Intersting Elephant Replacements

The Lincoln Park Zoo once had African elephants residing in Regenstein African Journey, but once they died/phased out, they became the rhino yards.
 
Yi Qi said:
The Lincoln Park Zoo once had African elephants residing in Regenstein African Journey, but once they died/phased out, they became the rhino yards.
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After the elephants this exhibit first housed before the zoo began using it as additional rhino yards, so it has gone through both of the standard replacement species.
 
DelacoursLangur said:
I have often thought that many former elephant complexes could be replaced with herds of endangered bovids, Gaur, Banteng. Obviously with so many asian themed complexes losing their elephants Indian Rhinos are in high demand, this could be an alternative which both fits the geographic theme and contributes to endangered SSP.
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I support this idea. The former is a visually impressive species which is unfortunately not found in many AZA zoos these days, and the latter is a recommended TAG species. Both have conservation needs.

In my opinion, I wish more AZA zoos would feature ungulates in their Asian areas. A lot of the newer Asian areas in AZA zoos feature tigers, orangutans, and/or gibbons, and it's great that tigers are often getting improved habitats, but Asian ungulates often get neglected, which is a shame, because Asia has a diverse ungulate menagerie much like Africa.
 
Milwaukee County Zoo former elephant yard is currently a temporary hippo yard. Most likely to be white rhinos in the future
 
More rhinos for Brookfield Zoo. Among other strange decisions like settling on a Pygmy Hypo than a Nile one.

Even the anteater and turtles feel very out of place when grouped with animals like tapirs and rhinos.
 
The Sacramento Zoo turned a section of the zoo that housed elephants, hippos, wallaroos, and giraffes into a single exhibit for giraffes.
 
Tapir Master said:
More rhinos for Brookfield Zoo. Among other strange decisions like settling on a Pygmy Hypo than a Nile one.

Even the anteater and turtles feel very out of place when grouped with animals like tapirs and rhinos.
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Because Lincoln Park has no room to adequately keep Common Hippos.
 
Osaka’s Tennoji Zoo built an expensive Asian Rainforest section to house elephants, but the last one died a mere few years after the exhibit opened. Now there’s nothing there. I think the space could be used for a herd of deer or something like that.
 
RatioTile said:
Osaka’s Tennoji Zoo built an expensive Asian Rainforest section to house elephants, but the last one died a mere few years after the exhibit opened. Now there’s nothing there. I think the space could be used for a herd of deer or something like that.
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Maybe a bachelor herd of elephants?
 
Fignewton said:
Before KidZooU was built, the Philadelphia Zoo had Malayan Tapirs where the elephants were, I believe. Also I see you're new, @Tapir Master! Welcome to Zoochat!
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They actually had poitou donkeys named Nike and Periwinkle after the elephants left, and then KidZooU was built. You are correct that they had tapirs in the Pachyderm House, though that was a long time ago and the species I'm unsure about.
 
I think the worst replacement for elephants that I've seen occurred at Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico in the late 2000's.

The elephants went (moved to San Juan de Aragon zoo which is also in Mexico City) and were replaced by a huge herd of eland. The enclosure for these antelope wasn't really the problem as there is plenty of space for all these animals.

However, I really think that the replacement species could have been far better. After a bit of remodelling of this area perhaps Baird's tapir or spectacled bear (that are already kept at the zoo) could have been moved here (though it wouldn't correspond to the biome theme as it is in the "arid zone").

Perhaps an even better use of this space (in both theming and practicality) would have been to move the small group of American bison which are in a rather cramped paddock directly in front of the old elephant enclosure to this area where they could have a much greater space to roam (considering that this is a species that was once native to Mexico it would have been far more pertinent in terms of education too).
 
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So the Santa Barbra zoo recently lost their last female elephant and now just have an empty enclosure where it used to be. The site is definitely not big enough for a new heard so some news outlets have speculated a new species moving to the exhibit. I personally believe they will add tigers as that section of the zoo is mainly Asian but Greater One-Horned rhinos could also work in the space.
 
Wyman said:
They actually had poitou donkeys named Nike and Periwinkle after the elephants left, and then KidZooU was built. You are correct that they had tapirs in the Pachyderm House, though that was a long time ago and the species I'm unsure about.
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Oh, I thought it was the tapirs. I knew they replaced a lot of their pachyderms with poitou donkeys and Scottish higland cattle, but I didn't know exactly what replaced what.
 
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