@HowlerMonkey: The one remaining wolf and brown bear are both elderly, so I wouldn't be surprised if they passed away by the time construction began. The moose, on the other hand, is an interesting question. All three are about 7 or 8 years old which I believe is middle aged for moose. Whether they would get shipped out if healthy enough, or get moved to another North American hoofstock exhibit to rotate (elk or caribou) I'm not sure.
@DavidBrown: Yes - very exciting that Milwaukee will not only get going on a new elephant exhibit, but one of the first major animal habitats this establishment has created in a while!!!
About the future: the second entrance and otter exhibit is still on track to open Memorial Day weekend this year, and I plan on visiting next week to check out the progress; the underwater hippo viewing habitat is still in the plans; apparently this elephant exhibit is phase 1 of a project called Adventure Africa, and there are plans for a second phase, but no further details whatsoever. There are two annual appeal projects taking place at the moment: red panda exhibit renovation (yet to start, and unnecessary in my opinion considering the rest of the Zoo is more deserving of improvement), and at long last moving the colobus monkeys outside (fundraising taking place at this time).
On a side note, this new elephant exhibit will be taking up a pretty good chuck of North America. It'll be interesting to see what happens to the rest of the North American area as aside from the bear and seal exhibits, the rest of the enclosures are decent. Will North America slowly be turned into an African area and elephants are the beginning of it? Time will tell.
