Los Angeles Zoo & Botanical Gardens Los Angeles Zoo News 2025

Great Argus said:
To be a little more clear for those not familiar - GLAZA is a non-profit arm of the zoo that is not directly under city oversight. It oversees fundraising, membership, food & concessions, events, and volunteers. A little while back the zoo essentially called for proposals on things that GLAZA normally handles (reportedly for transparency), which flared tempers. There has been no resolvement and the non-profit is due to dissolve come June if nothing changes. Things are getting heated because GLAZA has threatened to give part/all of the 49 million under its control to organizations other than the zoo if it dissolves, which the zoo is citing as dishonest as that money was raised specifically for the zoo and should not be sent elsewhere.
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I find this pretty disconcerting and also that the LA City by its own actions is scoring an own goal and does not have the Zoo interests's at heart and being able to itself manage the Zoo. The times of the new Masterplan are far off ... Now and it ain't good at all!
 
Last week I visited the L.A. Zoo and have the following notes:

Africa section
  • Two roundhouses remain closed for repairs: one containing Coquerel's sifakas and blue-eyed black lemurs and the other housing buff-cheeked gibbons.
  • Half of the roundhouse with the radiated tortoises is still empty (formerly an exhibit for ring-tailed lemurs)
  • According to a zookeeper, the male and female servals are getting along well together and the zoo is hoping they will breed successfully.
  • Two mountain bongos and one yellow-backed duiker were on exhibit in their shared habitat. The duiker was not fully grown so must have been the one born in June of last year.
  • Two adorable black-and-white colobus babies are on exhibit. One is smaller than the other and both have black-and-white fur so are at least three months old. The little one was probably born in October last year based on the monthly animal transaction reports.
Gorilla exhibit
  • The last area of the gorilla exhibit (closest to the zebras), which used to offer open viewing over a moat without glass, is still walled off. This wall was installed at the time the adjacent path was closed for the construction of the Cape vulture exhibit. Now that everything has reopened, I was hoping that the wall would be removed, but it hasn't.
Rainforest of the Americas
  • The giant artificial lily pads in front of the stilt house, which used to be a splash play area for kids, have been removed. These pads have been dry for a long time (most likely since the original COVID-19 closure) and they are now gone entirely.
General
  • The four large, colorful elephant sculptures that used to be across from the Cambodia viewing area for elephants have been removed. This is not new information as I first noticed it a couple years ago, but thought I would mention it because I don't think anyone else has on the news threads. There are still a few other elephant sculptures around the various zoo pathways, but those are in need of repainting. I don't know why the sculptures were taken away because it has left a large empty space instead of a fun photo op. I do hope the zoo will put something there eventually (Animals Aglow light sculptures are usually placed there in the fall).
 
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@Lori Patton, Thanks for keeping us all so intimately updated on new developments and changes not reported elsewhere about the LA Zoo. Keep up the good work.

Quite interested what they intend to do with the Lemurs of Madagascar, the exclosure mountain bongo-yellow backed duiker and what plans are for the Cambodia elephant exhibit (and the mystery surrounding the elephant scultpures....)!


Have You any idea what the latest is about GLAZA, LA Zoo and the City Council?!
(Any ideas, information or suggestions... How could LA Zoo move forward?) What about the Masterplan and how will that be moving forward ....(just very confused about this since mid 2024)?????
 
Lori Patton said:
Last week I visited the L.A. Zoo and have the following notes:

Gorilla exhibit
  • The last area of the gorilla exhibit (closest to the zebras), which used to offer open viewing over a moat without glass, is still walled off. This wall was installed at the time the adjacent path was closed for the construction of the Cape vulture exhibit. Now that everything has reopened, I was hoping that the wall would be removed, but it hasn't.
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That open viewing area at the bachelor gorilla exhibit was closed off because HJ (Hasani Jr), the youngest of the 3 bachelors, was throwing poop at visitors and people complained. I never witnessed it myself and have no idea how often it happened or whether the visitors provoked him but that's what I was told by docents or employees. Hopefully one day it'll reopen.
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
@Lori Patton, Thanks for keeping us all so intimately updated on new developments and changes not reported elsewhere about the LA Zoo. Keep up the good work.

Quite interested what they intend to do with the Lemurs of Madagascar, the exclosure mountain bongo-yellow backed duiker and what plans are for the Cambodia elephant exhibit (and the mystery surrounding the elephant scultpures....)!


Have You any idea what the latest is about GLAZA, LA Zoo and the City Council?!
(Any ideas, information or suggestions... How could LA Zoo move forward?) What about the Masterplan and how will that be moving forward ....(just very confused about this since mid 2024)?????
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@Kifaru Bwana -- thanks for your kind words about my posts. While I'm certainly not an expert on all the workings of the zoo, I do think I have an interesting perspective as someone who first visited over 40 years ago and have seen a lot of changes over the years!

The ring-tailed lemurs were moved from the Africa roundhouse to another one in the zoo's Animals of the Drylands area near the zebras. The work on the other roundhouses with the sifakas and gibbons is due to maintenance issues identified during routine inspections. The mandrill roundhouse, which was also part of these repairs, is open now, so hopefully the other roundhouses will be finished soon.

I don't know of any issues with the bongo/duiker enclosure. I hadn't seen it in a long time because it had been closed off for over two years during the construction of the Cape vulture exhibit. The main thing I noticed was that there were only two bongos instead of the three I saw previously and the duiker was only about half the size of the one before.

The Cambodia viewing area was still closed and I didn't see any elephants there. However, now that there are only two left (Billy and Tina), it's not quite as easy to see them given how spread out the exhibit is over multiple areas.

As for the zoo's future plans, I think that much of them are on hold due to the lawsuits with GLAZA and the Friends of Griffith Park. GLAZA's contract ends in June and all the functions it has been managing (membership, fundraising, events, etc.) will need to be turned over to other vendors. That is only a few months away and I'm sure there is a huge learning curve and training needed for the transition to be smooth. Considering the ongoing legal battle between the zoo and GLAZA, I expect there will be difficulties. In my opinion, this is all very unfortunate and there is likely fault to be found on both sides.

Regarding the City Council, I don't believe there is currently much focus on the zoo. I listen to the local news daily and with all the fallout from the Palisades fire disaster, controversy surrounding the Mayor's demotion of the Fire Chief, the debacle over billions of dollars in homeless relief funds that are unaccounted for, and a huge budget shortfall, I think the zoo is a low priority for the Council. On the bright side, L.A. is still hosting the 2028 Summer Olympics, so I'm hopeful there will be a push to get the zoo spruced up in advance of the games.

Elena said:
That open viewing area at the bachelor gorilla exhibit was closed off because HJ (Hasani Jr), the youngest of the 3 bachelors, was throwing poop at visitors and people complained. I never witnessed it myself and have no idea how often it happened or whether the visitors provoked him but that's what I was told by docents or employees. Hopefully one day it'll reopen.
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@Elena -- when I read your comment, I had a flashback to one of my zoo visits circa 1989 when some chimpanzees started throwing poop into the crowd. This was in the old exhibit (prior to Mahale Mountains) and while looking at the chimps, I suddenly heard shrieks from some of the people. One or two chimps were hurling excrement into the crowd, provoking shock, screams, and laughter. The takeaway from this is to always stay clear of agitated chimpanzees!
 
Lori Patton said:
I don't know of any issues with the bongo/duiker enclosure. I hadn't seen it in a long time because it had been closed off for over two years during the construction of the Cape vulture exhibit. The main thing I noticed was that there were only two bongos instead of the three I saw previously and the duiker was only about half the size of the one before.
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The third bongo (the adult offspring of the pair you saw) was moved to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park early last year. The Zoo still has the parents of the yellow-backed duiker calf, but the calf is at an age now where he’d naturally be spending more time away, so it’s not necessarily surprising to have only seen him — anyways, they are quite reclusive animals, just by nature.
 
Samueltiger said:
will they put a new bear in the old bear exhibit near the tiger exhibit or will they expand the tiger yard?
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It is not likely that they will put any bears into the old exhibit. I believe that exhibit was one of the ones from the 1960's, and since then a lot of advances in animal care have happened. My understanding is that the old exhibit would be torn down and completely revamped in order to house bears (or any other types of animals). But I have no idea of where that is in the list of priorities.
 
Gretchen L said:
It is not likely that they will put any bears into the old exhibit. I believe that exhibit was one of the ones from the 1960's, and since then a lot of advances in animal care have happened. My understanding is that the old exhibit would be torn down and completely revamped in order to house bears (or any other types of animals). But I have no idea of where that is in the list of priorities.
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That part of the zoo is looking a bit bare now (if you pardon the pun). I hope it’s high on their priority list!
 
Cat-Man said:
That part of the zoo is looking a bit bare now (if you pardon the pun). I hope it’s high on their priority list!
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The only animals around the area are the Tiger, Markor, Langurs, Marshall the Indian Rhinoceros, the roundhouse containing Black Cockatoos, Wrinkled Hornbills, Binturongs, and Bornean Crested Firebacks, the small yards near the play Park which had housed Calamian Deer, Tufted Deer, and Visayan Warty Pigs, and the nearby habitat with Takin and rows of roundhouse that contain Steller's Sea Eagles, Eagle-Owls, Gibbons, and Siamangs.
 
Elena said:
That open viewing area at the bachelor gorilla exhibit was closed off because HJ (Hasani Jr), the youngest of the 3 bachelors, was throwing poop at visitors and people complained. I never witnessed it myself and have no idea how often it happened or whether the visitors provoked him but that's what I was told by docents or employees. Hopefully one day it'll reopen.
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Elena is correct. HJ picked up the poop-throwing habit during his formative years at the San Francisco zoo, and used it as a way to get attention from the keepers. The LA Zoo keepers have worked really hard to curb this tendency, but there hasn't been a time frame set to take down the barrier. Fingers crossed that the wall can come down soon, it was really nice to have multiple viewing areas for the Bachelor boys.
 
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