Feb. 2014 - Africa

February 2, 2014: Click on the photo)

-Very Left: Will have Hippos (2015), Nile Crocodile (2015), Red River Hogs (rumored), Meerkats (rumored), and African Wild Dogs (visible exhibit- 2014)
-Middle: Will have Gazelles, Lesser Kudu, Impala, Ruppell’s Vultures, Crowned Cranes, and Kori Bustards. The back exhibit in the middle holds African Lions.
-Very right: Cheetahs.

Honestly, shoving twenty pounds into a one gallon ziploc doesn't work. Unless they go Ark-style, two-by-two for the Savanna. Wild dog looks good. How they will ever fit the other critters in, no clue. Space is an issue, obviously. Factor in the visitor areas, animal holdings, life support systems and the hippos are left with nothing. They should remove the parking lot by the Education Center and build Hippo over there using the lot and the grassy area between the buildings.

Gulo gulo said:

Honestly, shoving twenty pounds into a one gallon ziploc doesn't work. Unless they go Ark-style, two-by-two for the Savanna. Wild dog looks good. How they will ever fit the other critters in, no clue. Space is an issue, obviously. Factor in the visitor areas, animal holdings, life support systems and the hippos are left with nothing. They should remove the parking lot by the Education Center and build Hippo over there using the lot and the grassy area between the buildings.

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You may need to visit again and get get view of the amount of space that's on the very left side... And have forgotten about the African Plains, Cheetah Encounter, and Giraffe Ridge exhibits.

The parking lot by the Education Center needs to be used for parents that drop off their kids for zoo camps. Also that area is twice as small as the area the hippos will be in.

Nope, haven't forgotten. Unless the plans have changed again? Good to know that there is a safe area for parents to drop their children off. Yes, the area between DF and EC is a bit narrow. How is it smaller? Can you elaborate on the space that is left available? Will they remove all trees and plants and squeeze the service road right up to the Orang moat on the backside? Unless the dog viewing area and hippo viewing area are beside each other, how is there enough space? Fitting the paths, viewing windows, holding, life support systems and such take space. What are the hippos left with? A kiddie pool and a sandbox from Toys “R" Us?

They should have demolish the old education building to make way for a primate exhibit like in the original plans

bgeezle513 said:

They should have demolish the old education building to make way for a primate exhibit like in the original plans

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I believe Gulo was talking about the Discovery Forest building. The building you are talking about is the Go Green Garden, which has been demolished to make room for the now cheetah exhibit.

Gulo gulo said:

Nope, haven't forgotten. Unless the plans have changed again? Good to know that there is a safe area for parents to drop their children off. Yes, the area between DF and EC is a bit narrow. How is it smaller? Can you elaborate on the space that is left available? Will they remove all trees and plants and squeeze the service road right up to the Orang moat on the backside? Unless the dog viewing area and hippo viewing area are beside each other, how is there enough space? Fitting the paths, viewing windows, holding, life support systems and such take space. What are the hippos left with? A kiddie pool and a sandbox from Toys “R" Us?

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Yes they have cut down many trees near the orangutan exhibit. I can tell because I saw a bulldozer along the top of the moated area. I went and measured the amount of space available for Africa and the Education parking lot.

The parking lot area is around 48,000 sq. ft.

The area for the hippos is 49,000 sq. ft. So I was wrong about the parking lot being twice as small but it still doesn't change the fact that they have little space. The hippo exhibit at the St. Louis Zoo is 3,000 sq. ft. Woodland Park's is 7,095 sq. ft. The one at Busch Gardens is 8,400 sq. ft. Toledo's is 5,300 sq. ft. And the one in San Diego is 7,270 sq. ft., and each zoo seems to be doing just fine.

Ok. So what you're saying is that even with the dog exhibit, the space between that exhibit and the moat is sufficient? Even without factoring in service roads, holdings, lss, viewing areas and others? Interesting. Why do you reference those exhibits? Some are decades old. Why make something minimal when they can make something extraordinary?

Gulo gulo said:

Ok. So what you're saying is that even with the dog exhibit, the space between that exhibit and the moat is sufficient? Even without factoring in service roads, holdings, lss, viewing areas and others? Interesting. Why do you reference those exhibits? Some are decades old. Why make something minimal when they can make something extraordinary?

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That 49,000 sq. ft. is without the wild dog exhibit and holding dens. The holding area for all the animals that will be part of phase 4 and 5 will be located left of the cheetah encounter and behind the wild dogs and after looking at the map there is about 12,000 sq. ft. left for that. I don't really know what exhibits you are referring to, based on the subject of this conversation, these exhibits are less than a year old.

We've had this exact discussion three times now, why not just agree to disagree? At least you've been to the zoo, but I go frequently, and I've observed the Africa space multiple times, even though it has been cut off for easy viewing.