It is nice to see all through the hurdles of this establishing this captive assurance colony they have now overcome 3 critical hurdles: in species biology, their territoriliaty and susceptability to noise and climatic stressors.
There are not many concrete designs (no renderings that I know of), but here is the update page that does have a couple photos of the new cafe (as well as the timeline for new projects): Construction Updates - Phoenix Zoo
I assume it is part and parcel of reno / rebuilding work. Once completed I am sure you will enjoy these. To put it in some broader perspective: we would clap our hands if there would be any great outside exclosures for reptilians in our parts of the Western hemisphere. Sadly, our longitude / latitude probably preclude that ....
Why would they do that? Obviously because they hate us!
Why? This is the norm with zoos. I visited the Turtle Back Zoo today. A brief once over of the map and I counted 75 or so species of animal on exhibit. Off exhibit? There were at least 20 more, and those are just the ones I know about. Many zoos keep a sizable portion of their collections behind the scenes. Just think how the rest of us feel when something we want to see is... by the way, there’s another big zoo keeping sand cats off exhibit in the southwestern US.
There are multiple reasons. Besides those AD lists, husbandry is also very iffy for this species and perhaps the location of the new exhibit is the best the zoo could offer to meet these needs.
Why would they do that? Obviously because they hate us!
Just kidding. I can only speculate, but reasons might include (1) the general public couldn't care less about such small animals (2) they are too shy/nervous to be in front of large crowds (especially if you want to breed them) (3) to give people an added incentive to sign up for special events.
Well... no and yes. I highly doubt they hold any grudge against people that would have them keep a species behind the scenes just so nobody could see them. But they do want your money. It’s a business. A nonprofit business, yes, but all businesses need money to function on a day-to-day basis. For a zoo, that’s a lot of money. Add in the conservation efforts on top of that, and the number needed increases. So if a zoo can do something to bring in just a little bit more, why on earth wouldn’t they? Not every zoo has a strong base of voters who would vote for tax support or constant backing from generous benefactors.
Are you quite sure that’s the case? At Phoenix alone: black-footed ferret and several other native species, multiple reptiles, and oh, the only Pemba flying fox in captivity in the world. Who doesn’t want to see birds and tortoises? Many charismatic species are found among them, particularly parrots. I have seen groups of people gathered around exhibits for both birds and tortoises. Yet nobody’s whining about them not being able to be seen by the public all the time.
