okapikpr - sorry for the delayed response, can't make it on ZooBeat everyday at the moment. My name is Jon Wassner, I'm one of the co-authors of America's Best Zoos, which came out earlier this year and many of you own. Thanks for all the positive comments, it's good to know that it has been useful and enjoyed by many participants on this Forum. I've been watching responses to threads for a few months now, but enjoyed watching from the outside compared to participating myself. But I felt compelled to respond about Brookfield Zoo since I consider it my home zoo despite living in Indianapolis. I've been to Brookfield over 300 times in my life, so I know it extremely well.
There have been several different designs for Great Bear Wilderness. Some have shown trees in the exhibits, others show a lack there of. It would be a shame if there wasn't trees, especially since the area it's being built (west side of zoo, taking over Ibex Island and pushing back toward Indian Lake and Wolf Woods) is currently a forest. From what I've seen, there should be 3 bear habitats, 1 for polar bears, 1 for grizzly bears, and an extra which can be used for either. Considering they have polar bear cubs every 2 years, it's likely that the additional habitat will almost always have polar bears. The bison habitat has also gone through several designs. One, which I believe is what they are going with, has a tunnel passing underneath the bison paddock. They have placed importance on making a better than average exhibit for bison, since it is the symbol of the zoo.
mstickmanp - the outdoor gorilla + mandrill habitats are not planned for the near future. There is no specific timeline, but Tropic World is in good shape compared to other places in the zoo.
To expand on what both snowleopard and myself have already said - Australia, Fragile Kingdom, Pinneped Point, Birds, Reptiles, Tropic World, Pachyderm House, Bears, Children's Zoo, and African animals will all have varying degrees of renovations and improvements over the course of the next 15 years. This does not include the other necessary minor improvements expected on existing structures and additional public friendly attractions which will also take place.
There are many reasons for Brookfield having so many improvements at hand, some are needed ASAP, others they are looking toward the future and addressing those needs now. Despite the desperate need to fix a few exhibits, I'm glad they are taking their time in renovating the zoo. They are acquiring appropriate funds, through both self and private sources, so that the changes will exceed requirements. Additionally, they have a huge committee, composed of 50 or so people from varying backgrounds that have come together to plan each of the upcoming projects. The future is definitely bright - at least on the surface - for Brookfield.
