So by the suggestion of @ThylacineAlive, I decided to make a thread dedicated to the beloved Bronx Zoo.
So here are my ideas for what the Bronx Zoo could do to freshen the whole thing up
My ideas are...
Make the Wild Asia Area including the Monorail and the Asia Parking a massive Asian complex for elephants (breeding of course), rhinos, gaur, etc. Have all Amur tigers at Tiger Mountain only and only have Malayan tigers here to create an Asian jungle sorta theme. Then with the South(east) Asian hoofstock, make it so they can walk among the giants ala Dallas. Dholes could also be moved here and have them rotate with tigers ala Denver. Also, have a bit of this new Asia visible from 180th street like when you walk from Asia gate to the train. That way, it's sort of a tease and people there get to have glimpses of the animals which will entice them into the zoo. Indoor viewing of elephants and rhinos is also a massive priority for me so that they can be seen all year.
Make the Bronx River Parking lot multi-level so you can get rid of Asia and the excess parking by the buffalo. Then use that whole area to create a sorta Yellowstone exhibit that incorporates the river and teaches about human/wildlife conflict in our nation. Get some pronghorns (they gotta share the exhibit with the bison), wolves, cougars, elk, and move the grizzlies here.
The Heads and Horns building is kinda wasted as education IMO. You could easily use it as a zoo museum since a ton of interesting stuff happened at the Bronx Zoo.
Make the area around Tiger Mountain, Bears, Himalayan Highlands, etc. a whole Northern Asia thing with better flow, more modern exhibits, and with the displaced Northern Asian herbivores like the markhor (they'd love the grizzly exhibit with a few mods), tufted deer, etc.
With WoD, you could theoretically demolish the building and add a polar bear exhibit with an air-conditioned indoor area. It could also be swallowed by Africa and used for something of that theme
Get some better food venders. My idea is to have decent restaurants open up places in the zoo and they pay for their expenses. You can then add a zoo tax.
The African Plains exhibit really needs a spit and shine. I think redoing the layout and making the animal night areas more modern would work wonders. I think more hoofstock like elands, blue wildebeest, etc. could also fit. I think that the animals should still have the space but the space should be used more efficently as there is a lot of unused/wasted space. Then I'd do more multi-species habitats
For the former Rare Animal Range, I have no idea tbh. I heard that the director wanted to do a Latin America exhibit which would hopefully have tapirs, monkeys, jaguars, macaws, etc. but it's likely not concrete. If they are gonna do an Amazon theme, it's gotta have an indoor area so even in winter, you can immerse yourself ala Jungleworld
The area of Congo Gorilla Forest outside of the exhibit itself should be converted into a gorilla training/feeding area so that you can have shows with the gorillas which will give the lower income folks a guaruntee of seeing them.
Monkey house would likely be a copy and paste of the Madagascar concept with another ecosystem.
Redo the Aquatic Bird House from the ground up. With bathroom tiles and horrid lighting, the building screams to me "I wasn't touched since the collapse of the USSR." It shouldn't be that hard to find the birds a temp home real quick while this place is demolished and a new Aquatic Bird House is created that is up to modern WCS standards.
Get an Aldabra tortoise and giraffe feeding booth so that you can just pay 10 bucks up front and then get some lettuce and kale. I feel the online booking for a simple animal feeding is too much for people.
In Jungleworld, divide the monkey and leopards equal space so the leopards can have more room. Then make them rotate for enrichment. Then get some outdoor real estate for things like leopards and tapirs so they can go outside if they wanna. Or you could have the leopards somewhere else, improve the langur island you first see, have a rotation system for the 2 species (this would also include more comfortable night housing) and make the former Silver Langur/Leopard area an indoor orangutan exhibit. Then give the apes an outdoor area in the main Asia exhibit and connect it with wires.
I'd do something a bit more interesting with the white rhino yard. Idk what that would be. It could be another kind of megafauna, reptiles, etc. but I'm sure someone here has a hot idea. I have a soft spot for black rhinos so seeing the yard expanded for a breeding group would be great. Hippos could also be a option if they were able removate the inside of that area to have a pool and then have an outdoor area with underwater viewing.
That should be it for now but I will come up with other ideas.
Actually, is there a program that would allow me to take an image and put a bunch of annotations on it that people can mouse over? That way, I can just put all my thoughts on there and it can be constantly updated.
So here are my ideas for what the Bronx Zoo could do to freshen the whole thing up
My ideas are...
Make the Wild Asia Area including the Monorail and the Asia Parking a massive Asian complex for elephants (breeding of course), rhinos, gaur, etc. Have all Amur tigers at Tiger Mountain only and only have Malayan tigers here to create an Asian jungle sorta theme. Then with the South(east) Asian hoofstock, make it so they can walk among the giants ala Dallas. Dholes could also be moved here and have them rotate with tigers ala Denver. Also, have a bit of this new Asia visible from 180th street like when you walk from Asia gate to the train. That way, it's sort of a tease and people there get to have glimpses of the animals which will entice them into the zoo. Indoor viewing of elephants and rhinos is also a massive priority for me so that they can be seen all year.
Make the Bronx River Parking lot multi-level so you can get rid of Asia and the excess parking by the buffalo. Then use that whole area to create a sorta Yellowstone exhibit that incorporates the river and teaches about human/wildlife conflict in our nation. Get some pronghorns (they gotta share the exhibit with the bison), wolves, cougars, elk, and move the grizzlies here.
The Heads and Horns building is kinda wasted as education IMO. You could easily use it as a zoo museum since a ton of interesting stuff happened at the Bronx Zoo.
Make the area around Tiger Mountain, Bears, Himalayan Highlands, etc. a whole Northern Asia thing with better flow, more modern exhibits, and with the displaced Northern Asian herbivores like the markhor (they'd love the grizzly exhibit with a few mods), tufted deer, etc.
With WoD, you could theoretically demolish the building and add a polar bear exhibit with an air-conditioned indoor area. It could also be swallowed by Africa and used for something of that theme
Get some better food venders. My idea is to have decent restaurants open up places in the zoo and they pay for their expenses. You can then add a zoo tax.
The African Plains exhibit really needs a spit and shine. I think redoing the layout and making the animal night areas more modern would work wonders. I think more hoofstock like elands, blue wildebeest, etc. could also fit. I think that the animals should still have the space but the space should be used more efficently as there is a lot of unused/wasted space. Then I'd do more multi-species habitats
For the former Rare Animal Range, I have no idea tbh. I heard that the director wanted to do a Latin America exhibit which would hopefully have tapirs, monkeys, jaguars, macaws, etc. but it's likely not concrete. If they are gonna do an Amazon theme, it's gotta have an indoor area so even in winter, you can immerse yourself ala Jungleworld
The area of Congo Gorilla Forest outside of the exhibit itself should be converted into a gorilla training/feeding area so that you can have shows with the gorillas which will give the lower income folks a guaruntee of seeing them.
Monkey house would likely be a copy and paste of the Madagascar concept with another ecosystem.
Redo the Aquatic Bird House from the ground up. With bathroom tiles and horrid lighting, the building screams to me "I wasn't touched since the collapse of the USSR." It shouldn't be that hard to find the birds a temp home real quick while this place is demolished and a new Aquatic Bird House is created that is up to modern WCS standards.
Get an Aldabra tortoise and giraffe feeding booth so that you can just pay 10 bucks up front and then get some lettuce and kale. I feel the online booking for a simple animal feeding is too much for people.
In Jungleworld, divide the monkey and leopards equal space so the leopards can have more room. Then make them rotate for enrichment. Then get some outdoor real estate for things like leopards and tapirs so they can go outside if they wanna. Or you could have the leopards somewhere else, improve the langur island you first see, have a rotation system for the 2 species (this would also include more comfortable night housing) and make the former Silver Langur/Leopard area an indoor orangutan exhibit. Then give the apes an outdoor area in the main Asia exhibit and connect it with wires.
I'd do something a bit more interesting with the white rhino yard. Idk what that would be. It could be another kind of megafauna, reptiles, etc. but I'm sure someone here has a hot idea. I have a soft spot for black rhinos so seeing the yard expanded for a breeding group would be great. Hippos could also be a option if they were able removate the inside of that area to have a pool and then have an outdoor area with underwater viewing.
That should be it for now but I will come up with other ideas.
Actually, is there a program that would allow me to take an image and put a bunch of annotations on it that people can mouse over? That way, I can just put all my thoughts on there and it can be constantly updated.
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). Am I missing anything developmentwise?
Bronx has a petting zoo at the end of theirs as well but I've always it a little silly to think a kids themed area can't have anything "exciting" in it because it's targeted towards kids. I believe it's OKC that has mud snake and house snake in theirs and San Antonio used to keep giant salamander.