Temporary Exhibits

MonkeyBat

MonkeyBat

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
I'm not sure about other regions, but here in the US it's pretty common for zoos and aquariums to have temporary exhibits. They usually are usually a one year thing, attracting guests during the summer or spring. Here are some examples

Minnesota Zoo's Africa, Kangaroo, and Llama Exhibits

Exhibits with temporary frog or jelly displays

White Alligators (NC Zoo, Hogle Zoo, Brookfield Zoo) or Koalas (Santa Barbara Zoo, Kansas City Zoo, Indianapolis Zoo)

Sometimes even giant animatronic "bugs" or dinosaurs

Does anyone have any other examples?
 
Sacramento Zoo:
  • In 2007 and then again in 2008: the zoo had a temporary Magellanic penguin exhibit.
  • September 2019 to February 2020: the zoo had a temporary exhibit with animatronic dinosaurs
 
Cincinnati's Adventure Down Under that took over the Children's Zoo in 2006
- Western Kangaroos, wallabies, cape barren geese, kookaburras, cockatoo, emus, taipans, stonefish, koalas, and dedicating their free flight aviary to lorikeets. My favorite exhibit when I was a kid.

Newport Aquarium:
Their 2004 Hidden Treasures of the Rainforest Islands atrium was a permanent expansion.
- Home to otters, pythons and lorikeets
- Later converted for white alligators
- Then turtles and tortoises
- Then otters again, lizards and a Snapping turtle
- Now it's permanently a stingray touch tank.
 
Moebelle said:
Cincinnati's Adventure Down Under that took over the Children's Zoo in 2006
- Western Kangaroos, wallabies, cape barren geese, kookaburras, cockatoo, emus, taipans, stonefish, koalas, and dedicating their free flight aviary to lorikeets. My favorite exhibit when I was a kid.
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That sounds a great deal better than the new Australian zone opening later this year. A real shame it was only temporary. Do have any photos of this exhibit?
 
pachyderm pro said:
That sounds a great deal better than the new Australian zone opening later this year. A real shame it was only temporary. Do have any photos of this exhibit?
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Before I posted I edited this part out: "Unfortunately there are barely any photos online". You can find some on Flickr.

Now it sounds ideal, but most of these exhibits were/are meant for domestic animals. It would be more criticized than the Reptile House if it existed today.

Since most of the habitats still exist, here's a virtual tour.
1. Cape Barren Goose (no longer exists): Feb. 2017 - Children's Zoo - King Penguin/African Penguin Exhibit - ZooChat
2. Little Penguin (no longer exists, were already at the zoo before Australia): Apr. 2013 - Penguin Walkabout - Little Penguin Exhibit - ZooChat
3. Snakes, fish, walking sticks and Koalas (building was renovated): Aug. 2019 - Children's Zoo - Animal Ambassador Center (4 Species) - ZooChat, Dec. 2019 - Children's Zoo - Animal Ambassador Center - Palawan Bearcat Nursery - ZooChat
4. Kookaburra, original crowned lemur (typical cage, no longer exists)
5. Salmon-crested cockatoo (May 2013 - Childrens Zoo - Southern Three-banded Armadillo Exhibit - ZooChat)
6. Emu: Dec. 2019 - Children's Zoo - Petting Zoo - ZooChat
7. Kangaroos and wallabies: Spaulding Children's Zoo- Blakely's Barn- Jacob Sheep exhibit - ZooChat, Children's Zoo- Blakely's Barn- Dexter Cattle yard - ZooChat, Aug. 2012-Nigerian Dwarf Goat + Miniature Donkey/Alpaca exhibits - ZooChat, Apr. 2013 - Childrens Zoo - Alpaca + Llama Exhibit - ZooChat
 
MonkeyBat said:
I'm not sure about other regions, but here in the US it's pretty common for zoos and aquariums to have temporary exhibits. They usually are usually a one year thing, attracting guests during the summer or spring. Here are some examples

Minnesota Zoo's Africa, Kangaroo, and Llama Exhibits

Exhibits with temporary frog or jelly displays

White Alligators (NC Zoo, Hogle Zoo, Brookfield Zoo) or Koalas (Santa Barbara Zoo, Kansas City Zoo, Indianapolis Zoo)

Sometimes even giant animatronic "bugs" or dinosaurs

Does anyone have any other examples?
Click to expand...
In a similar vein, Brookfield Zoo has had a Lego animals exhibit, live arachnid exhibit, and a dinosaur/dragon exhibit that featured a Komodo dragon among other reptiles.
 
I personally haven't seen many temporary exhibits with live animals at zoos. (though I have seen some at museums) Usually the temporary exhibits I see at zoos are sculptures or animatronics.

In 2018 the Gladys Porter Zoo did set up a temporary exhibit for a tiger cub. Someone tried to smuggle him over the border in a duffel bag, person was caught and the cub was brought to the zoo for a short time. Got a lot of media attention. They had him on display in the children's area with a setup talking about wildlife trafficking. This was only for a short time until a permanent home could be found for him. I went to the zoo last year and the display was still up even though the tiger cub had been relocated.
 
While it hasn't been done for nearly 15 years, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo used to do special exhibit every few years. Including Warthogs/Aardvarks (1995), Koalas (1998), White Alligator (1999), Giant Fruit Bats (2000), White Tigers (2001), Butterflies (2002), and White Lions (2005).
 
Universeum: Temp. ice age animatronics on the top roof in 2015

Also had a Dinosaur animatronics temp. exhibit in 2012, 2013 and 2019. currently is going to have a insects temp. exhibit
They also had a ”deadly but beautiful” exhibit for a while, but is now replaced with a general reptilarium with venomous snakes, spiders and gila monsters
 
Indianapolis
One habitat in the middle of their Forest exhibit:
- Bats! (Straw colored and Island flying foxes - 2011): Forests - Bats! - ZooChat
- Koalas (2015, they were at the zoo in 2008, could've been in the same place): Jun. 2015 - Forests - Koala Exhibits (Temporary) - ZooChat
- Red Ruffed Lemurs (2016)
- Macaws (2017 - now most likely permanent since they expanded the habitat): May. 2018 - Forests - Indoor Macaw Exhibit - ZooChat and Feb. 2017 - Forests - Future Macaw Exhibit - ZooChat
 
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Bronx Zoo's Dinosaur Safari ran from 2013 until 2019, when it returned unexpectedly for the summer month.
 
All panda exhibits, right?

Otherwise, in Europe there is no such thing as a temporary exhibits unless you stray so far into the meaning of temporary that all exhibits can be so called because they are all sadly transient and ephemeral, pushed along in the tide of a changing society with changing standards and ideas. Otherwise, I haven't heard of any temporary exhibits except perhaps exhibits that are built to hold a species until their newer, better enclosure is polished up.
 
During the late 80s and early 90s Cincinnati had temporary exhibits for
Giant Panda
Golden Monkey

not both at the same time though
 
Zooplantman said:
During the late 80s and early 90s Cincinnati had temporary exhibits for
Giant Panda
Golden Monkey

not both at the same time though
Click to expand...

Were those exhibits for giant pandas and golden snub-nosed monkey decent or outdated?
 
Matthew Guimac said:
Were those exhibits for giant pandas and golden snub-nosed monkey decent or outdated?
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They were not outdated at the time. The temporary exhibit enclosure was built specifically for the Giant pandas and re-used for the Golden monkeys (and later for the Komodo dragons)
 
Zooplantman said:
During the late 80s and early 90s Cincinnati had temporary exhibits for
Giant Panda
Golden Monkey

not both at the same time though
Click to expand...
I had thought that I read somewhere that the Golden Monkeys had the Lemur Rock to live on (or was that ibexes?)?
 
ZooBinh said:
I had thought that I read somewhere that the Golden Monkeys had the Lemur Rock to live on (or was that ibexes?)?
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Baboons and then later ibexes on the rock. I've only ever heard the golden monkeys had the Komodo exhibit but in this instance it would be great if I was wrong.
 
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