Gorillas in Major American Zoos

snowleopard

snowleopard

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The book that I cowrote, titled America’s Top 100 Zoos & Aquariums, contains reviews and photos of 80 zoos and 20 aquariums. There are 45 out of the 80 zoos that currently display gorillas.

The lists that I've done so far:

71 out of the 80 zoos have giraffes
61 out of the 80 zoos have rhinos
54 out of the 80 zoos have elephants
48 out of the 80 zoos have penguins (plus 16 out of 20 aquariums)
45 out of the 80 zoos have gorillas
35 out of the 80 zoos have pinnipeds (plus 12 out of 20 aquariums)
22 out of the 80 zoos have common hippos (plus 12 have pygmy hippos)

New gorilla exhibits that have been built in the past dozen years include only Como Park and Houston, which is a bit surprising. However, Cincinnati, Jacksonville, Milwaukee County and Omaha have all made significant renovations to existing exhibits in recent years.

The 45 zoos (in the book) that have gorillas:

ABQ BioPark
Atlanta
Audubon
Bronx
Brookfield
Buffalo
Busch Gardens
Cheyenne Mountain
Cincinnati
Cleveland
Columbus
Como Park
Dallas
Denver
Detroit
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Fort Worth
Gladys Porter
Houston
Jacksonville
Kansas City
Knoxville
Lincoln Park
Little Rock
Los Angeles
Louisville
Memphis
Miami
Milwaukee County
North Carolina
Oklahoma City
Omaha
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Riverbanks
Saint Louis
San Diego
San Diego Zoo Safari Park
San Francisco
Santa Barbara
Sedgwick County
Smithsonian’s National Zoo
Toledo
Utah’s Hogle
Woodland Park

My 12 favourite gorilla exhibits in American zoos (alphabetical ranking):

Atlanta
Bronx
Busch Gardens
Dallas
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Houston
Lincoln Park
Riverbanks
Saint Louis
San Diego
Sedgwick County
Woodland Park

One main difference between American and European zoos is that the ‘Euros’ like to provide a lot of mixed-species habitats in their zoos. On my 2019 road trip through Europe, I saw gorillas in together with meerkats, diana monkeys, black-crested mangabeys, red-capped mangabeys and various types of colobus monkeys at several zoos.

The 5 worst gorilla exhibits in American zoos (alphabetical ranking):

ABQ BioPark
Brookfield – entirely indoors on a mock-rock monstrosity
Buffalo – an all-indoor cave setting
Cleveland
Milwaukee County
 
snowleopard said:
The 5 worst gorilla exhibits in American zoos (alphabetical ranking):

ABQ BioPark
Brookfield – entirely indoors on a mock-rock monstrosity
Buffalo – an all-indoor cave setting
Cleveland
Milwaukee County
Click to expand...
Why does Milwaukee make this list. I think it's perfectly good, if a bit forgettable.
 
birdsandbats said:
Why does Milwaukee make this list. I think it's perfectly good, if a bit forgettable.
Click to expand...

Well, I think that Milwaukee County has easily the best exhibit of the '5 worst', but it's still forgettable. Going down the list of 45 zoos with gorillas, Milwaukee really does have arguably the 5th worst gorilla exhibit in an American zoo. There's probably 40 better gorilla exhibits on the list. ;)

full
 
nczoofan said:
San Antonio is planning to get them in the next few years. It’ll be there first great ape species :)
Click to expand...

It would be great to see San Antonio Zoo acquire some great apes in the future. As of right now, there aren't any gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees or bonobos. Also, while compiling these lists I noticed that San Antonio also doesn't have any pinnipeds or penguins, two very popular animal types in major zoos.
 
snowleopard said:
It would be great to see San Antonio Zoo acquire some great apes in the future. As of right now, there aren't any gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees or bonobos. Also, while compiling these lists I noticed that San Antonio also doesn't have any pinnipeds or penguins, two very popular animal types in major zoos.
Click to expand...

Hopefully the gorillas will be in place by 2025 or so, as part of the first phase of the master plan. I don’t know if penguins are in the plans. I can imagine the zoo does nor prioritize them along with pinnipeds given the proximity to Seaworld. Also given that most of the new management to the zoo is ex-seaworld I imagine that’ll make the zoo even more not want to compete with seaworld.

Back to gorillas though the zoo earlier this year hold a contest to design a new entrance and gorilla habitat (separate projects in different parts of the zoo). The picture below is one of the ideas.

Screenshot-2021-05-17-140807.png
 
savetherhino said:
Which ones don't have gorillas?
Click to expand...

Here are the 35 zoos (in the book) that do not have gorillas:

Akron
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
Binder Park
Birmingham
Caldwell
Cameron Park
Central Park
El Paso
Fort Wayne Children's
Fresno Chaffee
Great Plains
Henry Vilas
Honolulu
Indianapolis
John Ball
Living Desert
Maryland
Minnesota
Montgomery
Nashville
Oakland
Oregon
Phoenix
Point Defiance
Reid Park
Roger Williams Park
Rosamond Gifford
Sacramento
San Antonio
Tampa
Tanganyika Wildlife Park
Topeka
Tulsa
Virginia
Wildlife World Zoo
 
snowleopard said:
Here are the 35 zoos (in the book) that do not have gorillas:

Akron
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
Binder Park
Birmingham
Caldwell
Cameron Park
Central Park
El Paso
Fort Wayne Children's
Fresno Chaffee
Great Plains
Henry Vilas
Honolulu
Indianapolis
John Ball
Living Desert
Maryland
Minnesota
Montgomery
Nashville
Oakland
Oregon
Phoenix
Point Defiance
Reid Park
Roger Williams Park
Rosamond Gifford
Sacramento
San Antonio
Tampa
Tanganyika Wildlife Park
Topeka
Tulsa
Virginia
Wildlife World Zoo
Click to expand...
Honolulu and Tampa would be perfect places to have gorillas. Their climates would be conducive.
 
Speaking of gorillas in America, does anyone have the list of Willie b’s offspring? And their mothers? I couldn’t find the master list anywhere.
Thanks.
 
nczoofan said:
Hopefully the gorillas will be in place by 2025 or so, as part of the first phase of the master plan. I don’t know if penguins are in the plans. I can imagine the zoo does nor prioritize them along with pinnipeds given the proximity to Seaworld. Also given that most of the new management to the zoo is ex-seaworld I imagine that’ll make the zoo even more not want to compete with seaworld.

Back to gorillas though the zoo earlier this year hold a contest to design a new entrance and gorilla habitat (separate projects in different parts of the zoo). The picture below is one of the ideas.

Screenshot-2021-05-17-140807.png
Click to expand...
Not the selected scheme…
 
reduakari said:
Not the selected scheme…
Click to expand...

Oh I forgot to mention that part :eek: This was my brain working at 2am. I had heard the zoo was committed to gorillas still although other groups definitely proposed plans for the species. They did not go with this specific option though. That’ll likely be announced publicly when they reach 80-90% of there capital campaign goal with private fundraising. Last I heard that should be mid 2022, but given the economy who knows.
 
ZCChip said:
Speaking of gorillas in America, does anyone have the list of Willie b’s offspring? And their mothers? I couldn’t find the master list anywhere.
Thanks.
Click to expand...

KUDZOO - Choomba's daughter
OLYMPIA - Mia Moja's daughter
KIDOGO aka Willie B Jr. - Machi's son
SUKARI - Choomba's daughter
Stillbirth - Kuchi's daughter
LULU - Kuchi's daughter
 
elefante said:
Honolulu and Tampa would be perfect places to have gorillas. Their climates would be conducive.
Click to expand...
Zoo Tampa/Lowry Park Zoo had them on the master plan at one time, the plan was for a bachelor troop. I don't know if they are still on the plans for the renovated space where Primate World is or an addition to Safari Africa. They were previously planned for Africa, but that was before Africa was actually built.
 
PSO said:
Lowry is still very much interested in gorillas with the current planned location being towards the front of Africa and using the tunnel as part of public viewing
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Would they be taking the space where the tortoises are (where the warthogs were)? I hope so, that area is kind of weird. It made sense with warthogs, less with the different tortoises.
 
b_g_19 said:
KUDZOO - Choomba's daughter
OLYMPIA - Mia Moja's daughter
KIDOGO aka Willie B Jr. - Machi's son
SUKARI - Choomba's daughter
Stillbirth - Kuchi's daughter
LULU - Kuchi's daughter
Click to expand...

thank you. I still remember Willie b as a child and he had only a tv for entertainment and no other gorillas.
 
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