Brookfield Zoo Chicago Visit Report 05/25/2025
Even without the presence of a certain cute and cuddly marsupial, the zoo was absolutely jam-packed today for memorial day weekend with both people and cicadas (seriously, those little dudes were everywhere). It was definitely a bummer to see the koalas join the ever-growing list of delayed projects as of late. No matter, just one more thing to look forward to during the next visit. There was still plenty to enjoy as this was my first time experiencing some of the most recent additions from the last few months which I'll discuss below. First, a number of updates.
Updates
The male gray seal pup born in February is now on-exhibit.
A new female cotton-top tamarin has arrived sometime recently. Both her and resident male Sebastian are back on-exhibit in Tropic World South America.
Collared finchbills have been added to the small fruit dove enclosure in Tropic World Asia.
A prairie rattlesnake is now on-exhibit in Feathers and Scales, a new species for the zoo.
The plexiglass around the bat-eared fox exhibit has finally been removed.
Some of the adult addax have been moved to the old przewalski's horse paddocks.
The coati are back on display in Wild Encounters for the season. This also means Poe the raven is once again off-exhibit.
The male nyala has been reintroduced to the rest of the herd. Looks like they shipped out some of the calves born last year, as only two adult females were out today.
Construction Progress
Tropical Forests: The overall site looks largely similar to how it did last month, although things are progressing steadily. Rockwork has been installed around the orangutan/monkey viewing shelter and several small faux trees are being put into place in the monkey enclosure. The second photo I've attached below shows what they look like. Also notable is that windows have begun being installed along the lower and upper levels of the new gorilla building.
@MeiLover uploaded a photo from earlier this week that shows what it looks like. Everything looks on track to be done by this time next year.
North American Prairie Aviary: The entire steel frame of the aviary has been put in place. Holding areas on both sides of the structure are visibly outlined and support poles for the visitor viewing shelter have been added as well. Looks like the next step is to begin the landscaping and installing the mesh.
Koalas!: Exhibit looks pretty much complete, outdoors at least. It’s basically two enclosures each with a cluster of branches and a few fake rocks. Panels of plexiglass have been installed to prevent the koalas from climbing the mesh. There really isn't a whole lot to it, but koalas don’t exactly need especially complex environments to do well.
Turtle Exhibits - Thoughts and Impressions
After being worked on for over a year, the new outdoor turtle exhibits in the Nature Plaza have finally opened. These exhibits have been discussed at length already as they've basically been complete for the past several months, but for those unfamiliar I will provide a brief summary. These two enclosures are conversions of old planters into open-topped habitats for native turtles: one for aquatic turtles and one for terrestrial turtles. One resembles a dry prairie environment with tall grasses and rock shelters, while the other is essentially an elongated stream with several basking spots. Eight species total are signed and it was genuinely fun and rewarding to spend some time searching for and finding the inhabitants. Bringing them to eye-level in well planted outdoor spaces is so much more engaging than the standard reptile house terrariums they were in previously.
As good as these exhibits are, they are a bit understocked at the moment. I'm not sure if this is just because it's the first day it's open, but I really didn't see all that many turtles. I could only find one spotted turtle, one musk turtle and one unidentified turtle in one exhibit (all of which were hiding under logs in the water), and two box turtles in the other. Thankfully an especially active ornate box turtle was getting his steps in and was fun to track between the tall prairie grasses. I'm guessing that keepers may rotate different groups of turtles into the spaces every day and not every species will be on display at the same time. One other nitpick is that the zoo placed a bunch of small umbrellas surrounding the exhibits to provide the inhabitants shade. I get it's necessary and they really aren't all that obtrusive, but it would be nice if they could find a more subtle way to provide additional cover.
Something of note is that the exhibit area closes at 3:00 PM every day. I learned this because I doubled back later in the day and was greeted by a pair of keepers reaching over to collect the turtles for the night, so be sure to get here earlier in the day. Overall, these are excellent displays and it was also great to see so many visitors interested. Near the main path they placed a sign guiding visitors to the entrance of the area which prompted many people to check it out. Many younger kids and even some adults were especially excited whenever someone spotted a turtle, even if it was just sitting in the water doing nothing. I also overheard a couple in a different part of the zoo asking a volunteer where they could find the exhibit, so it's clear there is some interest in it. It's nice to see such enthusiasm for a group of small, local animals.
I've uploaded additional photos of the exhibits to the gallery.
Animal Highlights
While I was hanging around the turtle area, I caught the flamingo walk for the first time. It was fun to watch as keepers attempted to herd the birds like cattle while walking them around the southwest corner of the grounds. Sounds like these walks occur around noon most days, weather permitting.
Finally saw the elephant shrews that arrived at the end of last year and they were extremely active. One was collecting bedding by kicking it behind itself in a way that looked super funny. The other was busy covering itself in bedding by burrowing into the ground. Such a weird yet charming little species.
Pangolin was up and moving after being fed at exactly 3:30 PM. As many times as I've seen it awake, it'll never get old.
The orangutans were especially photogenic today and spent a good amount of time going back and forth over a stick. I am increasingly excited to see them in their new outdoor enclosure.
It was terrific to see the renovated dolphin exhibit. I don't frequent the dolphinarium very much so I don't have a whole lot to say about it, but it was a lot of fun to watch part of the dolphin show from the underwater viewing gallery. The rockwork is really well done and makes the tank feel much more dynamic. A very good upgrade all around.
Odds & Sods
Rode the Ferris wheel for the first time as well. Really good view of the Chicago skyline and of the zoo itself. It seems like a solid revenue generator too as the line was quite long. While the zoo did say it would only be here for a year, I wonder if they'd consider extending its stay or even making it a permanent addition. I think it could be a good alternative to a sky-tram which could be tricky to implement well on such a flat site. I do hope it sticks around for at least one more year so I can get an aerial view of Tropical Forests when complete.
A quick side-tangent: it's sort of ridiculous how many projects have been delayed over the last year. Even relatively basic stuff like the macaw trees and the turtle exhibits weren't completed on schedule and things like the prairie dog and eagle owl exhibits have been postponed indefinitely after already being delayed previously. For the most part I could understand why they pushed some things back whether it be supply chain issues, redesigns or simple construction delays, but the sheer number of developments that have been postponed is unfortunate.
With pretty much every recent project getting delayed in some capacity, I'm not gonna get too comfortable with the idea that the master plan will be released next month. My heart says yes, but my brain says no. They've missed too many deadlines for me to be certain.
Maybe it's just the fact that it's the first visit of the summer season, but I can really feel the zoo is in the midst of an upswing. Just seeing the turtle exhibits finally open and the flamingos being brought around the zoo sold me that the zoo is in a much different position than a few years ago. There's also a bunch of non-animal related stuff that has gone a long way in enhancing the overall experience: the sleek new logo and branding plastered all over the zoo, the ferris wheel towering over the grounds, and the recently replanted Roosevelt Fountain gardenscape looks beautiful now that it's grown in. That on top of multiple construction projects progressing well leaves me extremely optimistic for the future.
Definitely saw a lot of freaked out kids, I felt a little bad for them.
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