The book "America's Best Zoos" states that the elephant exhibit at the Jacksonville Zoo is .75 of an acre, and it comes with an 8 foot pool. The Woodland Park Zoo's elephant paddock was mentioned here, and it is around 1.5 acres in total size. Both of these zoos have around 3-4 elephants in total. In my opinion sometimes overcrowding can be an issue, as in zoos like Oregon and Chester as they both have around 7 elephants on 1.5 to 2 acres. In Jacksonville the exhibit isn't terrible at all, but average at best.
I don't think its average. By looking at the picture I love it. It reminds me of Lowry Park's Elephant exhibit. They are very similar in their design because they both start out narrow in the back and widen up as though move more toward the viewing. They both look like grassy savannas with a couple trees dotting the habitat and they both come complete with large refreshing pools. I remember last year at Lowry Park the mom and baby went swimming in their huge pool. It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen.
There are only two things that I don't like about this exhibit and that is the ugly rocks and the shade structure that isn't very well themed. Both of these things are aesthetic and probably wouldn't make any difference to the elephants lives. I think it is a very good African elephant exhibit and I can only think of a few better.
Yeah, I'm not sure why people here are complaining it's too small. Consider the size of an African Elephant, then consider that small form of an elephant is a fully grown adult at the "Back" of the exhibit from a visitor's perspective.
I believe in both trains of thought. The quality of the enclosure as is the size. I strongly believe that any zoo thats part of one of a AZA (association for zoos and aquariums) the set the polices for proper zoo keeping and any zoos not following these regulations should be investegated.
It's not like the zoo wouldn't want to expand their elephant exhibit like how others are doing. Its that there is no land to expand the Africa section of the Zoo, but the Master Plan does saw the Elephant Exhibit will be upgraded.
Jaxelephant, what if the old giraffe barn was taken down maybe move the lion exibit there and fill in the moat from existing elephant yard to the lion exibit should gain maybe 2 or 3 acres. I know space is limited in this area but that should help.
