Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden Cincinnati Zoo News 2008-2009

I visited the zoo today. I must confess myself a little disappointed with the Elephant Reserve expansion. It's not bad, I was just under the impression that the bull yard would be expanded into the old giraffe/okapi VG yards. He pretty much had the entire old moated yard. Not bad, just not what I expected. I thought there would be more exhibit space. The old exhibits are now either paths or planted areas near the rennovated Vine entrance.
 
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groundskeeper24 said:
I visited the zoo today. I must confess myself a little disappointed with the Elephant Reserve expansion. It's ot bad, I was just under the impression that the bull yard would be expanded into the old giraffe/okapi VG yards. He pretty much had the entire old moated yard. Not bad, just not what I expected. I thought there would be more exhibit space. The old exhibits are now either paths or planted areas near the rennovated Vine entrance.
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There was a recent expansion of the exhibit?

I do have a question you could probably answer: where were these okapi/giraffe yards? Were they in that giant plot of land between the bull yard and the Vine Street Village. IMO, that's SUCH wasted space as it stands.

The other day, the bull exhibit had two elephants--I have no idea why.
 
tigertiger said:
There was a recent expansion of the exhibit?

I do have a question you could probably answer: where were these okapi/giraffe yards? Were they in that giant plot of land between the bull yard and the Vine Street Village. IMO, that's SUCH wasted space as it stands.

The other day, the bull exhibit had two elephants--I have no idea why.
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I'm talking about the okapi/giraffe yards between the building and Vine St. They had Swan Lake in the background. Now there's a crane exhibit and a new boardwalk plus some grass and trees. I was under the impression, perhaps a false one, that the giraffes and okapis were moved so the eles could utilize the entire area. Apparently not. The only difference to the visitor is that the bull yard now includes the area where they used to have bleachers for animal shows not too long ago. Basically the bull yard is the old school African elephant/hippo/tapir outdoor yard. It wasn't that big too begin with. I'm gonna give them a mulligan and assume that the exhibit improvements were just adaptations to accomodate the bull. They do have full access to the historic Elephant House, though.
 
groundskeeper24 said:
I'm talking about the okapi/giraffe yards between the building and Vine St. They had Swan Lake in the background. Now there's a crane exhibit and a new boardwalk plus some grass and trees. I was under the impression, perhaps a false one, that the giraffes and okapis were moved so the eles could utilize the entire area. Apparently not. The only difference to the visitor is that the bull yard now includes the area where they used to have bleachers for animal shows not too long ago. Basically the bull yard is the old school African elephant/hippo/tapir outdoor yard. It wasn't that big too begin with. I'm gonna give them a mulligan and assume that the exhibit improvements were just adaptations to accomodate the bull. They do have full access to the historic Elephant House, though.
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Interesting. Cincinnati's elephant's aren't terrible but it does seem a shame that there is so much additional room in that area (and room is not common at Cincy...) that could easily give the elephants another acre even perhaps and instead it's a grassy noll and open space.

groundskeeper24 said:
I know this is the wrong thread and I apologize. That said, I could see them putting the hogs in one of the smaller veldt yards, particularly where the geese are now. I imagine the rhinos could go back where they used to be in RR (where the hogs are now).
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Figured I'd move this over to the right thread :P

I could see that but I don't know how that would practically work: the zoo has six 'baby' hogs in that enclosure at the moment and I'd think that as it stands now it's far too hilly for a rhino. I don't know though--suppose we'll have to wait and see.
 
tigertiger said:
Interesting. Cincinnati's elephant's aren't terrible but it does seem a shame that there is so much additional room in that area (and room is not common at Cincy...) that could easily give the elephants another acre even perhaps and instead it's a grassy noll and open space.



Figured I'd move this over to the right thread :P

I could see that but I don't know how that would practically work: the zoo has six 'baby' hogs in that enclosure at the moment and I'd think that as it stands now it's far too hilly for a rhino. I don't know though--suppose we'll have to wait and see.
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There were black rhinos in that yard for years, probably decades before very recently. This visit was the first one I can remember where I didn't see black rhinos there. I'm not sure about the hogs, though. They still had a couple over by the Sumatran rhinos today. I can't imagine that they won't be relocated at some point considering the numbers.
 
groundskeeper24 said:
There were black rhinos in that yard for years, probably decades before very recently. This visit was the first one I can remember where I didn't see black rhinos there. I'm not sure about the hogs, though. They still had a couple over by the Sumatran rhinos today. I can't imagine that they won't be relocated at some point considering the numbers.
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Really? As it stands? That's surprising. Large space for them though.

I'm assuming eventually at least half those hogs will be relocated to other zoos or the like.
 
tigertiger said:
Really? As it stands? That's surprising. Large space for them though.

I'm assuming eventually at least half those hogs will be relocated to other zoos or the like.
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Yup. For as long as I can remember. I'm 32 and have been going to Cincy since before I could walk. They had whites in the Elephant House on the Erkenbrecher side along with giraffes and okapis and hippos, tapirs and eles on the other. The aquired Indians sometime in the late 80s-early90s and moved the whites out to make room for the Indians. The black rhinos have always been in the Veldt before it was even Rhino Reserve. When The Elephant House was first remodeled and returned as Vanishing Giants in 2000(I think) it had no rhinos, just eles, giraffes and okapis. RR was built into the Veldt shortly before VG was finished. This was to house the Indians. Before that the area where the Indians reside was just an extension of the Veldt. They had many more species in what is now the bongo yard there. Eland and zebras were together in that space and long ago ostriches as well. The end where the Indians are now used to be frequented by several bird species such as crowned cranes, maribou storks and kori bustards (and I think some vultures as well). When RR went up the bird species left, then eventually the eland and then the zebra were moved to the back end (not really, b/c the old zebras were not Grevy's). Through all of this the black rhinos in that pen were the constant, until now. They apparently housed a Sumatran in the Veldt as well, but I never saw it there.
 
There are two yards for the black rhinos over on the veldt...they can be rather aggressive and often need their individual space from time to time.
 
Nope...the Indian and Black Rhinos have two yards each. The original veldt indoor house is two-storied. The old Eland and Zebra yards have holding on the 2nd floor. The Other one (or two?) hoofstock yard(s) and the Indians have holding on the 1st floor. And an annex building built for the black rhinos attached to the veldt building has two yards.
 
okapikpr said:
Nope...the Indian and Black Rhinos have two yards each. The original veldt indoor house is two-storied. The old Eland and Zebra yards have holding on the 2nd floor. The Other one (or two?) hoofstock yard(s) and the Indians have holding on the 1st floor. And an annex building built for the black rhinos attached to the veldt building has two yards.
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There used to be a building for this hoofs? As Cincinnati stands now (unless something changed since 4pm yesterday :P), the Rhino Reserve has the red hogs, some form of bird, okapi, zebra, flamingos, bongo's and then two I. Rhino areas.

I wasn't aware there was originally a house, or is this just behind the scenes?
 
The massive rock like structure in the middle of the veldt complex is a building - the indoor housing for the hoostock at the complex...its been there as long as the exhibits themselves....where else would the animals be housed?

From my last visit in 2007 (from your clockwise motion)....Black Rhino, Black Rhino, rotated Okapi/Bongo, Grevy's Zebra, Waterfowl, Scimitar-horned Oryx, Indian Rhino, Indian Rhino.
 
The scimitars are in Wildlife Canyon now. Man would I have loved to have seen the behind the scenes stuff you did, okapikpr. It's always cool to hear about the inner workings. There was a time when the Veldt had a lot of African sav. dwellers. I'd assume there's some bird holding there too?

Hearing about this reminds me of when I learned there was a tunnel from the Reptile House to Monkey Island.

I always wondered one thing you may know, okapikpr: How is Tiger Canyon connected with the Cat House. I always figured it was, but never knew for sure. Long, long ago they kept large felines in that building and in the grottos, so I assume there's some connection in that hillside?
 
okapikpr said:
The massive rock like structure in the middle of the veldt complex is a building - the indoor housing for the hoostock at the complex...its been there as long as the exhibits themselves....where else would the animals be housed?

From my last visit in 2007 (from your clockwise motion)....Black Rhino, Black Rhino, rotated Okapi/Bongo, Grevy's Zebra, Waterfowl, Scimitar-horned Oryx, Indian Rhino, Indian Rhino.
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I guess I never really gave much though to it. The first black rhino is now the six river hog babies, the second some rather plain bird, followed by okapi (on their own), grevy's, flamingo, bongo, and IR, IR.

Perhaps you may have some insight: I hear Cincy is getting a black rhino. Where will we put him?
 
groundskeeper24 said:
The scimitars are in Wildlife Canyon now. Man would I have loved to have seen the behind the scenes stuff you did, okapikpr. It's always cool to hear about the inner workings. There was a time when the Veldt had a lot of African sav. dwellers. I'd assume there's some bird holding there too?

Hearing about this reminds me of when I learned there was a tunnel from the Reptile House to Monkey Island.

I always wondered one thing you may know, okapikpr: How is Tiger Canyon connected with the Cat House. I always figured it was, but never knew for sure. Long, long ago they kept large felines in that building and in the grottos, so I assume there's some connection in that hillside?
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I never knew there was a tunnel! That's awesome!

I can't really see a need for the two to be connected now but the plans for the upgrade I think explicitly make that a goal (for visitors).
 
*There is really only one place to put a black rhino, their old holding area. Red River Hogs and whatever bird can be more flexible species when choosing enclosures for them....rhinos only have a limited type of enclosures and holding that they can live in.

*There is a tunnel, from what I've been told, that connects the cat grottos to the cat building which is right above the grotto area.
 
Actually, The "African Veldt" was originally named Flamingo Cove when it opened in 2000. They had black rhinos and indian rhinos in Flamingo Cove plus alot of african hoofstock/birds/waterfowl. They also had an African Violet Garden
 
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