Topeka Zoo has been in the news a lot in the past few years as there has been funding issues, multiple animal deaths and a battle to maintain AZA accreditation. I'd be shocked if the zoo came up with the money to maintain a large herd of elephants on several acres, and I'd be even more surprised if there were still elephants at this zoo ten years from now. Maybe the zoo would be better off concentrating on its positive aspects: unique gorilla exhibit, tropical rainforest and black bear habitat.
It's a long way from ideal - and to think that it once housed great apes as well is truly awful - but I do love this 'Animals and Man' building. It's redolent of the sort of zoo that appears in the Hair Bear Bunch - the classic small-town American zoo, in the classic small American town.
