I wonder what other animals the African Village will have.
I believe we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves and allowing enthusiasm to influence our common sense .
The WCS moves at glacial speed when it comes to projects moving from proposals on a drawing board to actual construction and implementation .
In my youth I recall sketches proposing African elephants for a reimagined African Plains as well orangutan , sloth bears and Komodo dragons proposed for Jungle World.
Do not forget the, erstwhile, “Flooded Forest” with giant otters, bush dogs and ocelot planned for the Lion House - which was, eventually, transformed into Madagascar!.
Not to mention jaguars in Queens and an entire indoor exhibit at Prospect Park that has never been developed
Orangutans were even planned once for Central Park in what ( In)famously became a motion picture theater that had been the former primate house.
Dreams on a drawing board don’t become reality in a world that requires tens ( hundreds) of millions of dollars in construction costs in a city with virtually no collective civic pride that grossly underfunds cultural institutions that have become the soul of the city’s economy .
I can, eventually , envision the African Village coming to fruition- sans elephants, of course- and Pygmy hippo replacing the White rhino once they are moved there