Best Elephant Enclosures

B

BlackRhino

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Snowleopard and I were discussing the best elephant exhibits in the US and I decided to post a list of what I consider to be 12 great elephant exhibits.
This is in order and size is not the first thing I consider:

SDWAP- Excellent Social Group for both Asians and Africans and gorgeous 3 acre yards. The African yard will be nearly 6 acres when the elderly Asians move down to the zoo! They must be doing something right if all their Asians are in their 40's, 50's, and even 60's.

North Carolina- Excellent 7 acre habitat, which sort of speaks for itself.

Oakland- Excellent 6 acre habitat, but needs more elephants to replicate social structure

DAK- 7 acre habitat that I am sure the elephants appreciate. Only problem is there is a little too much hot-wire.

Kansas City- 4.5 acre habitat which is huge! If you look at this habitat on aerial image, they have huge behind-the-scenes areas too, which is great for managing their 7 elephants

Nashville- Great huge grassy habitat with two things I don't like. 1) With an exhibit that good they should have a bull for breeding 2) Still using a free-contact which I guess is ok if they are all females but still...

Indianapolis- Elephant Social Structure in a 2-acre grassy habitat with a huge people. Its amazing how much success they have had with AI

Columbus- Asian elephant family in a sprawling 2-acre yard and the largest indoor elephant building which is a huge plus.

Woodland Park- Although heavily criticized, the exhibit is of a decent size and has lots of grass, shade, and a 60,000 gallon pool that the Asians probably appreciate.

Miami Metro- You have to see these paddocks in person to truly appreciate them. They are very grassy, have cooling pools, lots of mud, and lots of staff at a time.

Bronx- Great 2-acre exhibit that replicates their Asian rain forest homeland quite good. Too bad they are closing the exhibit down once the current residence die because this would be a great exhibit for an Asian elephant family. The current residence are in their 30's, so they should still have elephants for hopefully another 20 years.
 
Whoops, I forgot the St. Louis Zoo, which is another great elephant habitat because the yards are packed with enrichment, and they replicate the social structure of elephants perfectly. Also each yard has a deep riverbed that even Raja can submerge in!
 
Interesting. I would like to point out that the alleged "too much hotwire" is the alternative to zero plants and boring walls found at the SDWAP.
 
Ituri said:
Interesting. I would like to point out that the alleged "too much hotwire" is the alternative to zero plants and boring walls found at the SDWAP.
Click to expand...

haha Did you not notice I rated SDWAP as #1. Yes, in MY opinion it is the BEST elephant habitat in the United States.
 
I agree, LA will have one of the best. In the next three years there will probably be more like 30 great elephant enclosures rather than 12.
 
Maybe the National zoo DC Asian elephant exhibit could become one of the top 3 in the US in the near furture?
 
With almost seventy zoos redoing their elephant exhibits, it would be really interesting to see this list in a few years. Normally I separate the species when doing best elephant exhibits, it allows more zoos to be on the list.
 
This is a great list of first class elephant exhibits, and North American zoos have come a long way in the past few years as half of those enclosures have been built in the past decade. I used to think that there were barely any top notch elephant habitats in zoos but over time I have changed my opinion as more and more multi-acre enclosures have been built with larger herds that allow for terrific socialization. North Carolina (7 acres), Disney's Animal Kingdom (7 acres), Oakland (6 acres), San Diego Wild Animal Park (6 acres) and Kansas City (4.5 acres) are all enormous in size and those 5 zoos have really raised the bar in terms of space for the world's largest land animal. I am supportive of having large numbers of elephants kept together as that creates fantastic enrichment for the pachyderms, but space is required for both bulls and time away from the herd and so it has been exciting to see many multi-acre paddocks being created in U.S. zoos.

The future in the U.S. is bright for elephants, as the National Zoo (around 4 acres), the Los Angeles Zoo (around 4 acres), Denver Zoo (at least a few acres in a rotating exhibit which might therefore be the best of them all), Oklahoma City Zoo (multiple acres in an Asian complex), Dallas Zoo (multi-acre habitat), Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo (5 acres?) and the Oregon Zoo (6 acres) all have mega-projects to open in the next few years. That will make 7 more zoos with elephant habitats that are enormous, and probably by 2012 the U.S. will have at least 12 zoos with elephant habitats that are 4 acres in size or larger. That is an impressive accomplishment, and having a dozen zoos that meet the space requirements for such large and intelligent mammals is outstanding progress.

There is definitely a bright future ahead for elephants in North American zoos, but it just goes to show that an excellent zoo like Chester in England is lagging behind with its 10 elephants on 2 acres. You won't find that situation in any North American zoo, as now in the 21st century it seems like 4-7 acres for an elephant habitat is gradually becoming the new standard. In a few years there will be a dozen U.S. zoos with huge elephant exhibits and by then Chester will still be stuck with its 2 measly acres, but hopefully other zoos will follow the example set by U.S. establishments and be willing to spend big bucks to keep one of the most popular zoo species.
 
I even forgot to mention the Brookfield and Cleveland zoos, who both have huge, multi-acre elephant exhibits opening in the next few years. There are rumors of anywhere from 4-5 acres for each of those pachyderm habitats, and so that now confirms the fact that there will be at least 14 U.S. zoos with enormous elephant habitats within the next few years. As I said before, 4 acres or more is the new standard for elephant exhibitry, and while space isn't all that is needed it is still a huge consideration for such massive animals. The days of having elephants in tiny paddocks are rapidly disappearing...
 
I don't think 4 acres is the new standard, I think 2 acres. San Diego is opening a nearly 3 acre exhibit this summer, and from the plans it looks fantastic because the exhibit is being designed to keep the elephants active.
 
You also forgot these multiple acred future exhibits:

Birmingham Zoo
Jackson Zoo
Audubon Zoo
Sedgwick County Zoo
Houston Zoo
Reid Park Zoo
Columbus Zoo (Africans?)
Zoo Atlanta
Rosamond Gifford Zoo
Baltimore Zoo
 
@okapikpr: day off work today? I listed elephant exhibits that will be a minimum of 4 acres in size and have already either begun construction or have had financing confirmed. That's great that there are even more zoos that have prospective plans for multi-acre elephant exhibits, and it is interesting how things change over time. If a zoo were to build a new elephant exhibit from scratch beginning today then a half-acre of one-acre enclosure would never even be considered. Those size paddocks are not up to snuff in the 21st century.
 
Of all the new elephant exhibits being planned across the country, Denver's Asian Tropics sounds the most exciting. I seems like it will be a larger Asian Pachyderm version of the excellent Predator Ridge!
 
@okapikpr: then if we count Birmingham and Houston that will be 16 U.S. zoos with elephant habitats 4 acres or larger in size. Awesome!

@BlackRhino: the Nashville Zoo does apparently have an excellent elephant exhibit, and it is listed as being 3 acres in size in the book America's Best Zoos. That zoo has always intrigued me as it has only been in existence (at its current location) for 12 years and there is a lot of space for possible future expansions. It will all come down to the financing.
 
Nashville Zoo's next plan is a Tropical Rain forest habitat with jaguars and tapirs. I am sure it will be a great exhibit.
 
I really don't think 4 acre should be the cut-off. Indianapolis and Columbus both have 2 acre habitats that are top quality. I would say 2-acre should be the cut-off.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top