1.) It looks like the elephants will have a much larger pool. A interesting choice since I have never seen either Ruth or Brittney use the current one. Still, new elephants will surely enjoy it.
2.) It looks like a new artificial baobob tree will be constructed It looks a bit more realistic than the current one but a bit out of place.
3.) Speaking of a bit out of place, those shade structures. There is something I'm not liking about them. They just all look rather fake and metal.
4.) I was kind of hoping there would not be cable fencing, but it does not look too bad.
5.) I highly doubt that grass will last through the Wisconsin Winter. I really hope it doesn't fall into the barren dustbowl that I have seen happen with many other elephant exhibits.
6.) If you look to the left it appears the former wolf viewing lodge will be made into a African lodge. I assume it will look out into either a second elephant yard or one of the ungulate exhibits.
Either way, this will be literally massive improvement for the elephants and other species that will join them. The barn looks impressive and I am glad there is still indoor viewing (If you look closely you can see a visitor path the goes into the barn from the right). Hopefully this will be the beginning of a plethora of improvements for the Milwaukee County zoo
Seems like an interesting marriage of some very traditional and old school elephant exhibit techniques (large pool, artificial baobob, cable fences) and new ones. I definitely agree with a lot of the points you've raised, especially about the grass. I'm also hopeful the barn comes out better than that. The whole render concept looks a bit rough. Still, much better than any elephant exhibit I've seen in person.
If someone could elaborate on why cable fencing seems so necessary for elephant exhibits, I'm curious as to why. I'm sure there has to be a good reason.
@JVM The barn is going to be between 12,000 and 15,000 square feet (Just the elephant space) which sounds pretty impressive to me. It reminds me of a smaller scale version of the national zoos barn. To be fair anything is better than their current barn.
Cable fencing is a simple way to keep elephants contained. In my opinion, a slope is a bit better, but zoos seems to just go with a quick barrier like cable fencing most of the time. Its also easier to work with the elephants behind a protected barrier where they could still get close.
