Fort Worth Zoo Fort Worth Zoo 2016-2018

Last Tuesday, male Lesser Bird of Paradise near tigers was courting female. He perfectly imitated a woman talking on the radio. Words like 'David', 'three-one' could be heard clearly. It took me quite a time to be sure that it was the bird, its bill was actually moving, not a woman talking on the radio at the back of the building. I did not know that BoPs can imitate sounds like crows or mynahs.

Can somebody tell the history of this bird? :)
 
The zoo has updated the plans for the new elephant exhibit, due in 2020. To be honest I am not a fan of the changes. The yards seem small on their own, and the only display yards can't total more than an acre of space. The largest exhibit ain't even that large. To me it seems like much more of a bull holding facility, given the large amount of yards. Quickly measured the current exhibit out to be .7 acres split between several yards. This new exhibit is supposed to be triple that, so about 2 acres.

Here is the new plan: Elephant Springs

Here is the older plan:
1476756854-cc_elephant_springs_rgb.jpg
 
The new one does look very segmented. Is 4 off-exhibit yards really necessary? I don't know much about off-exhibit areas, since that's really the point of them, but it looks like half of the new space is like that.
I heard from an employee that they're hoping to add in a new cheetah exhibit with the elephants, but I don't know how reliable that is.
 
TinoPup said:
The new one does look very segmented. Is 4 off-exhibit yards really necessary? I don't know much about off-exhibit areas, since that's really the point of them, but it looks like half of the new space is like that.
I heard from an employee that they're hoping to add in a new cheetah exhibit with the elephants, but I don't know how reliable that is.
Click to expand...

The cheetahs are still planned to be in phase 3, for predators of Asia and Africa. The off exhibit yards are excessive, in the first plan they made sense. The seperate barn would have likely been for bull holding and the yards were less segmented. Personally I wish they would just do an asian rhino, asian elephant rotation exhibit, as the rhino appears to be tiny.
 
Division of yards increases their functionality. A single off-display yard will quickly turn to dust if the land is not given enough time to recover from the elephant. Rotating around these yards will provide that opportunity. And this is just one reason to have extra yards.
 
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