The San Diego Zoo probably has more money pouring through the doors than any other collection on the planet, and even though the expense of maintaining and improving a zoo is immense it has consistently splashed out cash on new exhibits. My point is this: horn and hoof mesa really had nothing wrong with it and was a fantastic part of the zoo, but granted the row after row of hoofstock enclosures were not always popular with the non-ZooChat crowd. But why not fix the exhibits that are not worthy to be inside such a great zoo? The tiny wire carnivore cages or the grotto enclosures should have been first to be renovated, and the sending away of the animals and subsequent demolishment of those cages would cost a fraction of Elephant Odyssey. But the truth is that zoos open flashy, modern exhibits all the time while they have 80 year-old enclosures desperately awaiting upgrades. It is the nature of the beast.
???? San Diego has been replacing its outdated exhibits for the last 30 years....have you not seen the pictures of the old ape exhibits? Or the old hippo exhibit? The old polar bear exhibit? The old monkey house? The zoo is not currently replacing horn and hoof mesa exhibits with Elephant Odyssey, but they are replacing the elephant exhibit on the elephant mesa. Sure there are more than elephants in the new exhibit, but thats what happens when you change from a taxonomic theme to a zoogeographic theme.
Really the only "new to the zoo" big exhibit San Diego has added are the Giant Pandas, the rest seem to come from other parts of the zoo. I think it was a smart move for San Diego to renovate the bulk of its primate exhibits first...if anyone remembers those old exhibits, they may certainly agree with me that they were probably the zoo's worst exhibits at the time.
These new exhibit that would be worthy of a great zoo cost a lot more than all of the old exhibits that filled the San Diego Zoo, so it may well take another 30-50 years to finish the complete renovation of the zoo.
These new exhibit that would be worthy of a great zoo cost a lot more than all of the old exhibits that filled the San Diego Zoo, so it may well take another 30-50 years to finish the complete renovation of the zoo.[/QUOTE]
And then they will need to start all over again. I am always surprised that people think you could "finish" a zoo....
The San Diego Zoo probably has more money pouring through the doors than any other collection on the planet, and even though the expense of maintaining and improving a zoo is immense it has consistently splashed out cash on new exhibits. My point is this: horn and hoof mesa really had nothing wrong with it and was a fantastic part of the zoo, but granted the row after row of hoofstock enclosures were not always popular with the non-ZooChat crowd. But why not fix the exhibits that are not worthy to be inside such a great zoo? The tiny wire carnivore cages or the grotto enclosures should have been first to be renovated, and the sending away of the animals and subsequent demolishment of those cages would cost a fraction of Elephant Odyssey. But the truth is that zoos open flashy, modern exhibits all the time while they have 80 year-old enclosures desperately awaiting upgrades. It is the nature of the beast.
So are you saying that they should just empty out the outdated enclosures and leave them vacant as they build new exhibits elsewhere? I think they'd have a harder time fundraising for these fancy new exhibits if the zoo was half-empty.
I don't think anyone will argue against the need to renovate the S.D. Zoo's canyon areas (dog & cat canyon & bear canyon) eventually. A big obstacle to doing that is the American's with Disabilities Act compliance. The grotto's were built prior to the act and were grandfathered in to being okay. But any major structural renovations to the canyons would require them to be made ADA compliant. That is such a big problem because the canyon grades are too steep. There's just not enough room to lessen the angle of the canyon land. That's why they've been doing what they can to improve what's there already and haven't actually torn down any of the structures. I'm sure once they find a feasible way to upgrade them and be ADA compliant, it'll get put on the drawing board.
Just that it's coming. I really doubt construction on the rest of that project will start this year, and probably won't start until after Tiger Trails is completed. I could be wrong though. Now that I'm thinking about it, I don't know (or don't remember) what they're doing with the current elephant exhibit once they move them to E.O., so maybe construction on that will start sooner. It would surprise me though.
