Hi there!

michaelarthur

michaelarthur

Active Member
10+ year member
Hey guys I'm Michael, I've been a fan of this site for many years and finally decided to join in on the conversation. I'm a college student from Little Rock and I go to school about an hour from Memphis so expect to hear from me regarding both of those facilities as I love to visit them often!
 
Hi Michael, welcome to Zoochat. It sounds like there have been some positive developments at the Little Rock Zoo recently with the additions of penguins and other new exhibits. Do you think there is a real hope that they may build a new elephant exhibit sometime in the near future?
 
I definitely agree that the Little Rock Zoo is moving in a positive direction, however I don't think anyone really knows what they're planning next but once the new director gets settled I believe she'll get the ball rolling a bit faster than her predecessor especially since the completion of Arkansas Farm which is an excellent childrens area. As you may know they will be extending the elephant area eventually, according to the master plan they are going to extend the current area closer to the cafe as well as further expansion of the barn and then add a new yard across the path where there is currently a flamingo and other water fowl pond. Altogether it should increase the total space the elephants can use to almost double the current ammount of yard and barn space. But that will be pretty far in the future as there are areas of the zoo that I believe need it more and are outlined to come first in the master plan such as the 'aquatorium' they plan on turning the current tropical bird, herp, and monkey building into and then the updated 'tunnel area' and Tropical Forest building to be the new home for all of the animals that the project will displace. After that there isn't really a planned order for projects so I'm really not sure at this point.
 
Hi Michael, a question has emerged about Little Rock Zoo's penguin exhibit. Some of us were looking at pictures of it in the gallery and noticed that it has an aviary built over it.

Do you know why the exhibit was designed this way?

Do they plan to put flying bird species in there eventually? Or conversely, was it built that way to keep flying birds (and/or other potential predators and disease vectors) out of the exhibit?
 
No, the only species they plan to ever house there is the penguins, as far as I know it the only serves to keep potential predators and other animals that might try and take up residence in the penguin habitat. A reason behind the aviary might be that the breeding adults are on exhibit 24/7 as the nest boxes are all on exhibit (as far as I know) with only the hand raised chicks regularly coming inside. If you want to see more of the facilities the staff recently did a video on Facebook where they gave a tour the facilities as well as a gender reveal for Winston the zoos latest chick.
 
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