@Van Beal, good to know about the tree frogs. I had heard they were gone but I dont get to visit so probably was gone from where they were expected to be and the person didnt find them where they were now. Not the species I need to keep but one more in the kept category. Update my list complete.
With regards the the Sumatran tigers possible phase out Im in your camp. I dont get it. Thats a lot of money to spend on a very specialized exhibit for a species that could be gone at any point given Hari and Kemala's ages. I mean you could bring in sloth bears. Or put a top on the exhibit and let the gibbons outside but then why not just have included them in the orang exhibit and mix the species? Im perplexed by the idea of phasing them out. If you said the Amurs I would first off be mad because I prefer them and they are a day one species, but at least you could put Amur leopards in the exhibit, bring back pandas, still do sloth bears, move the snow leopards (why I dont know), but there are more options. The Sumatrans staying also makes more sense because the long term plan was to give them the Indian Rhino space. What are we to do with that space in their absence? You need more than just Orangs and gibbons to anchor the area. This one is puzzling.
The tur know what they did...Lol. Im sick of the zoo wasting time and resources on them. First off no one wants them. They are not an SSP species. We have no one that has wanted to take them until those three boys went to Winnipeg this year. If we cant transfer out our young why do we keep breeding? Just for cute babies every year? No thanks. Because the zoo doesnt need the babies they have taken a hands off approach to them. If they live they live and if the die the die, especially boys who arent really wanted or needed. I was at the zoo before the pandemic and arrived at the exhibit moments after a male kid was born. His mom rejected him instantly (an all too common thing with our tur). The keepers were there trying to get her to come over, checking him out, getting him on his feet. They said he likely wouldnt make it if she didnt take him back because they would just let nature take its course. They moved him under the mountain near a mom who had babies the day before in hopes she might take a third. She didnt and I found out from someone else a few days later he didnt make it through the next day. If you are not going to step up and care for every life you allow to be created in captivity my personal opinion is then dont create it. They didnt chose to be born. We as humans allowed it and we should value that life. Maybe he wouldnt have made it if they intervened, but at least he would have been given a fighting chance. And this incident isnt the only one I know of where they just didnt try. Furthermore because we have no one to trade the kids with and havent for a long, long time, do the math. We have been inbreeding for some time. This above all else ticks me off. We dont need to be inbreeding. We arent contributing to an SSP, or the population which I admit is endangered and if we were doing something to help I would stop complaining. We are not. I want them phases out ASAP. Transfer the whole herd to anywhere else. Heck pay for their upkeep there. Get rid of them and bring in something we can do good with. Give me takin or markhor. The tur are just stopping me from getting what I want. Oh the tur definitely know what they are doing to tick me off. Lol.
At this point guys remember the master plan is getting older. We wont see everything in it. I wouldnt be surprised if the last major project we see from it directly is the savanna pavilion. Im sure lots of other smaller projects like red pandas will happen but those easier to achieve than the major projects like the pavilion and the entrance, heck the orang outdoor. If you think about it we are still a year out from the Conservation Campus phase ones completion. They might be ready sometime in the summer of 2026. Progress seems to be major right now but winter can always play a massive factor one way or the other. I do think 2026 sometime is reasonable. Then given the new savanna barn being recently completed I think the zoo will be ready to break ground 2027 on the savanna pavilion which probably is a 2 year project opening 2028 or 2029. I believe the savanna barn was built with the purpose of moving as many species as they can to it during the construction because their barns will have to go. The exhibits will largely say intact. The zebra, eland, ostriches, maybe the kudu and other birds will go here. The kudu might go to the hippo barn or the giraffe barn or maybe the domain. The white rhinos will go to the Indian rhino exhibit as its the only rhino proof exhibit other than their own. Kifaru should be gone by then so it could easily house Tom, Sabi and Zohari as its held three full grown rhinos before. Babirusa Olive I would guess will join the gibbons or retire off display. What was my point? Right by 2029 the zoo will need a new master plan as this one will be about 10 years old. We might get one other big project but Im not sure what it will be. Probably the temple based on the phase out pattern there but wouldnt rule out the relocation of the Domain. For now though I think the last major project we will see is the savanna pavilion, maybe 4-6 medium projects like the red pandas and both tiger exhibits now done, and countless little to tiny projects like murals, better climbing structures, fencing, the on going bathroom upgrades, ect.
