Reimagining the Bronx Zoo

Aardwolf said:
Word to the wise, the parts of the zoo that are forested are likely to remain forested. I know this thread is all speculation and not things that are actually built, but just to help you out for realism's sake, the zoo isn't too likely to clear cut a large part of forest (which it prides itself on) for exhibit space. Do what you will with that opinion.
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I disagree. The history of the zoo (in fact most zoos) has been one of filling in ponds and clearing forests. The site was all woods and ponds once.
 
tigris115 said:
Idk, it's just what I vibe with rn

Also @Aardwolf I scrapped any idea of touching any really undeveloped areas.

Tho I'd say maybe have some hiking and exploration programs for school age kids. That'd be fun
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Don't let these negative comments stop you.
My mention that the blue area was rock does not mean it cannot be developed if you feel it should. But any development has to either make use of that rocky ridge or deal with the cost of re-shaping it.
Of course hiking trails open more doors to liability. Being an open to the public zoo is one big liability. It can't get any worse unless the hiking program were done badly, with unsupervised use of badly maintained trails.
Your plan will be best if you accept these inputs as challenges and think hard about what you feel is best. Don't simply cave to every bad wind.
 
Zooplantman said:
Don't let these negative comments stop you.
My mention that the blue area was rock does not mean it cannot be developed if you feel it should. But any development has to either make use of that rocky ridge or deal with the cost of re-shaping it.
Of course hiking trails open more doors to liability. Being an open to the public zoo is one big liability. It can't get any worse unless the hiking program were done badly, with unsupervised use of badly maintained trails.
Your plan will be best if you accept these inputs as challenges and think hard about what you feel is best. Don't simply cave to every bad wind.
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I scrapped doing anything with the blue area before that actually. Because when I looked on Google Earth, it seemed to be primarily for backstage or it was too hilly for anything meaningful.
 
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Zooplantman said:
Oh what one can do with hillside exhibits! The challenge is figuring out visitor circulation and where to place holding buildings.
Brown Bear Enclosure - ZooChat
Big bush dog pack - ZooChat
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo 2010 - Amur Tigers - ZooChat
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Maybe some part of those slopes can be an exhibit for dholes, some of the smaller Monorail species like tufted deer, and Amur leopards. Though like you said, the main challenge would be incorporating shift areas and backstage. Tho if I do, I'd love to have the dholes and leopards rotate. I'm very much sold on that
 
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This thread sadly highlights that the Bronx Zoo is stagnating when comes to new exhibits.

I understand that Bronx Zoo may concentrate on wild conservation and rich sponsors, but once the current sponsors run out, they need new ones. The only way to get them is an interesting zoo.
 
Oh, this whole thing was def made out of my seething jealousy. I see all the other major American zoos getting cool new plans and I'm like "damnit, I want that for my home zoo."
 
Zooplantman said:
Oh what one can do with hillside exhibits! The challenge is figuring out visitor circulation and where to place holding buildings.
Brown Bear Enclosure - ZooChat
Big bush dog pack - ZooChat
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo 2010 - Amur Tigers - ZooChat
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Real quick, do you know what parts of these are available? If I use it, the theme will mostly be "North Asian forest" with stuff like dholes, Amur leopards, and some North Asian hoofstock, meaning that I can rly use the forest itself. You really just need to clear space for paths and backstage.

Also, would you mind if we could start a conversation in DM's or via discord?
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tigris115 said:
Real quick, do you know what parts of these are available? If I use it, the theme will mostly be "North Asian forest" with stuff like dholes, Amur leopards, and some North Asian hoofstock, meaning that I can rly use the forest itself. You really just need to clear space for paths and backstage.

Also, would you mind if we could start a conversation in DM's or via discord?
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No, I'll leave you to it
 
tigris115 said:
Tho if I do, I'd love to have the dholes and leopards rotate.
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I don't understand the appeal of rotating habitas, if I want to see an animal it should always be there, wheather or not it chooses to make the visitor gaze upon it is its choice, but the animal should always have stationary homes imo, give it more yards, but it should always stay there.
 
Mickey said:
I don't understand the appeal of rotating habitas, if I want to see an animal it should always be there, wheather or not it chooses to make the visitor gaze upon it is its choice, but the animal should always have stationary homes imo, give it more yards, but it should always stay there.
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The intention is to give the animals more choice, more enrichment (as they explore an exhibit that a different species has been in), more "territory". There are definite design challenges to creating a great exhibit that houses different species though
See https://joncoe.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/MxdSpRo.pdf
 
I just think the idea of a rotating exhibit complex is cool. Especially with both animal welfare and teaching guests about how species cohabitate.
 
First thing I decided to do was to give the Zoo Center's white rhino a new resident. In my plan, I'd move the rhinos to African plains so I wanted to put something new in.

Hippos came up in my mind, but the indoor space was inadequate for a family of them so I decided to compromise by downsizing with pygmy hippos

I decided to decrease the size of the paddocks a little as well as splitting them in 2 to keep a pair solitary until the mating season. Then, I'm using the space on the sides as stall space (this is what I assume they were in the past.) so you can house 4 of them.
 

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Also @Zooplantman do you know what this house is for?

Someone said it's William Conway's old house but they said that you'd know

unknown.png
 
Mickey said:
you can do that by simply adding more yards to their enclosure, like elephant complexes work.
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Yes, except that that doesn't give the enrichment of the scents left by the animals in the enclosure before it, and means that at most times only one or two paddocks out of however many are full, meaning empty exhibits, which is generally not a good look. Rotating exhibits make much more sense in many cases really, particularly since they make the very most out of the space available.
 
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