current pachyderm house, which is a bit concerning in a climate where they could spend nearly half the year mostly indoors.
I wouldn't read too much into that. The other African houses aren't included on that map either, probably because they are slightly out of the way compared to the main trail. It wouldn't make much sense to have a publicly viewable elephant barn if you didn't allow people in during the winter.
While the building itself is smaller, the space allocated to elephants will be much greater and there will be two separate barns. I also imagine the final design for the area will include a larger barn in some capacity.
-What will happen to the big cat grottos? I hope they still are used for animal exhibits in some fashion and not just swallowed up by the amphitheater. Outdoor enclosures for the clouded leopards and ocelots for example would be great.
The amphitheater will extend into the space. Outdoor Fragile Kingdom exhibits would be great, but having them in such close proximity to a loud amphitheater space would not be conducive to welfare.
-What is the plan for elephants, rhinos, hippos, Nile crocodiles, etc. in the winter and bad weather and viewing them?
The elephant will have a publicly viewable barn. While not explicitly mentioned, there is a possibility the hippos and crocodiles will have indoor exhibits within the revamped pachyderm house.
- Will dolphins be in both the Seven Seas and new mangrove exhibit? Will it be the same dolphins in both? If so how will they move back and forth?
Actually a very good question, perhaps the outdoor pools will connect the two? It isn't mentioned anywhere and I do hope the dolphins will get to choose where to spend time between the two buildings.
The renderings for the Nile hippopotamus exhibit look horrible. There will be a serious lack of grazing space and it will be impossible to hold an appropriately-sized group.
It is just a rendering, not a final design or to-scale blueprint as other members have said. The final space will likely have a larger land area.
Are the plans calling for a bachelor group of elephants, a matrilineal herd, or both?
I believe I read somewhere there will be capacity for two elephant herds, presumably both bulls and a breeding herd.
Everyone seems to be very excited about Tropic World. I'm expecting I will be very disappointed, even though it will definitely be an improvement for the apes. The building itself is going to be even more understocked than it already is and the focus is clearly geared toward primates. I see no reason why a variety of large, terrestrial mammals can't be moved for the exhibit. For example, the Brazilian tapirs could make use of the outdoor South American primates enclosure and the indoor South America room.
It really won't be all that different. Additional African monkeys will replace the gorillas and three groups of orangutans will rotate between the indoor and outdoor exhibits, so there will always be at least one indoors. There's also a possibility some of the monkeys will split time between the indoor and outdoor exhibits, as I often only see one or two species out together at a time. The zoo is moving away from exhibiting large terrestrial mammals indoors year-round and bringing them back to the building would be a step backward husbandry wise -- it wouldn't surprise me if the anteater moves to the Pantanal/Atlantic Forest exhibit in the future.
I agree with
@birdsandbats that the Amazon River exhibit is going to be underwhelming with the Shedd Aquarium's Amazon Rising close by.
It'll definitely be tough to beat, but we don't even know the details of what this exhibit will look like or what it will include so is it really fair to judge?
