Above are just a few comments recently made about the Brookfield zoo, and now I feel it's something I want to address. When a zoo starts to take a negative direction, it gets noticed on here pretty fast. San Diego, London, Edinburgh, Melbourne and others have received similar criticism by many zoochatters, but now I feel my local zoo is starting to head down a route that I'm not likening, and it hurts me that much more.
Brookfield zoo was once on top of the zoo world with it's state of the art exhibits and massive collection. The place was a zoological hot spot ever since it opened in 1934. The zoo was going very strong until about 2006/2007. This is when I feel the zoo began to go downhill and lose its charm. What makes it even worse is that the zoo was at such a high point. The master plan was just released and with a price tag of $125 million, and the wolf woods habitat, the zoos strongest area and one of the best of its kind, just opened. There was a very bright future for the park, but some where down the line they seemed to have lost site of the positive direction they were heading. So with all of this said, I want to separate my talking points to make a stronger more cohesive argument to my stance.
Dropping the Master Plan:
The master plan fell apart very fast. I understand that not everything will come out as intended and things will be added/cut through the process, but not a single thing in the master plan was built. It could be argued that Great Bear Wilderness (Then called Great Wild North) was on the plan and built, but the exhibit was significantly cut back, halving the bear habitats, cutting dall sheep and other species. The exhibit came out good, but a mere shadow of what it could have been. Not to mention, the zoo seems to have since completely discarded this plan, as the new children's zoo is completely different then what's listed.To give them credit where it's due, they did renovate the dolphinarium in 2010 (As promised in the plan), but it wasn't anything major and there are dozens of areas that never got built and merely disappeared without a trace (Elephant Trails, Renovated Tropic World, Gorilla Rescue, Siberian Escape, Australia Station, Renovated Feathers and Scales, Renovated Pinniped Point, New North Entrance Plaza, Skytram).
Disappointing New Exhibits:
Despite the early 2000s designed master plan, only two new exhibit complexes have been built since. Great Bear Wilderness and Wild Encounters. GBW is the zoos most pricey project with a tag of $27 Million and is a good exhibit, but did not live up to it's true potential. As mentioned earlier, the bear yard size decreased dramatically and multiple species were dropped. The bear exhibits are essentially glorified grottos with the traditional moats and rock walls. They are nice grassy spaces for the bears, the rotation policy is nice, and the underwater viewing is marvelous. However, all these were to be featured in the original plan as well. Not to mention the bald eagle exhibit came out as weak and a little tiny. The bison exhibit I will say, is probably the best new exhibit in the area as its at least an acre in size and features a massive crossing bridge. However, even it is flawed with it's strange location for a barn and overall lack of grass since the opening. The exhibit is still quite nice, but its heavily flawed and the previous wolf woods is much better for the animals and visitors.
Then there is Wild Encounters, a $6 million Childrens zoo that opened in 2015. I understand that as a Children's zoo, I understand that it won't be as grand as GBW or other complexes, but I still think it could have came out better. First off, having an additional price for entry is really unnecessary. I still think if your traveling for the zoo it's certainly worth it to get in, but they really couldn't find a better source of revenue? The exhibits it self was and is really simple. Goat feeding yard is exactly what you expect (Though admittedly better with a pen where goats can always go to when they don't want to be touched, and brushes available to the public for grooming). The parakeet aviary was designed strangely (Look at the gallery to see some other opinions) and I feel is slightly overcrowded. It apparently is one of the largest of its kind but seemed a little lackluster. The wallaby walkthrough is honestly the highlight of the area. It's large, grassy, aesthetically pleasing, not to much to say about it though. Then there is the three non contact exhibits, red pandas, reindeer and lamas and alpacas. The hoofstock have solid yards with gravel and a few trees, but the red panda exhibit is really weird. The food dispensing tree was a good idea in theory, but my oh my it is hideous. The exhibit it self is also on the small side.
So two solid exhibits, both of which are highly flawed. The neighboring Lincoln Park zoos new exhibits are much more thoughtfully designed.
Empty Exhibits:
This is a major issue that really makes the zoo look worn out. The abandon bear grottos and Baboon Island are hideous and stick out like a sour thumb. They are just massive globs of ugly that each cost a few million to knock down, which is why they still stand. They are stained rock messes that seemingly just sit there with no plans for the future and no historic listings even. Not to mention there are also empty buildings that scatter the grounds. The former aardvark building and reptile house remain empty also with no plans for the future. Plus, there are many empty yards in already existing exhibits. The pachyderm building has one rhino yard that never gets used along with at least 2 empty yards on the other side of the building. These old exhibits make the park seem sloppy and empty. There are plenty of things that could fill these spaces as well. Before any new exhibit areas are built, the zoo needs to focus on leveling these areas and replacing them with new animal attractions.
Loss of many Species:
While Brookfield has done some great work recently bringing in smaller lesser known species, many larger animals are gone. Elephants, hippos, walrus, Congo buffalo, warthogs and many others have left the collection. Admittedly, some for good reason, but why not at least make an attempt to bring some of these species back? It also bothers me that the zoo seems to be making a lot of filler exhibits that don't add new species, but rather take away old ones. For example, just a few weeks ago the warthogs and waterbuck were sent out. Their yard is fairly large in size, why not do a small renovation that adds a small water space and some logs and bring back sitatunga - a species crucial to the zoos history with over 500 births - along with maybe a small stork species? But no, instead the yard will not have a renovation but will simply hold some extra addax, yawn. This also happened in Habitat Africa! the Forest as when the buffalo left, instead of bringing in a rare forest creature like bongo or a primate, another yellow-backed duiker which already has an exhibit in the same area. Not all these filler exhibits are bad though, expanding the rhino exhibit into the former elephant yard is smart, because it's right next to the current yard and won't require much of a renovation. Plus it's more space for breeding and I can't envision any other species taking over that space.
Run Down Areas and Pathways:
Much of the zoo (Specifically pretty much every hoofstock yard in the place) looks worn down and tired. The hoofstock yards all have an effective but unsightly wooden fence and chain link surrounding the yards. Gerenuk, zebra, dik-dik, addax, camels and other all contain visible chain-link fencing that looks old and stained. There are also many pathways that are not paved and are merely dirt. This also ties into to the whole Empty Exhibit fiasco. Tropic World has probably taken the most damage as everything looks stained and fake, its just a really unpretty situation.
Well those are just my thoughts. Now what should the zoo do to get out of this funk? Well their going to need some money, but if I were running the show, I would spend the next year or to cleaning up some of the less attractive areas like the hooftsock yards. Then I would prepare a massive new undertaking for the zoo, a complete revamp of Tropic World. First add new outdoor exhibits for gorillas on the site of the old baboon island and reptile house, then maybe an Asian area with orangs and gibbons on the other side of the building. Then when visitors have the chance to see the apes outside, begin work on brand new exhibits in the main building. Add reptile and amphibian exhibits along the wall. Redesign the ape indoor exhibits. Add a true jungle essence to the building. There would need to be money, but it could certainly be done.
Well, thoughts?
