What animals/ new exhibits would you like to see at your local zoo?

L.A Zoo being my home zoo, I don’t expect any new exhibits for a while with the GLAZA news but if theoretically they were able to make new exhibits, I would like a remaster of the Africa area (with the expectation of Chimps of Mahale Mountains) especially for the giraffes who I agree should get an upgrade, plus a modern lion and hippo habitat could be a big hit. Of course being a penguin fanatic, a habitat would be very welcome and benefit the zoo being quite big star animals.
 
Indianapolis Zoo is my home zoo and I would be overwhelmed with joy if we got any animal that wasn’t in an ABC picture book. :rolleyes: Seeing how that trend probably isn’t going anywhere I would love if we could take the roller coaster no one rides and look in the Desert Dome to create an Australia section. Oh, wait we don’t do continent names maybe just like Plains part 2.
 
Nice! My local zoo is Chester Zoo and there is a lot planned with Heart of Africa and the new Zonal Plans, and hopefully maybe a proper Amazon rainforest area in that. We already have Spirit of the Jaguar but there is so much more space around that for howler monkeys, spider monkeys, tapirs, capybaras and anteaters (which the zoo i think could give an upgrade in habitats to) and so much more. Oh what I would give to see Harpy Eagles...
 
Well I haven’t talked about Franklin Park in a while.

Several have said that something they lack are elephants, and that certainly would be interesting, but I’ve seen the zoo lose so many engaging species as is that I almost just want them to return… although that’s likely a product of the emotional attachment that makes up 75% of my passion for this zoo.

Putting nostalgia aside, it would still be cool to see elephants, even though there isn’t any room. I know arguably the biggest criticism of Franklin Park is that it has some “unused space,” but not even that plot of land behind Bird’s World would suffice for elephants. I do have to agree that a more realistic large animal would be rhinos, and out of all their departed species they could easily make a suitable tiger exhibit in that empty space I mentioned.
 
Lincoln Park Zoo is a bit tough to answer. There's a few key missing animals but the only two major ones would require messing with a large part of the layout. It would be really cool if we could fit even a small Australia or South America exhibit, as I'm not a fan of kangaroos being crammed into the hoofstock yards. Perhaps an even hotter take but I think I'd take another wallaby walkthrough over the current setup. We could also use lemurs back, although it almost feels premature to ask, and an antelope or gazelle mixed with the giraffes and zebra would be nice.

Brookfield Zoo has lots of things it could really use, but it's hard to pick one, even more so because we're in a transition period with a lot of big plans coming up. If I pretend to know nothing about the future, I'd want elephants back, but setting aside everything in the plans as if they were locked in, I'd love to see a new nocturnal building that could fit species like aardvark and loris, or a few more hoofed species outside the Savannah renovations. A couple more deer or caprids.
 
I quite badly wish the Minnesota Zoo had an African Trail. In the past they've had a seasonal "Africa!" exhibit, mostly with hoofstock, but I think the zoo is quite sorely missing a permanent African collection.

African hoofstock is the obvious inclusion, and an inclusion I think the zoo would greatly benefit from. "ABC animals" are maybe a bit of a controversial topic but I do think the Minnesota Zoo, relative to Como, is sorely lacking in that department. I think when you're serving a suburban, mostly-family environment, there's a benefit to having easily-identifiable animals. Giraffes and zebras come to mind. Less identifiable, but bongos, antelopes, gazelle, etc. would be neat. Elephants would be neat but as others have mentioned in this thread they're an awful lot of hard work and require a lot of space. Lions would be neat but I'm not generally a big cat person so... meh.

I also really want a proper ape!! Desperately! There were plans a while ago in some old development plan to add orangutans, but like a lot of other things in that plan it hasn't panned out. Orangutans are my favorite so I suppose I'd like them the most, but anything would be cool.
 
There’s many holes at Detroit, notably primates, rodents, birds, small mammals, and much more. Personally I feel there’s two animals / groups that would really spruce up the zoo. First, orangutans could really benefit the zoo by adding another primate species and with our new directors love for primates I don’t find this too crazy. I’d love to see the event area for dinosaurs transformed into an Asian forest with orangutans, gibbons, sloth bears and otters. On the other side of the spectrum, I feel the zoo needs small mammals more. Well yes, I’d love to see Pygmy or common hippos make a return, the zoo barely has any smaller mammals of the one’s you can group in, beavers are never seen, otters are seen but aren’t really small mammals. The sloth and bat exhibit is always empty and you’re lucky to see a bat at the most. I have heard rumors of pangolins joining the collection (multiple volunteers) along with an African forest revamp. We have 3 habitats currently abandoned, which all 3 could house small mammals. 1 former prairie dog, 1 former rock python, and 1 former mousebird aviary. I’d personally like to Black Footed Ferrets or Porcupines for the first, a small rodent or sengi (maybe pangolin) for the rock python habitat and a tamarin or marmoset species for the aviary.

As for Toledo, I think they need Lions. They have everything but them but first they should prioritize fixing many of their current habitats.
 
Anything that will promote native Indonesian fauna to the general public as well as to support conservation and research effort. Especially in Indonesia itself, where these ideas are somewhat lackluster.

I'd love to see a small mammal house or a nocturnal house in Gembira Loka Zoo. They have a number of unused or empty lands in some part of the zoo, which might support building a small exhibit. Going further, why not demolishing the outdated exhibits to build a new one (Which they had done many times before). With how interested Gembira Loka is on making zones for their animals, it's not unlikely that we get something like a "Zona Malam" (Night Zone) later on the future.

Regarding native small mammals, they have Malayan civet, Asian palm civet, Java mouse-deer, Sunda porcupine, Prevost's squirrel, cream-colored giant squirrel, and Javan binturong, as well as Javan slow loris and Javan mongoose off-display. This should be enough to make a small mammal house, but I like to see more.
 
The number one thing I would like to see added to Detroit Zoo is a third cat species. I think snow leopards would make sense seeing as the Detroit Zoological Society has funded research for them in the wild. There’s probably enough unutilized land near Asian Forest for a new exhibit to be built for them (or alternatively, the current lion habitat was per this site built with snow leopards in mind, so they could go there). I would also love to see jaguars as nowhere in the state keeps them but it’s less obvious where they could go.
 
at perth zoo, although this probably will never happen, i want to see okapis with the new enclosure that will be built for the ostritches, giraffes, zebra, sable antelope, and gazelle. (perhaps multiple areas for them like a small forest area for the okapis.
 
Jayden8763 said:
at perth zoo, although this probably will never happen, i want to see okapis with the new enclosure that will be built for the ostritches, giraffes, zebra, sable antelope, and gazelle. (perhaps multiple areas for them like a small forest area for the okapis.
Click to expand...

Would be cool to see them (okapis) at Perth Zoo. Personally I would like to see Sri Lankan leopards and or clouded leopards at Perth Zoo in large exhibits constructed in the area of the zoo where 'The Homestead' complex has been for over 35 years (i.e demolish 'The Hometead' and make the area an extension of the 'Asian Rainforest' precinct).
 
For my two closest collections:

Lake District Coast Aquarium:
I've always thought a few amphibians would add a lot to this aquarium's line-up. At certain points of the year they sometimes have a temporary display tank for frogspawn and tadpoles (I'm guessing European common frogs), but they've never had fully grown frogs on-show anywhere. It would be great if they ever got axolotl and other salamanders, or some poison dart frogs or tree frogs.

Lake District Wildlife Park:
It's been a very long time since this small zoo got any new animals, and they've also lost a fair number of species over the last couple of years, though they will be getting some bush dogs later this year. Their site has a lot of large paddocks suitable for medium-sized grazers. I wouldn't mind seeing a type of macropod, wallabies would be okay, but kangaroos would be even better. Some exotic antelope or deer would also fit well here, such as axis deer or blackbuck, perhaps even domestic reindeer.
 
For my closest collections over in Spain (can't say I visit local collections in the UK unfortunately so am less able to comment):

Bioparc Valencia
Honestly would love to see a bunch of species for their respective areas, as there is lots of potential if an expansion of any sort would occur. Carnivores such such as Cheetahs, Caracals or Vontsira, Primates such as Aye-Aye or Gelada and Hoofstock like Black Rhinos, Cape Buffalo, Gemsbok or Beisa Oryx, Eland, Cuvier's gazelle, Dorca's Gazelle come to mind. Most of these would require expansion to house, but if such were to occur, I would hope it would be dedicated to the sahara, as Spain has a great track record for saharan hoofstock conservation using their own mini desert in Almeria, and has helped provide animals for release in their native territories.

In terms of other fauna, Bioparc could do a lot more in terms of birds, and while it has a nice aviary, there's plenty of missing avian stars of Africa like parrots or raptors. While incredibly unlikely, I would dream of one day being able to see something like a shoebill at Bioparc.

Oceanografic Valencia:
Marine fauna is far from my strongpoint, but I would love to see at some point at the park the return of a species of banded penguin, as they seem to have left the park a few years back, and where they were kept now houses sea turtles.
 
Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium: Would absolutely love to see an Amazon focused exhibit, or Rainforest exhibit in general since they already have the other themes in the park. I get they don't want to overlap with the Woodland Park Zoo very much, but there's other Amazonian species that WPZ doesn't exhibit that PDZA could (Caiman, Sloths, Freshwater Stingrays, Spoonbills, etc) which would still make for an awesome attraction. There were talks when the old "North Pacific Aquarium" closed years ago of making it into an Amazon building, but now that the building is slated to be demolished, it'd provide a clean slate to work with and build from the ground up so hopefully it's still in the cards.

Woodland Park Zoo: I would be so happy if they brought back the Nocturnal House in some way. I was too young to remember any of it before it closed many, many years ago. They were actually planning on bringing it back in 2018 due to how much outcry there was from the public to bring it back (before the fire broke out and destroyed the building). With the "Forest Trailhead" exhibit being the successor for the old Day House, I hope they can find a way to do the same with the Nocturnal House. Especially with "World of Darkness" coming back at the Bronx this year, maybe it'll spark some interest for WPZ. It could see the return of Bats, Flying Foxes, and Sloths to the Zoo while also bringing in new species (they mentioned "Small arboreal primates" in the news piece they put it out when they were planning on reopening it in 2018). I know they have other things that need renovations and overhauls after "Forest Trailhead" is completed (specifically the African Savanna, that exhibit is expected to get a huge overhaul), I just hope there is some wave of Nocturnal Houses opening back up again and that WPZ could be one of those
 
I live in the Long Beach area, but I’ve already talked plenty about Aquarium of the Pacific and exactly what I want to see there. So I’ll go a bit outside the box to a zoo system I visit plenty, though I live farther away:

San Diego Zoo Safari Park: In my view, what it’s missing most is an Amazon/South American exhibit. I think an indoor rainforest in Southern California would be absolutely incredible. It could feature a plethora of endangered species, in keeping with their long tradition of Species Survival Programs. I would envision it with both land and water-dwelling animals, as any exhibit featuring the Amazon isn’t complete without its river species. I’d take inspiration from some of the better such rainforests I’ve seen, such as California Academy of Sciences, National Aquarium, etc. From bottom to top, there could be aquarium exhibits, forest floor residents, and monkeys, apes, and birds in the canopy.

And given that excellent track record of saving species…my ultimate pipe dream would be them making an effort to establish a legitimate SSP for Amazon river dolphins in collaboration with local South American governments. That obviously would be highly expensive and a supremely difficult undertaking, but of all the zoos worldwide, SD is one of the only ones I believe could pull it off. I doubt it’d ever happen, but I would be literally camped outside for opening day haha.
 
This was mentioned in the Columbus news thread the other day but it got me thinking. I would love if Columbus would add a south american region. They've pretty much hit all the major players in their regional design minus South America thus far. I definitely wouldn't say no to a proper aquarium building either. One animal my fingers are crossed for is Pygmy Hippos!
 
It's not my local zoo (but if you want to hear about Chester then feel free to read the post)
but ZSL Whipsnade Zoo seems really promising to me as they focus on large open paddocks for really interesting African and Asian ungulates and detailed realistic environments for everything else, but of course they very much lack in tropical animals, so maybe one great big greenhouse in the centre of all that whipsnade goodness in the style of JungleWorld or Gondwanaland would really help it out.
 
Saint Louis Zoo feels to have a glaring omission to me when it comes to its lack of Gibbons. I feel like it would be so easy to bring them in to the Primate Canopy Trails, or even stick some gibbons in with the Sumatran Orangutans. In any fantasy/speculative version of the zoo I envision in my head, gibbons are first on the list of additions.
 
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