Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden News 2021

Animals R AMAZING! said:
This is so exciting! Hopefully, they do end up getting the cows from Dublin! Also interestingly, all the cows from Dublin are related to Schottzie so they would have a nice matriarchal herd if they imported some of those cows. And, this would finally allow Sabu to breed since he has no surviving offspring and Jati is likely post-reproductive at this point.
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If these females are indeed from the Dublin Zoo, I would wage that it is Yasmin and Anak, a mother-daughter pair. However, Anak's father is Alexander, the prolific son of Motek, who, as some of you may know, has plenty of other descendants in North America. Regardless, two much needed breeding age females.
 
Moebelle said:
No offense to the rhinos... or the garage, but of the three main remaining future plans, I'd say Elephant Trek is the needed upgrade. Plans of course can always change again, but it appears they moved the Primate exhibit to be in front of the elephant yard(s) instead of putting them off to the side.
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I'd assume that Elephant Trek has moved up forward the two years because well...the other two projects are no long included in the campaign :confused:.
 
I'm still of the mind that they should have Malayan tapir mixed with Visayan warty pig in the larger yard of the current Elephant Reserve, and retrofit Sabu's soon-to-be old yard for lowland anoa. Maybe a side aviary for some songbirds or laughingthrush would be cool too.
 
ZooBinh said:
I'd assume that Elephant Trek has moved up forward the two years because well...the other two projects are no long included in the campaign :confused:.
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According to this document on the “More Home to Roam” campaign website, the Rhino Reserve redesign is still on the books, now on for a 2025 opening. The document also has additional information and renderings of the elephant complex, which unsurprisingly have changed from the initial plans. It appears as though new exhibits for gibbons and Asian small-clawed otters will be a part of the complex as well; however, there is no sign of the Caprid enclosure.
 
I like the finalized plans much more. The original schematic with a walkway around the entire complex had a lot of wasted space. This plan keeps the visitors largely on one side and design wise seems similar to Reid Park's exhibit. Also this will allow it to take advantage of the treeline behind the exhibit.

In regards to rhino reserve I kind of wish the zoo would just relocate the black rhinos to the elephant house and then do a simple expansion of the habitats for the other species. Seems like a bit of a waste of money imo especially since the exhibits won't be expanding.
 
Moebelle said:
Mind if I ask what exhibits you're referring to?
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I was referring to the renovation of the rhino complex for black rhino, okapi, bongo, and zebra. Which is mentioned in some documents and not others, so I am unsure if it will go forward right now. Because the capital campaigns fundraising website does not mention it. But the plan to me seemed like mainly a beautification campaign of the existing space from the early plans.
 
nczoofan said:
I was referring to the renovation of the rhino complex for black rhino, okapi, bongo, and zebra. Which is mentioned in some documents and not others, so I am unsure if it will go forward right now. Because the capital campaigns fundraising website does not mention it. But the plan to me seemed like mainly a beautification campaign of the existing space from the early plans.
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In the document posted by Kudu, the word "reimagining" when referring to Rhino Reserve, sounds quite promising to me. That they will follow through with the original plan of combining several yards.
 
The whole development looks very impressive. I do wish some more interesting or rather unique species to compliment the elephant besides the small-clawed otters and even more gibbons, but the space for the elephants looks like is potential to be the strongest asian elephant complex in the country. Am I correct in saying that this elephant barn would be the largest in North America by the time its complete? It appears to be about the same size as Omaha who current holds the title. Is it also safe to assume that the plan to integrate a hoofstock species (takin was it?) in with the elephants has been scrapped?
Moebelle said:
In the document posted by Kudu, the word "reimagining" when referring to Rhino Reserve, sounds quite promising to me. That they will follow through with the original plan of combining several yards.
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Yes, but the okapi and bongo yards will remain that same, correct?
 
pachyderm pro said:
The whole development looks very impressive. I do wish some more interesting or rather unique species to compliment the elephant besides the small-clawed otters and even more gibbons, but the space for the elephants looks like is potential to be the strongest asian elephant complex in the country. Am I correct in saying that this elephant barn would be the largest in North America by the time its complete? It appears to be about the same size as Omaha who current holds the title. Is it also safe to assume that the plan to integrate a hoofstock species (takin was it?) in with the elephants has been scrapped?

Yes, but the okapi and bongo yards will remain that same, correct?
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And the building will as well, with maybe some minor internal renovations. The initial schematics that were taken down basically just had the same layout with some yards being attached and making the exhibits flow better visually. Using the same exact site basically, so they imo are making it sound more impressive than it is.
 
nczoofan said:
I like the finalized plans much more. The original schematic with a walkway around the entire complex had a lot of wasted space. This plan keeps the visitors largely on one side and design wise seems similar to Reid Park's exhibit. Also this will allow it to take advantage of the treeline behind the exhibit.

In regards to rhino reserve I kind of wish the zoo would just relocate the black rhinos to the elephant house and then do a simple expansion of the habitats for the other species. Seems like a bit of a waste of money imo especially since the exhibits won't be expanding.
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I would agree on both accounts, absolutely. It would make much more sense in the scheme of "More Home to Roam" to renovate and redesign the current elephant enclosures and the surrounding area for the black rhinos. This would free up the rest of Rhino Reserve, which would allow for actually expanded habitats and holding for the bongo, okapi, duiker, and zebra. None of the current spaces for those species are adequate for proper management. If the zoo is committed to these species, specifically breeding these species, then they need more room. One small yard for each species isn't going to cut it.
 
Kudu21 said:
I would agree on both accounts, absolutely. It would make much more sense in the scheme of "More Home to Roam" to renovate and redesign the current elephant enclosures and the surrounding area for the black rhinos. This would free up the rest of Rhino Reserve, which would allow for actually expanded habitats and holding for the bongo, okapi, duiker, and zebra. None of the current spaces for those species are adequate for proper management. If the zoo is committed to these species, specifically breeding these species, then they need more room. One small yard for each species isn't going to cut it.
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True. Especially if you look how small the holding building is and how it lacks off-display yards, therefore making breeding hard. I measured the building on google earth and it is just 4000 sq ft. Not much for all those species, and even if that was all for the rhinos that would be smaller than many zoos barns.
 
pachyderm pro said:
The whole development looks very impressive. I do wish some more interesting or rather unique species to compliment the elephant besides the small-clawed otters and even more gibbons, but the space for the elephants looks like is potential to be the strongest asian elephant complex in the country. Am I correct in saying that this elephant barn would be the largest in North America by the time its complete? It appears to be about the same size as Omaha who current holds the title. Is it also safe to assume that the plan to integrate a hoofstock species (takin was it?) in with the elephants has been scrapped?

Yes, but the okapi and bongo yards will remain that same, correct?
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The building at Columbus is 33,000 sq feet, although rhinos use some of that space. Omahas barn is 28,000 sq feet. Oregon Zoo's building is 32,000 sq feet. The National zoos elephant house is 32,000 sq feet as well. So not the largest in the nation but in the upper tier. At 22,000 sq feet it will be slightly larger than barns at Milwaukee and Denver.

All these are just raw building square footage though. Some houses have more or less guest/keeper space.
 
nczoofan said:
True. Especially if you look how small the holding building is and how it lacks off-display yards, therefore making breeding hard. I measured the building on google earth and it is just 4000 sq ft. Not much for all those species, and even if that was all for the rhinos that would be smaller than many zoos barns.
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The building has two levels (the hoofstock holding is on the first level, and the rhino holding is in the basement), and there at least used to be at least one small holding yard, but the fact of the matter is the same, it's not enough space to adequately hold and breed all of those animals. Flexibility is always key, and they don't have the room to be flexible. Remove the rhinos, and you could have a fairly decent complex for the remaining species.
 
Kudu21 said:
The building has two levels (the hoofstock holding is on the first level, and the rhino holding is in the basement), and there at least used to be at least one small holding yard, but the fact of the matter is the same, it's not enough space to adequately hold and breed all of those animals. Flexibility is always key, and they don't have the room to be flexible. Remove the rhinos, and you could have a fairly decent complex for the remaining species.
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Quite an interesting design. Although I imagine the rhino stalls are pretty dark in that case, especially for the winters. Googled some images and it definitely looks pretty outdated and small for the rhinos. Hopefully the zoo has minimized mention of the complex as it eveluates what will move to the elephant house. Moving say black rhino and okapi would be great, and not even require too much work especially for the rhinos (didn't Okapi used to live there anyways?).
 
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Found the initial renovation plan on a news website.
 
nczoofan said:
Quite an interesting design. Although I imagine the rhino stalls are pretty dark in that case, especially for the winters. Googled some images and it definitely looks pretty outdated and small for the rhinos. Hopefully the zoo has minimized mention of the complex as it eveluates what will move to the elephant house. Moving say black rhino and okapi would be great, and not even require too much work especially for the rhinos (didn't Okapi used to live there anyways?).
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It's a very old complex that has been showing its age for awhile now. The rhino stalls are quite dark and very standard. The hoofstock holding had sky lights installed maybe six or so years ago, which made a (small) difference. Moving the rhinos would be the easiest option. Okapi did used to live in the building, but the inside was overhauled when it was converted over to solely housing elephants, so to include any smaller species of hoofstock would require the interior to be renovated and reimagined.
 
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