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I have a few questions and fun ideas to add regarding all these.
A: will the zoo keep the African penguins and cheetahs with new habitats?
B: will the De Brazza's Monkeys live with the colobus in their new habitat in the Safari Trail or will they stay in primate palace?
C: if the De Brazza's Monkeys get moved, primate palace should be overhauled into a state of the art facility for clouded leopards langurs and gibbons with more room to move and glass viewing to complete the asian theming near the Tigers cranes and Asian small clawed otters. Perhaps they could even add an Asian aviary and a sloth or sun bear habitat in that vicinity.
D: The kudu and giraffes should be moved over to the wider savannah habitats up in the Safari Trail to coexist with more plains antelope zebra and white rhinos and give the elephant herd even more room.
E: The monorail should be replaced with electric powered CP Huntington steam trains that circle around the whole new Safari Trail and Chimp and Gorilla areas and have the train engineers give guests a guided tour abt the animals and the zoo's conservation work.
F: Will the zoo phase out Nile Crocodiles in exchange for Slender Snouted?
Honestly, idea D wouldn't make much sense at all. Giants of the Savanna is purpose-built to be a multispecies savanna, and it's predicated on the elephants living as they would in the wild alongside giraffes and kudu. It isn't so much the amount of space as it is the complexity/dynamic nature of the space.
 
I don't know about you guys, but when I visited the zoo last month and chatted with one of the elephant keepers, I suggested that the next Mlilo calf to be born after Okubili (boy or girl) should be named Tantor after the elephant character from the Disney movie Tarzan and the book series. It's a very popular movie and it would really excite visitors. He thought it would be a great idea and said he might relay it to the other elephant care staff.
I see where you're coming from but nowadays, a lot more care is put into naming certain animals.

I imagine they'd pick an African language, probably Swahili, and pick a boy or girl name from it. Or hell, the animals are from Eswatini so look up Swazi baby names
 
I have a few questions and fun ideas to add regarding all these.
A: will the zoo keep the African penguins and cheetahs with new habitats?
B: will the De Brazza's Monkeys live with the colobus in their new habitat in the Safari Trail or will they stay in primate palace?
C: if the De Brazza's Monkeys get moved, primate palace should be overhauled into a state of the art facility for clouded leopards langurs and gibbons with more room to move and glass viewing to complete the asian theming near the Tigers cranes and Asian small clawed otters. Perhaps they could even add an Asian aviary and a sloth or sun bear habitat in that vicinity.
D: The kudu and giraffes should be moved over to the wider savannah habitats up in the Safari Trail to coexist with more plains antelope zebra and white rhinos and give the elephant herd even more room.
E: The monorail should be replaced with electric powered CP Huntington steam trains that circle around the whole new Safari Trail and Chimp and Gorilla areas and have the train engineers give guests a guided tour abt the animals and the zoo's conservation work.
F: Will the zoo phase out Nile Crocodiles in exchange for Slender Snouted?
A. Probably
B. They'll probably move the De Brazza’s Monkeys over to Wilds of Africa Safari Trail and probably build a new exhibit for them or have them live with the Colobus Monkeys later on if they do take down Primate Place
C. An Asian area expansion might be possible
D. That could work, but I probably doubt it
E. Not sure about that, but that would be pretty cool
F. They’ll probably still have both species
 
I see where you're coming from but nowadays, a lot more care is put into naming certain animals.

I imagine they'd pick an African language, probably Swahili, and pick a boy or girl name from it. Or hell, the animals are from Eswatini so look up Swazi baby names
Oh yeah Dallas usually gives newborns names representing their native home ranges these days. So tantor might be more fitting for future DAK or Omaha calves for that matter lol. I just looked up the meaning of Tantor. It's just a more generic name used for elephants in the Tarzan series in the Mangani (fictional gorilla language).
User-submitted name Tantor - Behind the Name
Tantor - African Origin, Meaning, and Numerology of the Name Tantor at AllTheBabyNames

Another reason I still think Tantor would be a good name for the next Dallas calf is also because it far from even approximating tradional English human names, and sounds more like a native African word to me. Not just to to engage guests over the popular Disney film character. I mean, who doesn't love his iconic first scene where he complains, 'Mom, are you sure this water's sanitary? It looks questionable to me.' Then he speculate that young tarzan swimming to grab the tail of his mom's herd is a Piranha. She doubts him at first but when they see what the swimming boy is, they freak out and stampede :D
 
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Honestly, idea D wouldn't make much sense at all. Giants of the Savanna is purpose-built to be a multispecies savanna, and it's predicated on the elephants living as they would in the wild alongside giraffes and kudu. It isn't so much the amount of space as it is the complexity/dynamic nature of the space.
That's true, it's one of the best elephant enclosures in the country for the very reason. But you must understand that elephants don't always get along with other species in captivity. Dallas I think is the only zoo to mix elephants with African birds and ungulates and they do that far less often than they used to with their calf and big bull on site. Fresno and Omaha did mix one hoofstock species with them until just recently but not on the same scale as Dallas. As I have seen in the wild, African elephants are mainly around other plains game at water holes and rivers, then they don't really purposefully associate with other species.
 
Checkers, the zoos Female Chinese Alligator will be moving to a new AZA zoo for the SSP. originally thought to be a boy, in 2023, the zoo found out that she was a girl. Part of the reasoning behind the move is due to the renovations to the Reptile House. While parts have been reopened this glow up, is planning on introducing several new species and a new experience.

Dallas Zoo was the first zoo I ever saw a Chinese Alligator so I'm sad that the zoo is getting out of the species. I believe Ellen Trout Zoo is now the only holder in Texas.

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Checkers, the zoos Female Chinese Alligator will be moving to a new AZA zoo for the SSP. originally thought to be a boy, in 2023, the zoo found out that she was a girl. Part of the reasoning behind the move is due to the renovations to the Reptile House. While parts have been reopened this glow up, is planning on introducing several new species and a new experience.

Dallas Zoo was the first zoo I ever saw a Chinese Alligator so I'm sad that the zoo is getting out of the species. I believe Ellen Trout Zoo is now the only holder in Texas.

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Any idea where she may be shipped off to? I believe that whereas way way way before NY Bronx Zoo had monopolised almost singlehandedly the breeding of Chinese alligator ... was stopped from 2003. Only not too long ago the Sedgwick County Zoo managed to get their pair to breed (2019-6 hatchlings), this was the first breeding in a long while.

I am not sure how related the entire population is given the former prolific nature of their breeding at NY Bronx....????


Checkers, the zoos Female Chinese Alligator will be moving to a new AZA zoo for the SSP. originally thought to be a boy, in 2023, the zoo found out that she was a girl. Part of the reasoning behind the move is due to the renovations to the Reptile House. While parts have been reopened this glow up, is planning on introducing several new species and a new experience.

Dallas Zoo was the first zoo I ever saw a Chinese Alligator so I'm sad that the zoo is getting out of the species. I believe Ellen Trout Zoo is now the only holder in Texas.

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Ellen Trout Zoo should (have) receive(d) a male Chinese alligator for breeding with 3 of their females.

BTW: Dallas Zoo was not the only zoo to go out of singletons while others were receiving only non-breeding individuals...
 
On June 11th, the zoo announced that they bred and released 144,000+ Houston toad tadpoles/eggs into the wilds of Texas.

Dallas Zoo

On July 25th, the zoo announced that 2 American flamingos hatched, which are now on exhibit.

Dallas Zoo

On August 18th, the zoo announced their female (0.1) Asian small-clawed otter Shug was spayed following multiple stillbirths, and is back on exhibit*.

Dallas Zoo

On August 20th, the zoo announced they amputated part of their male (1.0) cheetah Finnick's tail due to a dislocation, which was deemed a success, and is now back on exhibit.

Dallas Zoo

* The post does not say it, but it is inferable that the caimans/turtles previously occupying the exhibit were moved back to their original spaces.
 

That should be the monorail replacement which is currently in the design phase after receiving city bond funding. I’d imagine they will break ground early next year and then hopefully open it in 2028.

I do wonder what other species will temporarily move out. From what I understand the penguin and cheetah exhibit will be combined to make a larger penguin space, so both those species will need to relocate.
 
That should be the monorail replacement which is currently in the design phase after receiving city bond funding. I’d imagine they will break ground early next year and then hopefully open it in 2028.

I do wonder what other species will temporarily move out. From what I understand the penguin and cheetah exhibit will be combined to make a larger penguin space, so both those species will need to relocate.

Are there any credible hints or rumors about what exhibits will be replacing the field exhibits that could only be seen from the monorail? Will the large antelope and water bird spaces be kept intact?
 
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