Planned Exhibits for 2009

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okapikpr

Well-Known Member
Here's a head start look at what is under construction and due to open in 2009:

Birmingham Zoo - Trails of Africa
Boise Aquarium - Grand Opening
Brookfield Zoo - Great Bear Wilderness
Cameron Park Zoo - Asian exhibits (Orangutan, Komodo, expanded Tiger)
Central Park Zoo - Snow Leopard Exhibit
El Paso Zoo - African exhibits
Fort Wayne Children's Zoo - African Journey
Fort Worth Zoo - Museum of Living Art (new reptile house)
Peoria Zoo - Africa!
Happy Hollow Zoo - Expansion
Los Angeles Zoo - Pachyderm Forest
Memphis Zoo - Teton Trek
Naples Zoo - Black Bear Hammock
Oklahoma City Zoo - Children's Zoo expansion
Oregon Zoo - Predators of the Serengeti
Philadelphia Zoo - Avian Center & 150th Anniversary
Safari Wild - Grand Opening
San Diego Zoo - Elephant Odyssey
Sedgwick County Zoo - Tiger exhibit
Texas State Aquarium - Conservation Cove Phase III
Toledo Zoo - Children's Zoo
Toronto Zoo - Polar Bear & Tundra exhibits
Vancouver Aquarium - Marine Mammal exhibits expansion
Virginia Aquarium - The Restless Planet
Wonders of Wildlife - Expansion
Woodland Park Zoo - Humboldt Penguin exhibit
 
Great thread okapikpr!! It's nice to compare the 2008 and 2009 exhibit openings, and to see zoos like Los Angeles and Oregon having back-to-back years with new exhibits. Some of these are costing a fortune, such as San Diego's $40 million "Elephant Odyssey", Los Angeles's $44 million "Pachyderm Forest", and the Vancouver Aquarium's $80 million expansion of most of their mammal pools...to name just three.
 
Denver Zoo: Asian Tropics

Isn't the 10-acre, $40 million plus "Asian Tropics" exhibit at the Denver Zoo due to open in 2009? I actually think this has the potential to be the best of all the new exhibits on the list. This zoo already won best new exhibit for 2004's "Predator Ridge", but rotating asian elephants, malayan tapirs and greater one-horned rhinos through different habitats sounds exciting.
 
Thanks snowleopard, I didnt have an opening date for the asian tropics yet. But for potential for being the best of those new exhibits it will have stiff competition from Brookfield, Fort Worth, Oregon, San Diego, Virginia Aquarium, Toronto, and Philly for that title. Personally my money is on Fort Worth.

Fort Worth Zoo
 
I've read the article before on the new Fort Worth Zoo exhibit, and it certainly looks exciting. Spending $15 million or more on a herpetarium is a bold move for any zoo, and it seems as if they have an impressive collection of reptiles and amphibians.
 
Its not bold, but expected for a texas zoo.

Texas zoos (and many other southern zoos) have been well known for their reptile collections. Whenever Dallas gets around to building a new reptile house, expect it to be bigger and more elaborate than Fort Worth.
 
snowleopard said:
I've read the article before on the new Fort Worth Zoo exhibit, and it certainly looks exciting. Spending $15 million or more on a herpetarium is a bold move for any zoo, and it seems as if they have an impressive collection of reptiles and amphibians.
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And it was planned to be a rental space for events, parties, etc..therefore a money generator...as much as an exhibit
 
Fort Wayne Children's Zoo is opening our African Journey in 2009. This is a total renovation of our African section and will have lions, hyenas, ratel, Griffons vultures, sitatunga, mongoose, giraffe, swamp monkey and colobus mixed exhibit and lots more! In fact 0.2 sitatunga just arrived today with 1.0 due on Thursday. The ratel are already here and settled into their new building. I haven't been over to the site for a few months, but what I see and hear of it looks pretty good!
 
Rookeyper said:
Fort Wayne Children's Zoo is opening our African Journey in 2009. This is a total renovation of our African section and will have lions, hyenas, ratel, Griffons vultures, sitatunga, mongoose, giraffe, swamp monkey and colobus mixed exhibit and lots more! In fact 0.2 sitatunga just arrived today with 1.0 due on Thursday. The ratel are already here and settled into their new building. I haven't been over to the site for a few months, but what I see and hear of it looks pretty good!
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The rockwork for this exhibit is a prototype. Instead of gunnite sprayed over steel rebar and mesh, the initial forms are carved from foam by the artists and then sprayed with many very thin layers of glasscrete. The resulting forms are insulated and tough at lower cost.

Of course, the fire on site several months ago when the foam caught fire may make this new technology slow to catch on.

LiveLeak.com - Fire Erupts at Fort Wayne Zoo Construction Project
 
Rookeyper said:
Fort Wayne Children's Zoo is opening our African Journey in 2009. .... and will have lions, hyenas, ratel ....
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Do you know more about the new ratels - where are they from, do they plan to breed them etc?
 
I'm fairly certain that the ratels came from San Diego. They are male and female, but I haven't heard anything about plans to breed. I've only seen them one time while they were still in quarantine. Cool animals!
 
Here's another addition


PHOENIX ZOO RECEIVES FOUNDATION GIFT TO SUPPORT KOMODO EXHIBIT


The Phoenix Zoo has received $1 million from the Kemper and Ethel Marley Foundation to support the construction of a new komodo dragon exhibit, “Komodo Island.†The exhibit is scheduled to be open in the Spring of 2009.


The new immersion exhibit will feature a simulated Indonesian fishing village with multiple viewing levels, misting and rest areas for guests, basking and shade spots for the animals and space for multiple komodo dragons; the largest living lizard in the world!


The Marley Family has supported the Phoenix Zoo for more than 45 years and have previously been major sponsors of ZooLights, the Zoo’s Desert Lives exhibit and the ZooReach program that helps fund Zoo visits for low income schools. The Kemper and Ethel Marley Foundation was formed in 1990 and supports causes that help those who live and work in Arizona, including those in community enhancement and arts and culture.
 
Denver construction has yet to begin?

snowleopard said:
Denver Zoo: Asian Tropics

Isn't the 10-acre, $40 million plus "Asian Tropics" exhibit at the Denver Zoo due to open in 2009? I actually think this has the potential to be the best of all the new exhibits on the list. This zoo already won best new exhibit for 2004's "Predator Ridge", but rotating asian elephants, malayan tapirs and greater one-horned rhinos through different habitats sounds exciting.
Click to expand...

Here is a link to an article about the Denver Zoo receiving a grant to use animal waste to make energy. At the end of the article it mentions that groundbreaking has yet to occur, and will hopefully begin next year. I doubt we can add Asian Tropics to the 2009 list of new exhibits, maybe 2010 or 2011.

cbs4denver.com - Denver Zoo Plans To Make Energy Out Of Animal Waste
 
@okapikpr: that is an interesting article, and also puzzling because in many other articles there was talk of a spring or summer 2009 opening for the Denver Zoo's "Asian Tropics". We need someone here at ZooBeat to take a trip to the zoo to check out whether or not construction has begun...haha. The 10 acre exhibit will certainly take more than a year to be completed.
 
I was recently in Denver and visited the zoo and talked with staff. The Asian Tropics project is still in the final design stages, and all the funds are not yet raised. They are very excited about this endeavor, especially because because of the innovative waste-to-energy initiative ("gasification") they are hoping to implement.

I like Denver's approach to the rotational exhibit concept, because they are rotating animals with at least somewhat similar containment and habitat requirements (African wild dogs, lion and hyenas in Predator Ridge; rhinos, tapirs and elephants in Asian Tropics). This is far more efficient and aesthetically satisfactory than places that rotate wildly different animals though spaces that must be designed to contain the "highest common denominator"--a tiger, an orangutan etc. These exhibits tend to look barren/over-engineered/silly, whereas rotating relatively similar species just "feels better" to me.

But don't count on "Asian Tropics" to open anytime before 2012. Lots of $$ to raise, and a difficult and complex construction effort ahead.
 
I had a friend who just got back from Denver and told me they hadnt started on the new area yet.

I agree with reduakari on building rotation exhibits with similar species...much easier to design. However in the case of pachyderms, they all put a lot of pressure on the land (even the tapir, though not as much as an elephant :) I visited the Louisville Zoo many years back and enjoyed their Islands exhibits that are design to rotate orangs, gibbons, babirusa, and tiger (maybe others). The exhibits appeared very nice and were full of vines, trees, and various cage furniture. All of exhibits were topped with a mesh roof and obviously built to contain tigers and orangs, and none of the exhibits appeared too small and very compareable to similar exhibts for the species involved in other zoos. Rainforests and Jungles are not full of open spaces, as most zoos tend to convey with their rainforest exhibits. While Tacoma may have done a poor job at their rotation design (I have yet to visit and I trust the many opinions of those that have), Louisville in my opinion has done a fine job. I have no problem with roatation of similar species...it just puts to much pressure on the land (similar speces often have similar niches and put the same pressure on the land) and doesnt allow the enclosure to heal as roatation exhibits should be allowed to do. But in the case for the elephants it does give them more land without taking over the whole zoo.
 
It seems as if the "Asian Tropics" set of exhibits at the Denver Zoo is definitely going to be delayed, but for me it is still one of the most anticipated exhibit openings of any zoo. To have around 10 species of animals on 10 acres of the zoo is exciting enough, but considering that indian rhinos, malayan tapirs and asian elephants will be rotated through different enclosures it seems as if this is a progressive way to showcase such massive mammals. "Predator Ridge" has already been an award-winning success, and so I have faith that "Asian Tropics" will be just as good. My only worry is over the winter season, when the animals will spend more than enough time locked inside their barn. There can be a ton of snow in the mile-high city!
 
snowleopard said:
Great thread okapikpr!! It's nice to compare the 2008 and 2009 exhibit openings, and to see zoos like Los Angeles and Oregon having back-to-back years with new exhibits. Some of these are costing a fortune, such as San Diego's $40 million "Elephant Odyssey", Los Angeles's $44 million "Pachyderm Forest", and the Vancouver Aquarium's $80 million expansion of most of their mammal pools...to name just three.
Click to expand...

Actually, Los Angeles Zoo will have back-to-back-to-back because they will be opening both the "Rainforest of the Americas" and the "Reptile House: HISS Center (Herpetofauna-Invertebrate Species Survival Center)" in 2010.

Don't forget that the zoo also opened "Campo Gorilla Reserve" in 2007 so it will really be four in a row.
 
Isn't Columbus opening Polar Frontier in 09? Are they delaying it again? Their African Savannah was originally slated for 09, I'm guessing it's going to be ahwile longer, though.
 
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