Houston Zoo Houston Zoo News 2023

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The zoo has also confirmed that they will soon begin construction on the new birds of the world area. This bird garden had been planned to open earlier in the capital campaign, yet was dropped from the website. It is good to see confirmation that it will still happen, as having seen its proximity to the Galapagos exhibit I can see how the cranes and noise would have interfered with the birds.
 
nczoofan said:
The zoo has also confirmed that they will soon begin construction on the new birds of the world area. This bird garden had been planned to open earlier in the capital campaign, yet was dropped from the website. It is good to see confirmation that it will still happen, as having seen its proximity to the Galapagos exhibit I can see how the cranes and noise would have interfered with the birds.
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Very happy to hear this project is still alive and happening soon. The zoos bird collection is definitely in need of a boost following the closure of the old bird gardens and I was concerned the new bird complex was canceled after the zoo ceased mentioning it for awhile. Looking forward to hearing some more concrete details on this development soon.

This article includes some additional construction photos and a video showing parts of the Galapagos Islands exhibit. As expected, it looks like it's going to be a real showstopper: Houston Zoo to welcome penguins, sharks at first-of-its-kind Galápagos exhibit
 
pachyderm pro said:
Very happy to hear this project is still alive and happening soon. The zoos bird collection is definitely in need of a boost following the closure of the old bird gardens and I was concerned the new bird complex was canceled after the zoo ceased mentioning it for awhile. Looking forward to hearing some more concrete details on this development soon.

This article includes some additional construction photos and a video showing parts of the Galapagos Islands exhibit. As expected, it looks like it's going to be a real showstopper: Houston Zoo to welcome penguins, sharks at first-of-its-kind Galápagos exhibit
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The zoos Birds of the World area was still standing when I was last there, just behind a wooden fence. I wonder if they'll renovate this row or replace it. As well I know they planned on a new bird garden including cassowary, so we'll see if this still is occurring.

Longer term we can expect a combined reptile-bird house so its only up from here, as last year I only saw 30 species on display of bird. Apparently they still have 125 species, so many more species to fill these new spaces. :)

I already had an event in Houston in late April, so I'm very excited to see the new complex :) It looks amazing.
 
nczoofan said:
The zoos Birds of the World area was still standing when I was last there, just behind a wooden fence. I wonder if they'll renovate this row or replace it. As well I know they planned on a new bird garden including cassowary, so we'll see if this still is occurring.

Longer term we can expect a combined reptile-bird house so its only up from here, as last year I only saw 30 species on display of bird. Apparently they still have 125 species, so many more species to fill these new spaces. :)

I already had an event in Houston in late April, so I'm very excited to see the new complex :) It looks amazing.
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How big is the current birds of the world area?
 
John Marchwick said:
How big is the current birds of the world area?
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You can see it on this old map. Its 2 lines of aviaries. As well the old bird garden was replaced with Galapagos, but the area labelled for cassowary should hold a bird garden for larger bird species.

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nczoofan said:
The zoo has also confirmed that they will soon begin construction on the new birds of the world area. This bird garden had been planned to open earlier in the capital campaign, yet was dropped from the website. It is good to see confirmation that it will still happen, as having seen its proximity to the Galapagos exhibit I can see how the cranes and noise would have interfered with the birds.
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ZooUnk said:
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Looks like the vultures they currently have in the Carnivore area will be moved to this new bird garden. Houston is making incredible leaps in advancing their master plan, in an interview Lee Ehmke seemed to hint the Asian Islands would be next if they were to continue but I'd bet on the Ancient Relatives Reptile/Bird House to be next to finish off the Bird Garden and for the old reptile house to be demolished and make room for an expansion to the Asian Elephant habitat.
Strat_Plan_Book_MF_3.20.20_Web.pdf (pcdn.co)
 
Elena said:
Zoo officials announced they discovered 4 inches of mesh sliced in the brown pelican habitat in the Children's Zoo on Monday and believed it was intentional and an act of vandalism. The animals were secure and unharmed.

Houston Zoo officials believe fence cut in brown pelican habitat was intentional
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And just like that a flawless start of the year for the Houston Zoo is out the window… great. Definitely could’ve been worse, I’m sure Houston will ramp up their security to make sure this is the only incident to happen there. They can’t afford to take chances after Dallas.
 
The Houston Zoo received a new brother-sister pair of Giant River Otters from the Jacksonville Zoo a few weeks ago. Both Ken (1.0) and Merume (0.1) made their public debuts over the past week or so in the zoo's Pantanal exhibit. Ken can be told apart by his almost total lack of white pigmentation on his chest while Merume has a much more common large pattern of white across her chest. The two are currently splitting time with the zoo's other pairing Max (1.0) and Marley (0.1).
 
TheImmigrant1 said:
Looks like the vultures they currently have in the Carnivore area will be moved to this new bird garden. Houston is making incredible leaps in advancing their master plan, in an interview Lee Ehmke seemed to hint the Asian Islands would be next if they were to continue but I'd bet on the Ancient Relatives Reptile/Bird House to be next to finish off the Bird Garden and for the old reptile house to be demolished and make room for an expansion to the Asian Elephant habitat.
Strat_Plan_Book_MF_3.20.20_Web.pdf (pcdn.co)
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I agree on reptiles before Asia. I’d also get Madagascar up and running beforehand as well so a lot of the Wortham World of Primates area would be clear for new construction as well.

I’m not sure what they’d do with the Meerkat family as Madagascar goes up. I guess they could probably take up a temporary home where the Galapagos tortoises have been next to the Ankole cattle or get a space in the children’s zoo.
 
TheImmigrant1 said:
Eight of the sixteen Humboldt Penguins set to debut in Houston’s Galápagos Islands exhibit have arrived!
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Nice, though the addition of this quasi-Galapagos almost implies to me that they dearly wanted to show off the islands' diversity of life, but because of legal whatnots they were restricted to only showing fairly close relatives. In which case why bother having a Galapagos exhibit if the actual Galapagos species are off-limits ... I doubt anytime soon anyone will try to use a same clause by putting a spectacled bear in a China area because they couldn't get a giant panda.
But regardless; nice penguins, from what I see, the exhibit should look quite nice.
 
dillotest0 said:
Nice, though the addition of this quasi-Galapagos almost implies to me that they dearly wanted to show off the islands' diversity of life, but because of legal whatnots they were restricted to only showing fairly close relatives. In which case why bother having a Galapagos exhibit if the actual Galapagos species are off-limits ... I doubt anytime soon anyone will try to use a same clause by putting a spectacled bear in a China area because they couldn't get a giant panda.
But regardless; nice penguins, from what I see, the exhibit should look quite nice.
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Let me tell you the story of Elephant Odyssey in San Diego …

But more seriously, Patanal was their last exhibit and many of the species there are not Patanal creatures. They took a cool name for a South American region and ran with it. Same is going on here, the want a Pacific Ocean and Islands exhibit and they’re going with a well known name for marketing and rolling with it. In the Fort Worth thread there’s a lot to f talk on how several zoos are exhibiting Amur leopards as African Leopards, this doesn’t seem nearly as bad as that. I think it’s fine.
 
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