North America's Bonobo Exhibits

snowleopard

snowleopard

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15+ year member
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There are 9 establishments that have bonobos in their collection in North America, and I've been to 7 of the zoos. The Great Ape Trust of Iowa and the Milwaukee Zoo are the two that I have never visited. Does anyone have opinions on the enclosures at those locations?

The Best Exhibits:

1- Columbus Zoo:

http://www.zoochat.com/558/columbus-zoo-bonobo-exhibit-41957/

2- San Diego Zoo:

http://www.zoochat.com/39/san-diego-zoo-bonobo-exhibit-40338/

3- Cincinnati Zoo:

http://www.zoochat.com/556/cincinnati-zoo-bonobo-exhibit-41693/


Bonobo Numbers:

1- Milwaukee Zoo - 16 bonobos
2- Columbus Zoo - 15
3- San Diego Zoo - 12
4- Jacksonville Zoo -10
5- Cincinnati Zoo - 8
6- Great Ape Trust -7
7- Fort Worth Zoo - 5
8- San Diego WAP - 5
9- Memphis Zoo - 5
 
Personally, I dont like the Milwaukee enclosure. It is very small - under 10,000 sq. ft. and has a mesh roof. I also think GATI has Howletts style enclosures because its not a "traditional" zoo, however I have never seen their enclsosures in person.
 
I've seen the Fort Worth exhibit numerous times. I really do not like it. They do not even have signs up saying that they are bonobos, only signs saying that they have common chimpanzees. I take that back, there is one sign, but it is usually hidden in the only dense foliage near the habitat, namely that which block the visitors from the exhibit. Most of the time, the bonobos are indoors in a concrete room with a few climbing poles and usually feces flung on the window. While Fort Worth may have 5 species of ape I'm not thrilled at all with any of the enclosures.
 
I agree that the Fort Worth Zoo's bonobo exhibit is extremely disappointing, but then so are the Jacksonville and Memphis enclosures as well. If the Great Ape Trust in Iowa has Howletts-style cages then there is another ugly ape exhibit, and Milwaukee has not received any notable plaudits from ZooChat members. That leaves these as the best:

1- Columbus Zoo
2- San Diego Zoo
3- Cincinnati Zoo
4- San Diego Wild Animal Park
 
Having only seen four of these enclosures in person, I'm not the best to judge but out of the two I liked (Columbus and Cincinnati), Cincinnati has the best exhibit as a part of a larger exhibit (Jungle Trails...) while Columbus has a great exhibit that feels separate from it's 'Asia/Africa' placement. I should note that what both of these zoos do that is great is that they have an indoor area so that visitors who aren't in the zoo in summer can still see these animals (unlike other zoos do with primates). Cincinnati's indoor bonobo exhibit is very eeehhh while Columbus was expected.
 
I spoke to someone that had worked at Great Ape Trust and they are "Howletts style" enclosures. They maybe "ugly" but very practical. The bonobos at GAT display natural behaviors and even though it doesn't look like the central africa the enclosure serves its purpose and keeps the apes enriched. To me thats what matters. Also it is a private facility and does not need to cater to a wide public. And Howletts may have "ugly" gorilla enclosures but when you can house over 50 gorillas and have a breeding record like they do, your doing something right.
 
Columbus' bonobo enclosure is the best I've seen. That outdoor yard is second to none. Cincinnati has a nice hillside outdoor yard, but the indoor exhibit seems a bit small and institutional. It's still a giant leap better than the old ape house,though. It's been about ten years ince I've been, but SD was outstanding as well, with the benefit of year round outdoor access.
 
okapikpr said:
Has nobody seen Columbus's indoor Bonobo enclosures?
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Granted - they are not great indoor exhibits but compared to the indoor areas of other Bonobo exhibits (Cincy, Milwaukee, etc) our indoor exhibits are far better than those.

However, after all the major expansions are finished, I would love to see a "touch up" of the African Forest region and enlarge the Bonobo building and replace the Howlett's style gorilla cage!
 
The Howletts-style gorilla cage might well be revamped one day, as it simply does not fit into the naturalism that the zoo has been attempting to promote. As long as it is not as bizarre as the Great Wall of China orangutan exhibit!;)
 
I was just at the SDWAP last week, and I'm currently looking at my map of it -- WHERE do they have bonobos? The only place I can think of is maybe some babies in the Animal Care Center (which I didn't look into).

I've seen Milwaukee's bonobo exhibit many times and it really isn't bad. The sheer numbers of them make it an exciting exhibit. Some may not like that their bonobos are hardly ever outside.

Cincinnati's outdoor exhibit is great, but I'd critique it for having way too many "hiding places". There are many times when you'll have to sit there for 10-15 minutes before you can see one. For us fanatics, that's great, but for families -- it means NOT seeing a bonobo. So I'd say it's San Diego #1, Milwaukee #2, Columbus #3.

The problem with Memphis' bonobo exhibit is that they seem to be an afterthought. It's like "Hey, we suddenly have these bonobos, where should we put them?" So they built a quick subpar exhibit across from CHINA and the pandas. What's a shame is that Memphis has a really nice primate area (Primate Canyon). It would've been better if they had farmed out one of their current Canyon species and put the bonobos in there.

Finally, while Jacksonville's bonobo exhibit is not very appealing visually, their bonobos were the most active I've ever seen.
 
I remember seeing the bonobos at the San Diego WAP on the monorail tour in 2006, and the exhibit there is huge and curves over a hill. I'd bet that it is a minimum of half an acre and perhaps even double that size, but unfortunately I suppose that it is no longer on the revamped guided tour. It was not accessible by walking, meaning that I spent perhaps 30-40 seconds staring at the exhibit.
 
ANyhuis said:
I was just at the SDWAP last week, and I'm currently looking at my map of it -- WHERE do they have bonobos? The only place I can think of is maybe some babies in the Animal Care Center (which I didn't look into).
Click to expand...

The bonobo exhibit was on the old monorail route, but is now off exhibit. The exhibit is located southwest of the bottom end of Heart of Africa. I read in a Zoonooz last year that they intend to take a walking trail out to that exhibit in the future. The exhibit was originally built for mandrills and called Baboon Hill.

BTW, I would be really interested in hearing your thoughts on the new Journey into Africa, versus the old WGASA bushline monorail.
 
I took the "Journey Into Africa" tour (for my second time) and SnowLeopard is correct, you see no bonobos on that guided tour. Actually, I found the tour a bit different than I recalled from back in 2007, when they first started the JIA tram tours. Back then they would finish the tour with a quick look at the back of Lion Camp -- not anymore. Still, I really like the JIA tour. I ranked it as the #10 best zoo exhibit in America in our book, and I stand by that ranking. I do agree, however, that it's not as good as the old monorail tour -- though I understand the economics of why they had to abandon the monorail. When I rode Journey Into Africa this last Thursday morning, I was sitting right in the middle of a huge group of Utah high school kids who were there on a school trip. It was absolutely encouraging to see and hear how excited these kids were at seeing all of the wildlife along the tour. They were genuinely concerned to hear that there are now only 7 Northern white rhinos left on earth, and they were very complimentary of SDWAP's conservation efforts, and very appreciative of the tour guide's commentary. With all of the bad kids we hear about in the media, it was wonderful to witness such great kids, and to see their common interest in preserving wild animals in zoos.

By the way, the SDWAP has a lot of big plans for seeing their park and its animals in new ways. There's another thread on ZooChat about their upcoming zip line across the main Savanna yards. Construction is definitely already underway for this. They also had signs up for upcoming new guided tours to either the African mountain exhibits OR to see the Asian exhibits. They also announced (on JIA) that they will soon be offering burro-riding tours through parts of the park.
 
Don't forget Tiger Trail opening in 2011.
Since I never rode the old monorail, I can't really speak for it nor compare it to JiA. I personally agree with Allen though that JiA is a top ten exhibit as I have ridden it twice, and it is a personal favorite of mine.
 
I think that the upcoming Tiger Trail exhibit sounds fantastic, and I eagerly await a walking pathway to the bonobos and an additional tour through the Asian fields. One major concern is that the old WGASA monorail guided tour was 50 minutes long and free, while the new Journey into Africa is only 25 minutes long and there is an extra charge!;)
 
snowleopard said:
One major concern is that the old WGASA monorail guided tour was 50 minutes long and free, while the new Journey into Africa is 25 minutes long and there is an extra charge!;)
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Good point about how the monorail tour was free! I'd forgotten that! A funny thing I've learned about one of the reasons the monorail was discontinued: the need to go potty! Of course the main reason was because it was constantly breaking down and too expensive to maintain. But another reason was that lots and lots of moms complained that their small kids simply couldn't "hold it" for 50 long minutes! I guess kids wetting their pants was a common occurance on the monorail. (Maybe they should have had a rest stop halfway along the tour -- or maybe an onboard bathroom at the back.)
 
I'm just glad that's not too common of an occurrence on my monorail.
 
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