Finally watched the meeting video Pachy highlighted. His summary was very effective, and I did take some notes about some stuff, so I will share here for those who can't watch the video:
- Morris affirms that Alaska's Gold Coast was intended to be the next project based on the previous master plan. "We wanted to steer away for now but keep that in mind and be flexible to bring back polar bears at some point."
- When discussing Latin American Tropics, he mentions "spider monkeys" alongside the howler monkeys and jaguars. I'm not sure spider monkeys were mentioned in the plan pamphlet. This will open up further space in the Primates of the World building.
- While discussing the addition of an aquarium to Latin American Tropics, he describes the current aquarium building as aging and "outdated" with equipment that has "beyond deferred maintenance" and older "water filtration". He makes the situation sound a bit dire, but does a great pitch for the Mesoamerican Coral Reef, "second largest in the world" and bringing back sharks and rays.
- He also makes an interesting comment Latin American Tropics could be more of a "tourist destination" than other projects from "outside the area"; took this as an implied reference to Chicago as well as Henry Vilas and Racine. Though there are Amazon exhibits there's really not a strong, dedicated South America complex in this region.
- They haven't ordered the new exhibits yet so they can see what the local community wants. This is a smart approach, imo.
I had a bit of trouble following Morris' statement about rerouting the primate building until I wrote it down and listened a second time. Since I transcribed it anyway, I will share here:
A lot of complaints that we get at the zoo is 'You don't have any animals, you don't have any animals'... well, the zoo has 2200 animals in its population of animals, and studying that, what I believe happens is individuals come to the zoo, they go past the penguin exhibit, they go across the boardwalk, they go into the Peck building, they traverse Apes [of Africa] so they see the gorillas, they see the bonobos, they see the primates, and they exit out the back end of that building, come out on the path, make a left, and go up to the reptile building, okay... well, when you do that, you've chopped off a quarter of the zoo and about a third of the animal population at the zoo, by missing our Veterinary Education Center, and missing our aviary. So we want to change that flow and I think in this building, we can do that.
Right now, I would like to give our primates more outdoor space. Get the bonobos, so they can interact in a bigger space that's outdoors, have our guests in the summertime experience that interaction, along with our gorillas... so you would come into the building, right where you visualize where the spider monkeys are at, just across from the macaques, and you come into the building, and the middle part of the building, you come in, you venture to the left, you see your bonobos, you see your gorillas, you go out to the deck, there's outdoor exhibitries.... I want to take you on a path through the deck to view bonobos on one side, gorillas on the other, maybe have a path where the bonobos can travel overheard, take you around the outside of the building, see another couple of primate exhibits, right now it'd be Debrazza monkeys, then you'd see colobus monkeys, then you'd go along to see the siamang... you'd go around the siamang exhibit, come back into the building, instead of heading out on the path, we'd put some creative planters there to discourage you to come in, see the rest of the primates that are inside the building, and then exit when you enter, okay?
what does that do for our guests? When they come in, they'll see penguins, they'll go to the right, because we'll strategically block that boardwalk for special events, not our general attendance, and- normally in a zoo or amusement park, people migrate to the right, so they migrate to the right, they go past the aviary, they see there's something there, and they go in and have that experience, come out the aviary and go by the Japanese macaques, and then into the primate building at that point, so you're not passing off on that large section of the zoo.
I have some mixed thoughts, as I do like the boardwalk entrance and almost every visit to the zoo for me has been penguins, entering the boardwalk, and then awkwardly going through the Peck Center to reach the apes; save one recent visit, I usually backtrack to the aviary after finishing primates. I definitely see the problem, as the Peck Center is more of an events area and useless to the casual guest, just extra walking, but I had hoped the solution would be to eventually convert the Peck Center into more exhibit space, with a new events setting elsewhere. At the same time, it sounds like part of the plan will create more of a 'loop' experience through the primate area with better outdoor viewing as well, with less backtracking, so that could very well be a smart choice.
Side note, but if the spider monkeys move out, the Golden Lion Tamarin will be the only New World monkey left in the building, and Siamang the only Asian species.
The discussion on orangutans is awkward, and if I weren't a zoochatter, I'm not sure I would totally grasp at first why Morris is suggesting phasing the species out, either. He correctly mentions the current exhibit is below modern standards and points out doing an outstanding orangutan exhibit is a large investment, and then pivots to suggesting changing the species, suggests waiting for them to "age out" and not be replaced. and bringing in another species to utilize the space "effectively, at a lower cost, and spread our resources around the zoo better, instead of focusing on one species that can eat up a lot of resources". When he is questioned by a local official, he elaborates well, explaining that the gorillas and bonobos are "on the edge" of their standards and bringing up the number of bonobos at the zoo.
"For the cost of doing orangutan, I could almost affect replacing our Small Mammal building and investing in the Tropical building... we're spending $22 million dollars on bringing back a rhino... and we're diversifying that area as well, because I can't see us just spending $22 million on a rhino. We're affecting hippo, we're affecting gira- zebra. We're gonna add some other hoofstock in there so it's a diverse area for our kids and our families to see.... in the future, we might find the resources for [orangutan]"
This is a really good explanation - showing the value of exhibits for multiple species versus one particular animal - and the committee understood this. I personally hold some hope Milwaukee can bring back orangutan in the further future, but it makes total sense why to phase them out temporarily. It's an interesting contrast to how he discusses polar bears, where he's very careful to invoke the possibility they may return. Again, I get why as a zoochatter -- bears use similar resources, orangutans will need a custom-built habitat.
Some more shorter nuggets:
- He brings up that the bears live on concrete and their exhibits don't meet modern standards, immediately brings up bringing back moose and cites them as having been a popular exhibit, "possibly bringing back a canid species" such as wolves, and then brings up that when the zoological community "cracks that nut" with polar bears, discusses designing the brown bear habitats so that the smaller (4ft) brown bear stream can be flooded to a deeper (12ft) pool for polar bears if they became available, and that they would keep brown bears if polar bears join. He discussed new species - "wolverines, possibly puma, looking at possibly doing a bald eagle exhibit" or "water species". No mention to the potentially lost species but it's clear a lot of this is in flux as even the puma and wolf are discussed more as maybes.
- There is some discussion of the front entrance refresh, and other non-animal priorities are a refresh of the carousel, new storage, and bringing the Milwaukee Zoological Society and Zoo executives into one centralized. location
- One of the county people asks the director if there is a "genome project" for polar bears and cites Colossal Biosciences' dire wolf project. She doesn't say it outright but the clear underlying question is 'can we clone polar bears'. Amos Morris gently shoots this down but discusses permitting as one of the challenges with polar bears, citing partly because of climate change making it difficult to request permits. I found this interesting.
- Morris is asked about touch experiences, such as touch tanks, and mentions that they recently hired a Curator of Behavioral Management and that he hopes this position can "find opportunities for guests to get closer to the animals in a safe environment" involving animal demonstrations and for guests to "potentially touch" them. He mentions the new aquarium is not designed and that touch components may be included still.
- Morris is asked about working with Madison, Racine, Chicago and Minneapolis. Morris discusses the AZA and states his hope for all of the zoos mentioned to be successful and reinforces there is no competition and all zoos share similar goals. He mentions they have "identified rhinos" from association facilities. He is asked and mentions there are 4 accredited zoos in Wisconsin - Milwaukee, Racine, Madison, Green Bay.
- The questions do put some emphasis on the idea that Milwaukee is cold in winter and keeping the zoo winter-friendly, remarking about kids being able to go inside warm buildings like the aviary in the winter.
I believe since the whole situation with the rhino and the penguin exhibit costing more than what it was originally sold as, they are choosing to lay low for a few years so some of the heat dissipates. That way when they go back for these larger projects they’ll have a better chance of getting through.
Thank you for elaborating, that makes a lot of sense from a strategic standpoint. It will also give them time to get the community input they seem to be seeking and to finalize designs for whichever project ultimately is constructed first.
I mean the budget for the new tropics building is shaping up to be over $100 million alone.
Holy spit. That's hefty.
