Fresno Chaffee Zoo Fresno Chaffee Zoo News 2022

StoppableSan said:
Good friggin lord. Don't these armchair activists have anything to do?
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Clearly not, they already know what's best and already have a truckload of lies and nonsense to back up their statements with. That's why they're called armchair activists, they can't be bothered to do any work of looking up facts. It's easier to just make up stuff that suits your cause of off what little you know. :p
 
On July 18th, the zoo announced that due to avian influenza, they have closed down their Rainforest and Australasian aviaries, moved their birds of prey, crested screamers, emu, ostrich, pelicans, and flamingo off exhibit, and modified the Wings Wonder Bird Show to limit fly-over demonstrations.

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This is a channel that is posting monthly updates on Kingdoms of Asia's construction. As much as I'm not a fan of the homogenization of temple-themed Asian exhibits... the themework is absolutely stellar, and the zoo's effort to go the extra mile by working with the local Khmer community truly is remarkable. Initially I thought that the exhibits on the site plan seemed a bit boxy, but the way the sightlines are developing, there is going to be some SERIOUS depth. From the boardwalk leading to the hornbill/orangutan habitat to the spung tree holding up the tiger bridge, I'm excited to see how this comes out!
 
StoppableSan said:
This is a channel that is posting monthly updates on Kingdoms of Asia's construction. As much as I'm not a fan of the homogenization of temple-themed Asian exhibits... the themework is absolutely stellar, and the zoo's effort to go the extra mile by working with the local Khmer community truly is remarkable. Initially I thought that the exhibits on the site plan seemed a bit boxy, but the way the sightlines are developing, there is going to be some SERIOUS depth. From the boardwalk leading to the hornbill/orangutan habitat to the spung tree holding up the tiger bridge, I'm excited to see how this comes out!
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Last I visit on July 6th, I was already impressed by the boardwalk where the orangutan habitat is going to be.

I remember my very first visit to the zoo in July of 2020 and feeling underwhelmed by their Asia section. Now I can't wait for February to come around. I already plan on extending my membership so I can visit as soon as this exhibit opens.
 
StoppableSan said:
This is a channel that is posting monthly updates on Kingdoms of Asia's construction. As much as I'm not a fan of the homogenization of temple-themed Asian exhibits... the themework is absolutely stellar, and the zoo's effort to go the extra mile by working with the local Khmer community truly is remarkable. Initially I thought that the exhibits on the site plan seemed a bit boxy, but the way the sightlines are developing, there is going to be some SERIOUS depth. From the boardwalk leading to the hornbill/orangutan habitat to the spung tree holding up the tiger bridge, I'm excited to see how this comes out!
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Couple things I can note:
The building at the end of the video is a new staff building/commissary. It should be open soon, supply chain issues have delayed some equipment arriving but the building is basically done.
The cafe is the building in 13:10, everything built to the right of it is sloth bear/otter.
The large tanks are part of LSS system, the bigger one is for the tomistoma pool.
The back of the construction behind the sloth bear/otter holding buildings is a path that will lead to the petting zoo from just to the left of the main Asia entrance. The construction yard across from peccary is going to be a large empty lot for quite a while, at least into phase 2 or 3 of the new master plan.
There will be a permanent fence placed where the chain link fence is blocking the old babirusa exhibit, and that’ll be a dead end area. The old exhibit will serve as an off exhibit breeding yard.

Construction is almost done, with a completion date of October-November. The exception is tapir/babirusa, which is the only area they haven’t touched. Muntjac have been dropped from the exhibit. The whole complex will still open the public in February. Construction is going well, even this video already outdated.
 
Adventuredl said:
Couple things I can note:
The building at the end of the video is a new staff building/commissary. It should be open soon, supply chain issues have delayed some equipment arriving but the building is basically done.
The cafe is the building in 13:10, everything built to the right of it is sloth bear/otter.
The large tanks are part of LSS system, the bigger one is for the tomistoma pool.
The back of the construction behind the sloth bear/otter holding buildings is a path that will lead to the petting zoo from just to the left of the main Asia entrance. The construction yard across from peccary is going to be a large empty lot for quite a while, at least into phase 2 or 3 of the new master plan.
There will be a permanent fence placed where the chain link fence is blocking the old babirusa exhibit, and that’ll be a dead end area. The old exhibit will serve as an off exhibit breeding yard.

Construction is almost done, with a completion date of October-November. The exception is tapir/babirusa, which is the only area they haven’t touched. Muntjac have been dropped from the exhibit. The whole complex will still open the public in February. Construction is going well, even this video already outdated.
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I thought they were retheming Kara/Shaunzi's yard for the tapirs and babirusa... are they keeping some older bits of infrastructure or are those going down? (e.g. the shade structures)
 
StoppableSan said:
I thought they were retheming Kara/Shaunzi's yard for the tapirs and babirusa... are they keeping some older bits of infrastructure or are those going down? (e.g. the shade structures)
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They were going to gut that whole exhibit and re-theme it to match the rest of Asia. New rockwork, redo the pool, etc. The shade structures should be coming down. They are supposed to connect current babirusa to that exhibit via a chute in the back. It looks like that exhibit has budgetary/time issues so it might be scaled down from what the initial plans were. That’s why muntjac got cut. It’s an free contact elephant exhibit from 60-70 years ago that hasn’t been very modified so it’s not designed to hold animals that small.
 
Adventuredl said:
They were going to gut that whole exhibit and re-theme it to match the rest of Asia. New rockwork, redo the pool, etc. The shade structures should be coming down. They are supposed to connect current babirusa to that exhibit via a chute in the back. It looks like that exhibit has budgetary/time issues so it might be scaled down from what the initial plans were. That’s why muntjac got cut. It’s an free contact elephant exhibit from 60-70 years ago that hasn’t been very modified so it’s not designed to hold animals that small.
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What'll the overall "feel" of the exhibit be in that case given those budgetary issues? I see a few possibilities as far as a running stream, riverbanks/overhanging bamboo and maybe some more detailed rockwork, if it's not following the temple-theming the sloth bears/tigers'll have...
 
Adventuredl said:
It’s an free contact elephant exhibit from 60-70 years ago that hasn’t been very modified so it’s not designed to hold animals that small.
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The old elephant exhibit was built in 1982. There was a more primitive elephant exhibit prior to that for a single elephant. The old barn was turned into a gift shop (not sure if the building still exists?); it was turned into some other function after the current gift shop opened.
 
The initial drawing called for the entire exhibit to have added and redone rockwork walls and intricate planting to match the rest of Asia. It’s closer in design to Komodo, which is more natural rockwork without temple theming. They are supposed to rip out the plumbing on the waterfall, reduce the flow and redo it to a filter system, as most of the new large pools in the zoo are on. They would resurface it with new rockwork as well. They would create a stream though the middle of the exhibit leading to a public overlooking deck by the cafe. This would have access to the ground floor of the exhibit where keepers can train and also do behind the scenes encounters. The main structure/barn itself is a concrete bunker, with solid concrete walls nearly a foot thick. Currently behind the scenes animal holding consists of 3 large rooms about 2 stories tall with hydraulic concrete doors nearly as tall as well as a hallway with 2 large horizontal metal bars that are hydraulic as well. They are supposed to put a hole in the right wall to build a chute to connect the current babirusa exhibit to this exhibit, as well as redo the rooms into hoofstock stalls. Blowing holes in all that concrete and redoing plumbing takes time and money, and they are supposed to complete all construction in the next 2 months and haven’t touched it yet.
 
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