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What became of Sacramento Zoo's plan to help build a Rivers of the World Aquarium? I recently obtained 6 zoo magazines (named "Maagizo") from 1990-1994 and in a couple of them there is talk of a capital campaign to construct an aquarium as well as build new zoo exhibits highlighting rivers around the world. Was there not public support for this endeavor?
 
snowleopard said:
What became of Sacramento Zoo's plan to help build a Rivers of the World Aquarium? I recently obtained 6 zoo magazines (named "Maagizo") from 1990-1994 and in a couple of them there is talk of a capital campaign to construct an aquarium as well as build new zoo exhibits highlighting rivers around the world. Was there not public support for this endeavor?
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The entire economy of the Sacramento region was wrecked in the early 1990s. The military bases (army depot, 2 air force bases) that were the backbone of much of the region shut down, and there was a major national recession that suppressed both the public and private sectors. The zoo went through a major economic hit and was threatened with closure because the city of Sacramento was in economic crisis. It was in this period that the zoo transitioned to a public-private model.

The major force behind the "rivers of the world" theme, Steve Taylor, left Sacramento for the Cleveland Zoo shortly after the 1988 master plan with the rivers theme came out. Without his leadership and with a major financial crisis, the river-themed master plan never happened. The highlights of it were a savanna area around a river with giraffes and elephants, a Nile river area with crocodiles and hippos with underwater viewing and an aquarium building (with otter-shrews!) and aviary, and a Sacramento river area with an immersive grizzly exhibit like Woodland Park, beavers, river otters, an aquarium building with local fish, and an aviary.

I'm pretty sure that the aquarium idea never got very far because of the economy and lack of political support. There was never any public campaign or conceptual plan released so the idea died in committee essentially.
 
Thanks for the update David, and one of those Sacramento Zoo magazines even has a write-up from Maria Baker, the director at the time, discussing the proposed Rivers of the World Aquarium. So in early 1994 the project was still a dream but as you say economic prosperity was hard to come by during that time period in central California.

On a side note, Steve Taylor went on to spend more than 20 years at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and I'm not sure if the zoo ever dipped below 1 million annual visitors during that time. He oversaw a number of notable projects (Rain Forest building, Wolf Wilderness, Australian Adventure, Elephant Crossing, etc) before recently retiring. Steve Taylor was also a true zoo nerd, as I believe he came incredibly close to visiting all 220 or so AZA-accredited institutions over his career. Even with all of my road trips I'm still trailing him by a long way!
 
Question: The Sac Zoo sent one of their male Red Pandas to the San Francisco Zoo. Was this the father or the cub that was born last year?
 
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