I visited today, and I'm disappointed to say that it looks to me like it is, indeed, a rushed and underwhelming job. The barn is the same as the old one that Snow Leopard pictured above. It's been remodeled somewhat - now the windows are much, much bigger and you can see the giraffes inside from a fair distance away. There's some new landscaping that has, as reported above, added a water hole. The water hold and the landscaping look pretty nice, really, so I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining about them.
My biggest gripe is that the platform they've built for people to stand on to feed the giraffes also contains, of all things, a pretty big new picnic area. I'm not good at guessing area, and the fact that I'm a little put off by the whole thing might be causing me to think it's worse than it really is (I really am sorry if that's making this report unreliabe), but it sure looks like it's almost a quarter of the land that was once the 'savannah' that Snow Leopard has pictured above. I've always thought this zoo had more than enough cafes and restaurant areas, and now the savannah exhibit is much, much smaller than it was before. I know the zoo is hard up for money and feeding giraffes will bring in some good business, but I'm sad to see the endeavor shrink the size of this exhibit by so much. I was really pretty disappointed when I saw it.
For a long time now, I've been hoping that the area that's now the savannah/giraffe exhibit would be merged with the next-door elephant exhibit to make a better sized (and more up-to-date) exhibit for elephants, which is what I heard a few keepers saying was a possibility a few years ago. But the new giraffe feeding/picnic area platform looks like it's been designed to be pretty permanent, so I guess that idea is long gone. I guess the larger elephant exhibit thing would have cost too much anyway. I know most zoos are hard up for money.
Sorry for whining so much, and sorry if I've made it sound worse than it is. I don't mean to be alarmist. I grew up in San Antonio and feel a pretty strong nostalgic connection to the zoo. I was really excited to see Africa Live Part 1, and was hoping to see future changes to the zoo meet a similar standard of quality. But Africa Live part 2 seemed strangely cluttered and poorly thought out, then the zoo took up a pretty enormous area with another restaurant and a carousel (not bad things, just expensive things that don't improve exhibits), and has concentrated its efforts since then on repainting buildings in garish colors before concocting this bizarre giraffe encounter. I'm sure it's not as bad as I've made it out to be, but it sure seems frustrating.
Back on topic. According to the news this morning, they're going to reintroduce the other animals - plains zebras, topi, ostrich - after the giraffes have gotten used to their new environment. The zebras are currently living in what was the larger of the two rhino enclosures.
Anyway, sorry to babble so much.
