Brookfield Zoo Brookfield Zoo News 2021

If I had to take a guess, Feathers & Scales may be next to open considering there's plenty of space to spread out from others inside.

EDIT: But, hey, if they opened the Sea Lion underwater viewing and that's a rather confined area, who really knows what they'll open next?
 
I have a question about the pachyderm house. I don't know if there is any news on that buildings front, but they seem to not know what to do with that building any longer and, correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the only animals still living in it are a single pygmy hippo and their black rhinoceros. I guess I have a couple of questions then. 1) are they phasing out the animals here and if so, what are the plans for the building? I think the building might be historical, so their options may be limited, but it is in pretty rough shape. I would think tearing it down and starting fresh would be more cost effective at this point than trying to refurbish it. Of course, they did that with Desert's Edge and the Clouded Leopard Rainforest and those exhibits turned out pretty decent. I believe that building used to be their old lion house. Anyway, I wandered a bit. Does anyone have any information on what may be happening to the Pachyderm House in the future?
 
Amphibiman said:
I have a question about the pachyderm house. I don't know if there is any news on that buildings front, but they seem to not know what to do with that building any longer and, correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the only animals still living in it are a single pygmy hippo and their black rhinoceros. I guess I have a couple of questions then. 1) are they phasing out the animals here and if so, what are the plans for the building? I think the building might be historical, so their options may be limited, but it is in pretty rough shape. I would think tearing it down and starting fresh would be more cost effective at this point than trying to refurbish it. Of course, they did that with Desert's Edge and the Clouded Leopard Rainforest and those exhibits turned out pretty decent. I believe that building used to be their old lion house. Anyway, I wandered a bit. Does anyone have any information on what may be happening to the Pachyderm House in the future?
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I gave you a brief answer in the media gallery a little bit ago, but I will reiterate some things in greater detail for anyone else who is curious about this. As I said, there is still a 1.1 lowland tapirs and a 1.0 giant anteater left in the building as well as the 2.1 black rhinos and 0.1 pygmy hippo. It's pretty eerie that such a gargantuan structure that once held every pachyderm species under the sun is so empty. In some cases for the better of course - this building was never good for elephants and their absence allowed for expansion of the black rhino complex - but it still feels like they went a bit overboard. The vacant hippo exhibit for example holds up tremendously well even with a lack of underwater viewing. Its arguably better than some of the newer exhibits that have sprung up in the past few years which is both impressive and depressing at the same time. Either way, the several empty and overgrown paddocks is not a pretty sight and the deteriorated fencing and pipes indoors does not represent what a modern zoo should look like. This building has sucked up many of the funds the zoo has just to keep it together.

The old master plan called for the pachyderm house to be maintained with some renovations. The interior would have been cut off from public view which would have allowed for expanded holding, and it would have been condensed into Habitat Africa, dedicated to the rhinos, hippos and large antelope. This is no longer the case. From what I’ve been hearing whenever funding is available the zoo intends to demolish this building. I honestly prefer that idea. The Pachyderm House is falling apart and has been an irritating thorn in the zoos side for many years. It's much smarter to knock it down and build something brand new instead of trying to maintain a failing structure. This won't happen for many years though and is not the zoos first priority at the moment. The Pachyderm Building was used as a fall out shelter during the Cold War so it certainly won't come down easy. I am also no sure what will take its space, though if I were to guess they would likely use this space to extend Habitats Africa. New elephant complex perhaps? Thats just me spitballing.
 
Forgot what the long-term gameplan was for the building, but I know the building itself is apparently a monster to maintain financially. Animals there are three black rhinoceros with each individual having its own yard on the southern side of the building. The lone pygmy hippo has the smaller corner yard on the northwest side of the building. There are two lowland tapirs taking the largest yard on the northern side. Their pool is still drained (for cleaning, I assume), but they do have access to water.

EDIT: Also, to tack onto pachyderm pro's post from the last page, I think the grounds of the building have a couple of wild groundhogs. There is a burrow just outside of the abandoned hippo yard right next to the tapir yard. You might see 'em stick their head out of there from time to time. Funny enough, walked past a kid today and overheard him say he saw a giraffe punt one the last time he was at the zoo.

Last year, the zoo had giant tortoises take one of the yards on the northern side, but there's no signage for them this year and I've never seen 'em yet. The adult giant anteater that formerly took residence in Tropic World: South America is still signed on the northeast yard, but I haven't seen it all year and its pool is drained.

Can't imagine the zoo wanting to give up its rhinos as they're still quite the popular attraction. But, if they have to temporarily move them to another facility for construction purposes, they'll have no choice.

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Also, made a visit today. First off, folks were excellent about keeping masks on inside all of the indoor areas after the latest issuance of guidance by the CDC yesterday, so that was encouraging to see. With that, what used to be 50 guests max inside an indoor enclosure at a time has increased for each exhibit. The Living Coast can now hold 249(!!) guests while Great Bear Wilderness's underwater viewing can now accommodate 150 or so.

There's no limit for Pinniped Point's underwater sea lion viewing from what I saw and there's no attendant there keeping an eye on the number of guests inside. Sea lions were loving the attention from guests as they were coming right up to the glass interacting with a lot of the children making their way in.

Quite the busy day there today. But, it's quite beautiful out, so that's to be expected.
 
If I had say in what happened to the pachyderm house/yards...

- I'd greatly overhaul the building. Didn't know about it being a fallout shelter, so how easy that'd be is a mystery.
- Rebrand it under the Habitat Africa moniker.
- Southern yards all house African Elephants. Maybe combine the two western yards for a familial society and keep the eastern yard (their former yard) as a yard for a bull.
- Northern yards have two yards for the rhinos. Return the giant anteater to Tropic World. Move the pygmy hippo to the anteater's current yard. Move the tortoises (if they're even there) to the current pygmy hippo yard. Bulldoze the former nile hippo yard?
 
I loved the old hippo exhibit. It would pop up to the surface and it was RIGHT there. A very impressive animal. I also hate to see those pachyderm species leave and hopefully would find placement elsewhere within the zoo in the future. I know that in the time being it is mainly being considered a breeding location for the rhinoceros' that we have and that is more than welcome. I am also sad to hear about the Galapagos Tortoises leaving the zoo, if I heard correctly. Hopefully they are just off exhibit until they can build them a proper exhibit of their own? That being said, seeing that building torn down and replaced with something modern would be a blessing. I remember the last time I was in there I saw leaking pipes, those terrible bars that are corroding and the moats with the finish coming off. The interior has definitely seen better days. The exterior is a flashback and a half to when my parents were going to the zoo. It's all extremely dated and not up to today's standards, let alone the standards the zoo is setting for itself. If it is costing them to even let it stand, the only real option is to demolish it.
 
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Best to just tear it all down. Renovating can work, but the indoors is too aged and would wear down from the weight of heavier animals.

Then again, I’ve always been in favor of just removing half of the hoofstock yards to give the elephants their own space again. That ought to shut down the criticism of the old elephant exhibit being too small.
 
Amphibiman said:
I loved the old hippo exhibit. It would pop up to the surface and it was RIGHT there. A very impressive animal. I also hate to see those pachyderm species leave and hopefully would find placement elsewhere within the zoo in the future. I know that in the time being it is mainly being considered a breeding location for the rhinoceros' that we have and that is more than welcome. I am also sad to hear about the Galapagos Tortoises leaving the zoo, if I heard correctly. Hopefully they are just off exhibit until they can build them a proper exhibit of their own? That being said, seeing that building torn down and replaced with something modern would be a blessing. I remember the last time I was in there I saw leaking pipes, those terrible bars that are corroding and the moats with the finish coming off. The interior has definitely seen better days. The exterior is a flashback and a half to when my parents were going to the zoo. It's all extremely dated and not up to today's standards, let alone the standards the zoo is setting for itself. If it is costing them to even let it stand, the only real option is to demolish it.
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You sure that the Galapagos tortoises will leave the zoo (where did this rumour come from out of interest)?

Personally, I agree the Pachyderm House needs scrapping and a new facility for Habitat Africa with rhinos and some African savannah species .... in its place. Why it will not happen for years is a mystery to me when it is already falling apart now. It will become an immediate priority in the not too distant future, I am certain of that.
 
Brookfield just needs more money, which they should be getting out of their current fundraiser (which should be ending by the summer). Hopefully they get enough donations to do some real changes. Like the destruction of that exhibit, add outdoor sections for the Tropic World, and bring back elephants to a bigger exhibit that suits them.
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
You sure that the Galapagos tortoises will leave the zoo (where did this rumour come from out of interest)?

Personally, I agree the Pachyderm House needs scrapping and a new facility for Habitat Africa with rhinos and some African savannah species .... in its place. Why it will not happen for years is a mystery to me when it is already falling apart now. It will become an immediate priority in the not too distant future, I am certain of that.
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The tortoises may still be at the zoo, just no longer on exhibit. I have no idea what the zoo has done with them at the moment.

The Pachyderm House isn't a priority purely for the fact they don't have the money to tear it down. It takes a lot of time to raise money for things at Brookfield (more on that momentarily). Baboon Island sat empty for over five years before it was demolished, the bear grottos have been abandoned for over a decade with no known plans to remove them, etc. Outdoor ape exhibits will be the focus within the next few years, so unless the zoo gets a hefty donation I'm not expecting the pachyderm house to go anywhere for at least another decade give or take.

Tapir Master said:
Brookfield just needs more money, which they should be getting out of their current fundraiser (which should be ending by the summer). Hopefully they get enough donations to do some real changes. Like the destruction of that exhibit, add outdoor sections for the Tropic World, and bring back elephants to a bigger exhibit that suits them.
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It's worth noting that "Above & Beyond" campaign isn't raising money for new exhibits. It's raising money to make up for lost revenue from the extended closure last year. That effort ends in a few weeks. The excerpt from when this was first announced last August reads, "In 2021 The Chicago Zoological Society will celebrate the 100th anniversary of our founding. Like our forebearers, we have great plans for the future and we must stabile our financial position so we may realize these ambitious goals." This could be interpreted as the zoo insinuating that they have future plans and will announce them once comfortable financially.

The zoos master plan is sill being developed and has been for the past year or so. It will be very interesting to see how things play out this year, with the campaign being wrapped up soon and a new director to be onboarded in a few months, I am cautiously optimistic we may here some sort of news by this fall. I wouldn’t hold my breath however. Does anyone know exactly how long it takes on average for a master plan to be developed?
 
Brookfield Fan said:
https://twitter.com/brookfield_zoo/status/1394299194752577536?s=20

I think I know where our hard-shelled friends from the Pachyderm House have went to. This is a picture of the walk-through wallaby yard at Hamill Family Wild Encounters.
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I'm actually not sure if thats the case. Don't hold me to this but I vaguely recall hearing about the zoo adding an African spur-thighed tortoise added to the wallaby yard a little bit ago. I doubt there are any other tortoises there. I haven't been in Wild Encounters in a while so I will check next time I am there.
 
Ah, I didn't know of that. I just when Wild Encounters was free through last year each walkthrough of mine last year I remember only seeing the wallabies and no tortoise signage. Then again, I do believe this was later in the year when it would've been too cold for a reptile to be outdoors anyway.
 
pachyderm pro said:
I'm actually not sure if thats the case. Don't hold me to this but I vaguely recall hearing about the zoo adding an African spur-thighed tortoise added to the wallaby yard a little bit ago. I doubt there are any other tortoises there. I haven't been in Wild Encounters in a while so I will check next time I am there.
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Yes a Sulcata tortoise named Rotunda made an appearance in the wallaby yard every now and then back before the pandemic. There wasn’t ever any signage since the tortoise wasn’t a permanent resident and was just out to stretch his/her legs
 
The Speeding Carnotaurus said:
Yes a Sulcata tortoise named Rotunda made an appearance in the wallaby yard every now and then back before the pandemic. There wasn’t ever any signage since the tortoise wasn’t a permanent resident and was just out to stretch his/her legs
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Wow that is a wonderful name for a big chubby tortoise.
 
Speaking of lesser used buildings, will the Aardvark House ever be demolished or rebranded?

It’s obviously clear that they may never have the animal in this zoo again nor use the building.

On a similar note, what ever happened to the baby aardvark they last birthed, probably sent to another zoo?
 
Tapir Master said:
Speaking of lesser used buildings, will the Aardvark House ever be demolished or rebranded?

It’s obviously clear that they may never have the animal in this zoo again nor use the building.

On a similar note, what ever happened to the baby aardvark they last birthed, probably sent to another zoo?
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If/when something is done with the aardvark house, it probably won't be for aardvarks. The sign by the exhibit states that it is "permanently closed" so while anythings possible that insinuates that there are no official plans to reopen this building any time soon. The 2006 master plan called for the aardvark house to be removed as it was to be cannibalized by the planned elephant complex, so it wouldn't surprise me if it is demolished in the not so near future in the upcoming one. And yes, the baby was sent to another zoo, though I am not sure which one.
 
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