Denver Zoo Toyota Elephant Passage questions

tigris115

tigris115

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
I'm looking at exhibit complexes that house both Asian elephants and Indian rhinos and Totoya Elephant Pasaage stood out to me. I would like the following information

1. Overall size
2. Size of exhibit yards
3. Number of animals of each species
4. How successful breeding is

If I come up with anymore questions, I'll let you know. As well, I'd like to see a schematic plan of the exhibit itself. I know CLR designs has one but I can't find their blueprints in good quality for the life of me.
 
tigris115 said:
I'm looking at exhibit complexes that house both Asian elephants and Indian rhinos and Totoya Elephant Pasaage stood out to me. I would like the following information

1. Overall size
2. Size of exhibit yards
3. Number of animals of each species
4. How successful breeding is

If I come up with anymore questions, I'll let you know. As well, I'd like to see a schematic plan of the exhibit itself. I know CLR designs has one but I can't find their blueprints in good quality for the life of me.
Click to expand...
The construction documents for exhibits are not generally available to the public. They are contract documents and there are ownership rights issues
 
tigris115 said:
I'm looking at exhibit complexes that house both Asian elephants and Indian rhinos and Totoya Elephant Pasaage stood out to me. I would like the following information

1. Overall size
2. Size of exhibit yards
3. Number of animals of each species
4. How successful breeding is

If I come up with anymore questions, I'll let you know. As well, I'd like to see a schematic plan of the exhibit itself. I know CLR designs has one but I can't find their blueprints in good quality for the life of me.
Click to expand...
1. The complex as a whole is 10 acres according to the zoo.

2. There are five exhibit yards rotated between the elephants and rhinos which add up to roughly three acres.

3. The zoo currently holds 5.0 elephants and 1.2 rhinos.

4. Denver isn't a breeding facility for elephants, exclusively holding males in a bachelor herd. When it comes to the rhinos, a female calf was born in 2020 and is still at the zoo. That is the only breeding which has occurred here.
 
pachyderm pro said:
1. The complex as a whole is 10 acres according to the zoo.

2. There are five exhibit yards rotated between the elephants and rhinos which add up to roughly three acres.

3. The zoo currently holds 5.0 elephants and 1.2 rhinos.

4. Denver isn't a breeding facility for elephants, exclusively holding males in a bachelor herd. When it comes to the rhinos, a female calf was born in 2020 and is still at the zoo. That is the only breeding which has occurred here.
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Ok thx. So while I know that Denver is a bachelor pad for the elephants, could its design THEORETICALLY hold a breeding herd? Just wondering for a project I'm doing as this is an exhibit I wanna steal ideas from
 
This is a link to a paper with a full site plan of Toyota Elephant Passage, although you will have to run it through the Wayback Machine. RubleTrillions did an excellent job recreating it for his Tivoli Zoo series on YouTube if you're interested as well.
404 File Not Found - ASLA (run this through Wayback Machine)
 
tigris115 said:
Just wondering for a project I'm doing as this is an exhibit I wanna steal ideas from
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Let me guess, another Bronx Zoo fantasy plan in the works? :p

Hypothetically it should be able to accommodate breeding, although it was specifically built as a bachelor facility. The only females ever housed in the exhibit were two geriatric females that moved from the zoos pachyderm house when the exhibit first opened.
 
pachyderm pro said:
Let me guess, another Bronx Zoo fantasy plan in the works? :p

Hypothetically it should be able to accommodate breeding, although it was specifically built as a bachelor facility. The only females ever housed in the exhibit were two geriatric females that moved from the zoos pachyderm house when the exhibit first opened.
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Oh how ever did you guess:rolleyes:?

OK, for real, my idea is to have a big complex for both Asian elephants and rhinos. The things I want are
1. Capable of breeding both elephants and rhinos
2. Decent space
3. Nice indoor area for winter

So I'm looking for various zoo enclosures to steal from. Also, this is kinda fun for me.
 
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PSO said:
It would just need heavy branches for perching and a nesting area for the elephant calves :p
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You jest, bur Gerald Durrell highlighted this exact quip in "The Stationary Ark" referring to the infamous Casson Pavilion...
 
In truth the most impressive one currently (in the U.S.) is OKC. With the expansion into the old hoofstock area should put the total amount of pachyderm space to nearly 10 acres.
If I'm not mistaken Denvers yard not only are occupied by the elephants and rhino but tapir as well.
OKC has bred both species in the habits as well and also STILL has room to expand that exhibit by another 2 or 3 acres.
And further more Tulsa here shortly will actually massivley eclipse OKC for amount of pachyderm space, both indoor and outdoor with intentions of adding GOHs in the future
 
PSO said:
If I'm not mistaken Denvers yard not only are occupied by the elephants and rhino but tapir as well.
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That is correct, I just didn’t mention them as our thread starter only asked about the elephants and rhinos. There is also a sixth yard just outside of the main complex exclusively used for the tapirs.
PSO said:
And further more Tulsa here shortly will actually massivley eclipse OKC for amount of pachyderm space, both indoor and outdoor with intentions of adding GOHs in the future
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I am very much looking forward to seeing what Tulsa is putting together with their upcoming elephant complex. Didn’t realize there were plans to add rhinos as well which is very nice to hear. The OKC elephant exhibits are enormous for sure, but the yards are essentially just large open pastures. All of that space is great, I just wished they filled it a bit more with additional enrichment devices and what not. I do worry the exhibit at Tulsa will end up the same way based on the renderings, but even so it will still likely be extremely impressive.

The only Asian elephant exhibit I’ve seen that’s truly resembled a rainforest environment is Saint Louis. The yards aren’t nearly as large as OKC or even Denver, but are visually stunning and allow guests to get extremely close.
 
St. Louis would be really good since its exhibit space follows the William Conway way of thinking (good immersion with the landscape). Only thing I'd add is a winter house so that you can chill with the elephants in the event of crappy weather
 
So Denver doesn't actually rotate the tapir through the other pachy yards?
"Enrichment devices" are more for the public than the animals themselves. Having worked with both species for nearly a decade and half I've dealt with this personally.

Lol however, long story short, a colleague and I had a great discussion about OKCs great ape token enrichment ....we were both very intrigued
 
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Speaking of rotating, is there any literature on what benefits it has for the animals?
 
tigris115 said:
Speaking of rotating, is there any literature on what benefits it has for the animals?
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Different enclosures, different spaces; new experiences for them.

Sometimes species can get bored in a single enclosure, so moving them through multiple is enriching for them.
 
tigris115 said:
Speaking of rotating, is there any literature on what benefits it has for the animals?
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There are several published articles claiming all sorts of benefits but as far as I can tell they benefits (such as enrichment) are aspirational. I know of no research confirming benefits or evaluating these exhibits
Some work has been done on giving animals choice in where they go, but that is very different from what we usually consider rotation exhibits
Still, there is this:
Gorilla behavior in response to systematic alternation between zoo enclosures - ScienceDirect
 
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