Thanks Milwaukee Man.
Racine Zoo Racine Zoo News
- Thread starter Milwaukee Man
- Start date
After visiting the zoo for the first time, I must say, I was pleasantly surprised at this small but scenic zoo. It was awesome seeing some first time raritys like arctic foxes, Tur, fossa, emperor tamarins and western tufted deer. I uploaded over 30 photos of the faucility and will be posting a more detailed review later today or tomorrow.
drill
Well-Known Member
i have visited this zoo many times and love it though the tur exhibit is quite barren and I have not seen the Adjutant storks in a while.
Visited the zoo today here are some updates:
The Arctic foxes have been moved to the indoor tiger habitat as a summer home
A New exhibit is open by the rhinos and it's home to a fennec fox
A short video of the zoo will be up on my YouTube channel "Brookfield ZooTube" later tonight. I am on mobile so sorry I cannot link.
The Arctic foxes have been moved to the indoor tiger habitat as a summer home
A New exhibit is open by the rhinos and it's home to a fennec fox
A short video of the zoo will be up on my YouTube channel "Brookfield ZooTube" later tonight. I am on mobile so sorry I cannot link.
Bo the male Masai giraffe is moving to another zoo for breeding. A three-year-old male will take his place.
Racine Zoo says goodbye to Bo the giraffe
Racine Zoo says goodbye to Bo the giraffe
Its been a while since I last visited the zoo and I was really disappointed. However, before getting to negatives I want to positives, they have several larger spaces for the tiger and lions which I was surprised at, or at the very least appeared to be larger then the Milwaukee zoo. Sticking with the large cats, I appreciated seeing the lions all together and not split up like they do at Milwaukee. The animal information signs I appreciated at times because for specific exhibits they would have several of them so depending on where you were coming from you would know what animal and information about it, however that wasn't always the case. Also, I appreciated their orangutan exhibit, seemed like there was more things to do. They also have a really nice gift shop at the entrance as well.
As for the negatives there are several, for starters just trying to get into the zoo was a challenge. I got to the main entrance but there was nothing really telling me that they were open, everything looked closed. They have this big door way which I thought would be open but is only there for ascetics. Once inside so many of the exhibits where overgrown with weeds and other things that it made seeing some of the exhibits extremely difficult. Not to mention there seems to be no flow to the zoo at all. They seemed to just open exhibits wherever.
Overall, I got the feeling that the zoo is a tired zoo, not a lot of resources are going into it. Even the staff who were doing animals talks weren't sure of the information that they were talking about. I stayed for the giraffe chat and they were trying to compare the Masi giraffe to the reticulated giraffe and struggling through it. They mentioned about how most zoos have the reticulated but then never got to why they have the Masi giraffe at the Racine zoo or why one type was displayed more then the others.
The zoo has great potential, however I feel like it needs new vision, new energy, new something to bring it into what someone would expect to see at an AZA accredited place. I feel its more of a side show attraction that an actual accredited institution.
As for the negatives there are several, for starters just trying to get into the zoo was a challenge. I got to the main entrance but there was nothing really telling me that they were open, everything looked closed. They have this big door way which I thought would be open but is only there for ascetics. Once inside so many of the exhibits where overgrown with weeds and other things that it made seeing some of the exhibits extremely difficult. Not to mention there seems to be no flow to the zoo at all. They seemed to just open exhibits wherever.
Overall, I got the feeling that the zoo is a tired zoo, not a lot of resources are going into it. Even the staff who were doing animals talks weren't sure of the information that they were talking about. I stayed for the giraffe chat and they were trying to compare the Masi giraffe to the reticulated giraffe and struggling through it. They mentioned about how most zoos have the reticulated but then never got to why they have the Masi giraffe at the Racine zoo or why one type was displayed more then the others.
The zoo has great potential, however I feel like it needs new vision, new energy, new something to bring it into what someone would expect to see at an AZA accredited place. I feel its more of a side show attraction that an actual accredited institution.
Does anyone know what the plans are for that empty yard in-between Meerkat Manor and Raptor Roost?
What better way to ring in 2019 than an African penguin that hatched on New Year’s Day? The chick is the colony’s thirteenth member.
Lucky No. 13 arrives for Racine Zoo’s penguin colony
Lucky No. 13 arrives for Racine Zoo’s penguin colony
An emperor tamarin was born and named Bella. Sadly, however, her mother Isabella died days after from a cardiac issue.
Racine Zoo announces bittersweet birth of Emperor tamarin
Racine Zoo announces bittersweet birth of Emperor tamarin
Canadian lynx brothers Bam Bam and Barney arrived from Montgomery.
Bam Bam and Barney, Canada lynx, settle into new home at Racine Zoo
Bam Bam and Barney, Canada lynx, settle into new home at Racine Zoo
My last trip to Racine zoo was pretty recent being July 17, some major pros for me were getting to see the zoos Lesser Adjutants, Black Rhino, Fennec Fox and Canadian Lynx on exhibit, the other thing I was happy about was getting to see the zoos American Alligator and Tenrec
Pitino, a male Emperor Tamarin, has arrived from the Como Park Zoo on an SSP recommendation:
Racine Zoo Welcomes New Emperor Tamarin On His Birthday | Local News I Racine County Eye - Racine, Wisconsin
Racine Zoo Welcomes New Emperor Tamarin On His Birthday | Local News I Racine County Eye - Racine, Wisconsin
How does this move benefit the zoo which recently accidentally lost their breeding female?
Emperor Tamarin Breeding Success
Too cute: Racine Zoo announces birth of baby tamarin twins
Twins were born April 22 2020 to first time parents, one of which was born at the zoo in 2017. They are the ninth birth of the species since 2012.
There are only 23 Emperor tamarins in US facilities and the Racine Zoo is only one of three facilities to breed them in the last six years.
The grandfather of the twins - Marquis (aged 12) is the oldest Emperor tamarin in a US zoo.
Too cute: Racine Zoo announces birth of baby tamarin twins
Twins were born April 22 2020 to first time parents, one of which was born at the zoo in 2017. They are the ninth birth of the species since 2012.
There are only 23 Emperor tamarins in US facilities and the Racine Zoo is only one of three facilities to breed them in the last six years.
The grandfather of the twins - Marquis (aged 12) is the oldest Emperor tamarin in a US zoo.
The zoo reopened May 29th. Facemasks are required for everyone over 3, all paths are one-way, and the indoor areas remain closed.
Made a trip up to this lesser known zoo for the third time. Mainly because at the moment it's the only zoo nearby that has reopened in some capacity. As mentioned above, indoor exhibits are closed which is only really the Discovery Center and the interior Vanishing Kingdom exhibits. Otherwise, everything else was on show.
Despite its small size, Racine definitely has some hidden gems here. The stork/tufted deer aviary is still fantastic and is the real highlight of the zoo. Walkabout Creek was closed from public access, but is still another one of the zoos nicer areas. I always enjoy seeing the west caucasian tur, which I believe are the last of their kind in the states (can anyone confirm or deny that?). Land of the Giants is not groundbreaking but I do love how close you can get to the black rhinos. There were also plenty of active animals including a group of vocalizing penguins, also vocalizing gibbons, and most surprisingly an extremely playful ferret.
However, besides that I can't say the rest of the zoo is particularly good. The Andean bear exhibit is ok compared to others of its kind, mostly because the competition is pretty poor unless your Nashville. However, for whatever reason the zoos single bear was kept in its holding area where it was pacing by the door. The African penguin exhibit looks like that of a public swimming pool and the adjacent meerkat exhibit is also forgettable. For myself however the zoos biggest issue is probably its most popular attraction, The Vanishing Kingdom. A building with a wonderful, historic exterior, but inside it is rather dreadful. The indoor lion and tiger exhibits give me PTSD to Lincoln Park's now defunct cat house, and why are we still keeping orangutans indoors year round? Have plans for an outdoor exhibit been abandoned? The outdoor exhibits aren't by any means awful, but are about as monotonous as they could possibly be with little to no imagination. The problem here is that the building tries to do too much, acting as both a big cat and primate house. Dedicating the building to one or the other, or turning it into something different completely (such as an Asian area with tigers taking up all three cat exhibits and orangutans and gibbons taking up the west side) would make this complex that much better.
Overall, Racine is a very lackluster zoo for the most part. The stork aviary and Walkabout Creek are both wonderful, but the rest of the zoo ranges from average at best to pretty bad. I fully understand Racine is a rather low income area, but even a few small tweaks could go a long way here. I would like to see some of the open fields filled up with exhibits, but first I would like to see the Vanishing Kingdom, penguin and meerkat exhibit all overhauled. Until then, Racine still has a long way to go.
Despite its small size, Racine definitely has some hidden gems here. The stork/tufted deer aviary is still fantastic and is the real highlight of the zoo. Walkabout Creek was closed from public access, but is still another one of the zoos nicer areas. I always enjoy seeing the west caucasian tur, which I believe are the last of their kind in the states (can anyone confirm or deny that?). Land of the Giants is not groundbreaking but I do love how close you can get to the black rhinos. There were also plenty of active animals including a group of vocalizing penguins, also vocalizing gibbons, and most surprisingly an extremely playful ferret.
However, besides that I can't say the rest of the zoo is particularly good. The Andean bear exhibit is ok compared to others of its kind, mostly because the competition is pretty poor unless your Nashville. However, for whatever reason the zoos single bear was kept in its holding area where it was pacing by the door. The African penguin exhibit looks like that of a public swimming pool and the adjacent meerkat exhibit is also forgettable. For myself however the zoos biggest issue is probably its most popular attraction, The Vanishing Kingdom. A building with a wonderful, historic exterior, but inside it is rather dreadful. The indoor lion and tiger exhibits give me PTSD to Lincoln Park's now defunct cat house, and why are we still keeping orangutans indoors year round? Have plans for an outdoor exhibit been abandoned? The outdoor exhibits aren't by any means awful, but are about as monotonous as they could possibly be with little to no imagination. The problem here is that the building tries to do too much, acting as both a big cat and primate house. Dedicating the building to one or the other, or turning it into something different completely (such as an Asian area with tigers taking up all three cat exhibits and orangutans and gibbons taking up the west side) would make this complex that much better.
Overall, Racine is a very lackluster zoo for the most part. The stork aviary and Walkabout Creek are both wonderful, but the rest of the zoo ranges from average at best to pretty bad. I fully understand Racine is a rather low income area, but even a few small tweaks could go a long way here. I would like to see some of the open fields filled up with exhibits, but first I would like to see the Vanishing Kingdom, penguin and meerkat exhibit all overhauled. Until then, Racine still has a long way to go.