BREC's Baton Rouge Zoo BREC's Baton Rouge Zoo News

Loxodonta Cobra said:
The zoo has lost its accreditation to the AZA after a failed vote to relocate it from its present location:Baton Rouge Zoo loses accreditation; inspectors cite animal escapes, outdated facilities
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A sorry state of affairs as it is not about their animal collection, staff capacities nor their husbandry management.

BTW: we - as in overseas - cannot read said article in full (thanks to outdated privacy laws that cannot live with the new internet and surfing environment while protecting peoples' privacy at your end). I hope someone can resume the basic details of its contents in brief later.


Any locals can score the chances of the bid proposals for redeveloping the existing site as realistic (as I thought it was cited the relocation was a need for the physical limitations and structure of the landscape)?
 
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So in summary: Baton Rouge Zoo has very outdated and ageing infrastructure. Some people want to keep the zoo in its current location, while others want to move it out to a new location near the airport. Either plan was estimated to cost $110 million; the state representative and mayor for Baton Rouge said they would help secure state funding, but it doesn't appear that anything has materialized yet. The decision to not renew accreditation also follows up on three animal escapes in 16 months (a rhino in a buffer zone, two lemurs in a containment area, and a full escape by a spider monkey; all were quickly recaptured), as well as deaths of monkeys and flamingos caused by feral dogs breaking through the old and failing perimeter fence. The article also noted how Baton Rouge attempted to fix some of the problems cited by AZA, like closing inadequate monkey and parrot enclosures and hiring two full-time maintenance technicians to work on fixing the infrastructure. Alas, the AZA still denied accreditation.

Realistically, the zoo needs enough money to either overhaul the existing infrastructure or build new infrastructure elsewhere. Until that happens, progress is going to be slow and piecemeal, if it happens at all.
 
The zoo has Dwarf Hairy Porcupines. One of the keepers posted about them in a rodent keeper group that I'm in.
 
New exhibits for giraffe, Pygmy hippo/primates, and African birds and a new entrance are currently under construction and should open next year. I visited this rarely visited zoo a couple of weeks ago now— hopefully I’ll have the time to write a little something about it soon.
 
Kudu21 said:
New exhibits for giraffe, Pygmy hippo/primates, and African birds and a new entrance are currently under construction and should open next year. I visited this rarely visited zoo a couple of weeks ago now— hopefully I’ll have the time to write a little something about it soon.
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Glad to see them start on there new master plan. Its ambitious but definitely needed if the zoo is to remain and work closely with AZA.
 
Kudu21 said:
New exhibits for giraffe, Pygmy hippo/primates, and African birds and a new entrance are currently under construction and should open next year. I visited this rarely visited zoo a couple of weeks ago now— hopefully I’ll have the time to write a little something about it soon.
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Interested to hear what you can reveal further on their new plans.

I had a little scan over their Africa habitat (in the video stream at 1:12 onwards) and thought that this is sort of the set up: The inner core is the rhino / elephant habitats (divided into 2 separate parts). The bottom part has a string of exhibits from Left to Right (Here Building), Lion kopje and klipspringer and across the path gorillas, mandrill, aviary, colobus monkey and pygmy hippo. Right across from the middle end of the rhino / elephant bottom exhibit for cheetah. The top rhino / elephant will see a leopard exhibit, a large lodge with food and gift store, bongo out back, the in the inner circle hyaena and meerkat (and something in between). There are some more exhibits at the extreme top, but these remain out of focus in the video stream.

I welcome any further comments.
 
Here is the proposed plan for what @Kifaru Bwana has described above. A super ambitious exhibit complex that I am sure will be scaled back to some extent considering the size and scope of this facility. Even more so because it sounds like only the exhibits for giraffes and the African forest subsection in the bottom right (hippo, primates, birds) are actually under construction. @Kudu21 do the areas where these exhibits are located on the plan match up with the construction you saw?

As an aside, does the zoo actually plan on mixing rhinos and elephants together? I believe that mix has only been achieved at Birmingham and its not like its a common occurrence. Would be totally cool but I'm skeptical of the practicality of it all.Screen Shot 2021-07-14 at 12.30.56 PM.png
 

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Looking at the current zoo map, one would guess that the northern elephant/rhino paddock corresponds somewhat with the current giraffe and rhino cum antelope (and primate) exhibit.
It further seems the Australian AND Kids' Safari areas will make way for the hyaena/painted dog/meerkat/leopard, lodge, refectory and an expansion to the northern elephant/rhino paddock (and the giraffe transferring a little up north still next to red river hog and the entry village next to the northern pond.

The Cypress bayou will be incorporated into a meandering waterway traversing gorilla, aviary, primate and pygmy hippo habitats and along the other side undercutting the new to be developed (future elephant exhibit in the old map) southern rhino / elephant paddock and forming a waterway boundary with the lion kopje and the herp building and another large animal holding (I guess the building in the center with fennec fox and leopard is the holding capacity for elephant and rhino).

Along the perimeter area just beyond the railway track will be paddocks for woodland hoof stock south (interesting to know which are meant for) and top north for bongo.

LINK: https://www.brzoo.org/images/siteimages/brz-zoo-map.jpg
 
The schematic above was simply an idea of what the complex could look like. For example elephants have almost certainly been dropped on the plan and the zoos own documents admit that, with later editions of the schematics only listing rhinos. The giraffe exhibit for example will be a renovation of the existing space with a brand new barn I believe, filling in the moat (which they will be doing this year for all hoofstock exhibits as AZA deemed them unsafe for the animals). Right now the zoos focus is to improve exhibit for their current species in order to bring themselves into compliance with AZA for a 2022 reaccreditation. So what will see open next year will be much different than on paper.

The ideas of this document will be preserved but these were just ideas and don’t account for what the actual exhibits will look like or be laid out like. I believe the pygmy hippos for example will be replacing the current exhibit with a new barn and exhibit with underwater viewing. So I wouldn’t really expect anything too fancy but for a zoo that had barely any improvements for decades, that faced calls for closure, it’ll be a big move.
 
@nczoofan, is it not our understanding the BREC council will be providing funding support to the zoo to assist it in getting re-accredited and renovating - what council by Councilman Corey Wilson has admitted - a 50 year old institution with 50 year old exhibits in dire need of renovating. The plan was to create a big new project every 5 years. I figured their first project is the all African area and the new Welcome complex in a more logical site along Greenwood Community Park (which would allow both park sites to benefit from increased visitor relevance and attendance and easier access to the zoo with a big new parking lot).

LINK TO SCHEMATIC MASTERPLAN: BREC's critics, supporters cheer plans for Baton Rouge Zoo and Greenwood Park: 'It's like a dream'
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
@nczoofan, is it not our understanding the BREC council will be providing funding support to the zoo to assist it in getting re-accredited and renovating - what council by Councilman Corey has admitted - a 50 year old institution with 50 year old exhibits in dire need of renovating. The plan was to create a big new project every 5 years. I figured their first project is the all African area and the new Welcome complex in a more logical site along Greenwood Community Park (which would allow both park sites to benefit from increased visitor relevance and attendance and easier access to the zoo with a big new parking lot).

LINK TO SCHEMATIC MASTERPLAN: BREC's critics, supporters cheer plans for Baton Rouge Zoo and Greenwood Park: 'It's like a dream'
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I mean if you look at the actual phasing of it which they are largely sticking too within the master plan document, no. The plan was to first get the zoo reaccredited, and everything after that was contingent upon that. The zoo wants to address its decrepit holding areas and houses first, as well as its dangerous moats. As well they will be getting a new entrance.

The African area was phase 2 I believe but it won’t look like the schematic. It’ll incorporate the features from phase 1 such as the new giraffe and hippo areas, and then fill in the gaps.

As well Baton Rouge is not a rich city by any means and will not be able to fund in the short term all of these plans. The zoo will need to get some outside funding as well despite political promises.
 
nczoofan said:
I mean if you look at the actual phasing of it which they are largely sticking too within the master plan document, no. The plan was to first get the zoo reaccredited, and everything after that was contingent upon that. The zoo wants to address its decrepit holding areas and houses first, as well as its dangerous moats. As well they will be getting a new entrance.

The African area was phase 2 I believe but it won’t look like the schematic. It’ll incorporate the features from phase 1 such as the new giraffe and hippo areas, and then fill in the gaps.

As well Baton Rouge is not a rich city by any means and will not be able to fund in the short term all of these plans. The zoo will need to get some outside funding as well despite political promises.
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Thanks for your well informed brief of what the situation is on the ground right now. I was quite the aware Louisiana and the Baton Rouge district not being the richest part of the State and very much in need of non city funding. Is there any likelihood that the Federal State coffers will provide some of the shortfall or a new council tax might be introduced to fund renovation of the zoo (I would assume locals being attached to the place would like to see their zoo develop favourably)?
 
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