Made it out today for the first time in a while. Only had 75 minutes but I did a somewhat rushed lap around the place. Have some thoughts and updates.
1) The fennec fox exhibit is still(?) closed.
2) The tortoises are out of the indoor exhibits. At least the radiated tortoise is in with the screamers. I did not see the South American tortoises. The sunbittern moved from the saki exhibit to the tamarin one.
3) The red pandas were either in their shelters or off exhibit, which really emboldened the muntjac. I saw them exploring the wooden platforms and even peeking into the red panda’s shelters.
4) I did not see the emu in either of the Australia yards. Curious if something happened to them or if they were just hiding.
5) The agouti has been moved into the outdoor section of the howler / squirrel monkey enclosure. The iguana is finally signed. The male howler usually hates my guts and keeps a very close eye on me until I leave. I have no idea why. Today he was chill but one of the screamers hated me.
6) A lot of animals were pretty active in the zoo’s last hour. This included the giraffes who were very eager to be let into their barn around 4:30.
Okay, the big updates and some speculation:
Eurasia has been fenced off and they’re moving dirt. It’s a lot bigger than I was anticipating. The concept art for the deer enclosure is smaller than I would like but that will be one of the best leopard exhibits I’ve seen if the real thing is anything like the artwork.
There were ladders in the former lion / bear enclosure. I expect that to finish on schedule since it’s just a retrofit.
I am curious what moves into the old colobus and leopard enclosures, or if they just get demolished. They could keep the snow leopard around, but it sounds like the AZA was pressuring them on that so I’m guessing they go, too.
I hope at least some of the parrots move into the colobus exhibit. I can understand clipping the wings of storks, flamingoes, screamers, and even vultures in exchange for more ground space. The parrots have neither flight nor more than a few linear feet of accessible space. The colobus exhibit would be a dramatic improvement. I don’t know how territorial macaws are, but it seems like it could also be a potential home for the screamers and South American tortoises.
My personal hope for the leopard exhibits is that they get used for serval and caracal. They aren’t bad cat exhibits, just bad for big cats. That also meshes will with the savannah across from them and the lions nearby.
These transformations would let them put their funds into Eurasia for the foreseeable future as neither retrofit would likely be that expensive.
