Dallas Zoo Dallas Zoo News 2025

nczoofan said:
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.
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What is replacing the monorail?
 
DavidBrown said:
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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The monorail replacement will not reach all of the way out to the water bird exhibit and this would be a very long walk for visitors. The new african trail will replace the 1/2 of the monorail footprint closer to the existing African exhibits, about 10 acres.

The exhibits planned for this new section will be as follows:
  • Expanded African penguin exhibit,
  • Slender-snouted crocodile,
  • New lesser flamingo exhibit,
  • Mixed Okapi-Primate exhibit,
  • 2 Additional primate exhibits,
  • White rhino/cheetah mixed exhibit, and
  • a walkthrough aviary which is at least an acre in size (appears to have hoofstock on the ground and birds mixed together).
If you would like to see a recent scematic of this complex I have included the link to the city parks board meeting below. The plans are shown at 1:13.

City of Dallas - Meeting of Park and Recreation Board on 4/17/2025 at 10:00 AM
Meet virtually with Cisco Webex. Anytime, anywhere, on any device.
 
Now a little bit of my personal thoughts, having visited Dallas Zoo twice a year for the last half decade :D

Dallas Zoo already has one of the finest Africa sections in the nation, with almost every large animal from the continent: African elephant, giraffe, lion, cheetah, gorilla, and hippo. The one major species they are missing is rhino, which are comimg with this expansion.

Besides the major species the African side of the zoo will now have 2 large aviaries. The existing one houses smaller species which I would expect to continue. The new aviary will likely house larger species, which given the zoos past discussion of a new vulture exhibit in this expansion and focus on African vulture species, i'd imagine they will move the large group from Zoo North of Ruppell's Griffon Vulture.

Now the hoofstock species for this aviary will be interesting. Behind the scenes the zoo currently houses large groups of Somali Wild Ass, Bongo, Gerenuk, Speke's Gazelle, and Yellow-Backed Duiker. I don't know if any of these species will make an appearence, but given the zoo maintining large groups of them until at least late 2024 I would figure they have plans for some of them to go on exhibit.

One last comment would be that this exhibit would essentially complete the zoogeograhic layout of the zoo. Everything on the South Side of the tunnel is obviously African. Zoo North has long been a geographic hodgepodge but will the likely removal of the last remaining African species (Colobus Monkey, DeBrazza's Monkey, and Vulture) it will be split into four sections. The Herpetarium and Kid's Zoo will continue to lack geographic groupings, but the west side of the zoo will now be exclusivly South American (Maned Wolf, Andean Condor, Galapagos Tortoise...) and the North Side will be exclusivly Asian (Tiger, White-cheeked gibbon, asian cranes, small-clawed otter, clouded leopard). This will better enable future master plans after the completion of the current campaign. Overall it's great to see Dallas making progress on it's plans after largely being static as of recent and watching Zoo North hollowed out. With Fort Worth continuing there recent pace of additions, its good to see Dallas on the right track.
 
nczoofan said:
Now the hoofstock species for this aviary will be interesting. Behind the scenes the zoo currently houses large groups of Somali Wild Ass, Bongo, Gerenuk, Speke's Gazelle, and Yellow-Backed Duiker. I don't know if any of these species will make an appearence, but given the zoo maintining large groups of them until at least late 2024 I would figure they have plans for some of them to go on exhibit.
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From what I understand, the gerenuk and Speke’s gazelles are the only currently behind-the-scenes hoofstock that will remain during construction (the zoo only has a pair of yellow-backed duiker, and they are already mixed with the okapi).
 
Kudu21 said:
From what I understand, the gerenuk and Speke’s gazelles are the only currently behind-the-scenes hoofstock that will remain during construction (the zoo only has a pair of yellow-backed duiker, and they are already mixed with the okapi).
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Will they be future antelopes the public can view?
 
So with the rhino/cheetah mix, what happens when either species has babies? Especially the rhinos
 
And doesn't the Dallas Zoo still plan on expanding the elephant indoor holdings by adding a large great room? It was teased in their master plan when they first released it over a year ago.
 
nczoofan said:
The monorail replacement will not reach all of the way out to the water bird exhibit and this would be a very long walk for visitors. The new african trail will replace the 1/2 of the monorail footprint closer to the existing African exhibits, about 10 acres.

The exhibits planned for this new section will be as follows:
  • Expanded African penguin exhibit,
  • Slender-snouted crocodile,
  • New lesser flamingo exhibit,
  • Mixed Okapi-Primate exhibit,
  • 2 Additional primate exhibits,
  • White rhino/cheetah mixed exhibit, and
  • a walkthrough aviary which is at least an acre in size (appears to have hoofstock on the ground and birds mixed together).
If you would like to see a recent scematic of this complex I have included the link to the city parks board meeting below. The plans are shown at 1:13.

City of Dallas - Meeting of Park and Recreation Board on 4/17/2025 at 10:00 AM
Meet virtually with Cisco Webex. Anytime, anywhere, on any device.
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think that's a good idea mixing cheetahs with rhinos? I am still hoping that the zoo gets a new herd of zebra
 
 
wild boar said:
This all looks fantastic!

I'm hoping they choose a monkey species that could use more support in zoos, and not colobuses or Debrazza’s. I'm also always happy to see more zoo pre-schools!
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I like Colobuses and DeBrazza's too, but it would be nice if they have a different African monkey species rather than just those, they could have something like a Wolf's Mona sharing the exhibit with the Okapis, I also wouldn’t mind if they brought back the Mandrills
 
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