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Another thing to consider.

Houston's exhibit, which has around 1.5 acres of usable space for its animals, currently houses 11 animals. There is a main (~1 acre) family yard, a second (~0.5 acre) bull yard, and a third, small, off display yard as well. They probably have a total capacity of around 15-16 animals.

Ft Worth currently has the three new yards for a total acreage of around 0.85 acres, plus one more tiny yard (really just an area for training or shifting). Everything said and done, it will equal around 2 acres of usable space, as said. If Houston can house around 15 animals comfortably on 1.5 acres, conceivably, ft worth could house around 18-19 with that extra half acre of space, especially if, like Houston, they regularly allow breeding bulls in the the family groups, and house the young bulls in multi-animal social groups. Even if we want to go with more aggressive splits, they could probably house a total of around 6 mixed age animals in each of the main on display yards, plus a bull or group of 3-4 in each of the smaller off display yards. Assuming they send out Angel and Bowie within the next few years, that will leave them with seven animals, meaning they could produce another 10+ calves before needing to worry about sending animals out. While I'm not personally a fan of the whole smaller yards but more groups method, it does have its merits, and, to be fair, the yards can be combined via leaving the gates open to essentially make larger yards for the animals.

Re Tulsa, they are definitely intending to breed as well, they are specifically designing their new barn with calves in mind. Sneezy is a very valuable bull, and he's actually a natural breeder too. Where their breeding cows will come from though, is anyone's guess at this point.

As for who Ft Worth currently houses

1.0 Colonel (Buke x Whimpy) Born 1991. Never bred before
1.0 Romeo (Pete x Alana) Born 1993. Proven natural breeder
1.0 Bowie (Samson x Blue Bonnet) Born 2013. Still too young and related to all the cows.

0.1 Rasha (wild caught) Born 1971. Proven natural breeder, likely post-reproductive.
0.1 Angel (Vance x Sally) Born 1988. Non breeder.
0.1 Blue Bonnet (Groucho x Rasha) Born 1998. Proven breeder, but only through AI (she won't stand for a bull to breed her).
0.1 Blue Belle (Groucho x Rasha) Born 2013. Just entering sexual maturity.
 
Oh also. For their barn, there are 8 sand stalls, and a further three cement floored stalls, as far as elephants are concerned. If they purged the Rhinos and whatever else from the barn, they could probably put in another three stalls for the elephants.

As mentioned earlier, having community halls or larger indoor spaces are not necessary (and honestly a waste of space) since the Texas climate is perfect for the animals year round. I'm not 100% sure what Ft Worths method is for overnighting their elephants, however I suspect it is, and will continue to be, a combination of some animals kept stalled overnight, and others allowed both indoor and outdoor access.
 
Hyak_II said:
Oh also. For their barn, there are 8 sand stalls, and a further three cement floored stalls, as far as elephants are concerned. If they purged the Rhinos and whatever else from the barn, they could probably put in another three stalls for the elephants.

As mentioned earlier, having community halls or larger indoor spaces are not necessary (and honestly a waste of space) since the Texas climate is perfect for the animals year round. I'm not 100% sure what Ft Worths method is for overnighting their elephants, however I suspect it is, and will continue to be, a combination of some animals kept stalled overnight, and others allowed both indoor and outdoor access.
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Expanding for elephants and phasing off rhinos would not exactly be the best choice for elephant management overall in US zoos.

First and foremost, this large move of elephants from Ringling will finally be the call to action and designate more zoos for breeding Asiatic elephants and providing breeding age animals and accumulating the elder non reproductive populations in some restricted facilities to benefit overall management. Same counts for bachelor herds of young males, they need separate zoo facilities able to take them.

Now, it is all well and good if a very large zoo with large tracts of land is able to provide 3-4 option elephant facility, I just do not think this should be a priority for FWZ nor is it really to the benefit of the zoo giving over so much percentage of its acreage over to yet another (whoohooh ... new) new elephant expansion. It would be better to break off their elephant family over time in matrilines and redistribute these over more breeding facilities across the States.
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
Expanding for elephants and phasing off rhinos would not exactly be the best choice for elephant management overall in US zoos.

First and foremost, this large move of elephants from Ringling will finally be the call to action and designate more zoos for breeding Asiatic elephants and providing breeding age animals and accumulating the elder non reproductive populations in some restricted facilities to benefit overall management. Same counts for bachelor herds of young males, they need separate zoo facilities able to take them.

Now, it is all well and good if a very large zoo with large tracts of land is able to provide 3-4 option elephant facility, I just do not think this should be a priority for FWZ nor is it really to the benefit of the zoo giving over so much percentage of its acreage over to yet another (whoohooh ... new) new elephant expansion. It would be better to break off their elephant family over time in matrilines and redistribute these over more breeding facilities across the States.
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For Fort Worth, its either expand or phase out elephants. If they want to have an elephant programme, they need to facilities for them. Not sure where you are going with a rhino phase out. The zoo also increased its space/holding for Black Rhinos.
 
gerenuk said:
For Fort Worth, its either expand or phase out elephants. If they want to have an elephant programme, they need to facilities for them. Not sure where you are going with a rhino phase out. The zoo also increased its space/holding for Black Rhinos.
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I think they mean the phasing out of Indian rhinos, maintaining elephants (and possibly expanding into the Indian rhinos' space). Honestly given the seemingly small size of the yards (based on photos), I would prefer they went with Malayan tapirs, but I do understand the zoo's methodology behind keeping Indian rhinos. I liked the plan the Zoo had originally with two big yards and a couple off-show yards rather than two small yards and the back mainly consisting of off-show yards. That said, hopefully the design works well, the off-show yards look amazing (live trees and green grass as well as a decent amount of space/shifting capabilities). As for the on-show yards... *please have decent rockwork that looks like an actual geological formation and good choices in foliage*
 
I have just uploaded an extensive set of photos into the gallery of the zoo's African Savanna exhibit complex that opened in 2018. They were taken on a gloomy cold day in December, and offer quite a contrast to zoochatter Ggrarl's photos taken on a sunny warm day a few years prior. Due to the weather, some species were not on exhibit: in the main savanna, no giraffe or addra gazelle; in the other exhibits, I did not see black rhinoceros in their two large exhibits, or meerkats in their small one.
 
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MeiLover said:
The zoo is opening a new section to the petting ranch next month. It will be for toddlers to be able to see and pet guinea pigs, chinchillas, chickens, rabbits, and a corn snake.
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I had a birthday party, and I went to a summer camp overnight there as well. I remember seeing the Chinchillas in an enclosure within the building these events were held in. (It was across the by the parking lot) But I can’t wait to see my chinchilly brothers. :cool:
 
Fort Worth have cancelled their plans to import two female Asian elephants from Canada:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/african-lion-safari-1.5938024

Two elephants at the centre of a controversial sale between African Lion Safari and a Texas zoo will not be moving to the United States.

A spokesperson for the Fort Worth Zoo said this week that the permit to import Emily and Nellie from Canada was withdrawn last year "following an internal decision" from management, and "those two elephants" would not be imported.

The sale would have separated 15-year-old Emily from her daughter Gigi, and eight-year-old Nellie from her mother, Natasha.

Full article in link
 
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