Franklin Park Zoo Tropical Forest & Gorilla exhibits

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okapikpr

Well-Known Member
A link to a plan of the zoo's Tropical Forest Building and Gorilla exhibits.

Franklin Park Zoo

In the early 1970s, the zoo had this new plan for the zoo that involved various domed environments with enclosures projecting from the buildings....kinda of a H Doorly's Lied Jungle meets Milwaukee's Hoofstock/Pachyderm/Carnivore complex. Only the tropical forest building was built after a decade of construction (1978-89), inadequate funding, and politics.

What was supposed to cost $24 million for 4 domed environments...ended in $26 million for the Tropical Forest building and some other smaller improvements.
 
The building, which started out displaying only tropical african species, has since taken on some South American species as well. Lowland Gorillas are the main attraction but other african species include ringtail lemurs, african pygmy falcons, a pygmy hippo and a ruppells griffon vulture co habitating, pottos, saddle bill and yellow bill storks, warthogs (one of the oldest in the country), african mud turtles, madagascar tree boa, straw colored bats, mandrill, w african dwarf crocs and numerous free flying birds. They also have hunting dogs in an outside exhibit which will be the new bachelor gorilla exhibit. South American species include bairds tapir (whose outside exhibit will be the new hunting dog exhibit), capybara, brazilian ocelot, cotton top tamarin and red eye tree frogs. Tropical Forest also houses silvery crowned hornbill and a snake exhibit with green anacondas, tentacled snakes and rhino rat snakes. I was also told that the hunting dogs could be replaced by hyenas because they had a lone female and did not know whether they would receive more.
 
Wow, very ambitious. While I normally am the supreme dictator of zoogeographic exhibits, a rainforest exhibit with animals from multiple continents does sound exciting!
 
I would have to agree. Although they have had success with breeding and husbandry with most of the species i previously mentioned and with the exception of the new indoor gorilla exhibit, the rest of the building needs renovations. I would like to see them level the building and due something new but I know the money is not there to do that. I grew up visiting Franklin Park Zoo which is 76 acres but feels likes its 10 because all the exhibits are spaced out and seems like a waste of land. Going to zoos like Pittsburgh and Cincy shows that you can have world class zoo with that amount of space. Hopefully the new masterplan will improve on these issues.
 
Does anyone know what the original African inhabitants of the Franklin Park Zoos Rainforest were? Were there different African Speicies than what are currently displayed ?

Team Tapir
 
team tapir said:
Does anyone know what the original African inhabitants of the Franklin Park Zoos Rainforest were? Were there different African Speicies than what are currently displayed ?

Team Tapir
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I remember forest buffalos, bongos, pottos and duikers back before the African theme was abandoned
 
I know I am late and people probably don't care anymore, but the TF was originally supposed to have african elephants instead of gorillas, but they got gorillas because gorillas are cheaper. When I learned about that I thought it was very interesting.
 
ZooElephantsMan said:
I know I am late and people probably don't care anymore, but the TF was originally supposed to have african elephants instead of gorillas, but they got gorillas because gorillas are cheaper. When I learned about that I thought it was very interesting.
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I was looking for where I heard this from and found it was your post, ZooElephantsMan. Do you know anything specific about when the decision was made to abandon plans for elephants at Franklin Park Zoo?
 
Many years ago, they had a masterplan for the zoo that involved having many domed buildings just like the TF, with underground passages connecting them. This way the zoo would be great in the winter weather when many animals cant go outside. The guests could experience the entire zoo indoors. Each of these buildings were to be themed like a particular african biome. There would be a rainforest dome, savannah dome, desert dome, etc. Some were two or three times as large as the TF. They also all had exhibits that gave the animals the option to be outdoors in warm weather, and so during the summer, guests would be able to watch the animals outdoors, or indoors. This was all after most of the buildings in the zoo had been knocked down, or abandoned (this includes the old bear cages and old elephant house). The zoo at some point was also cut in half- If you look on google maps, the baseball field to the west of the zoo was once part of the zoo grounds. Ultimately, when construction on this new masterplan began, they realized this was going to be far too expensive, and so they decided to build only one new building, which was the TF. At some point in this process, the elephants were replaced with gorillas, which is probably for 1 of 2 reasons. First, gorillas are much cheaper than elephants, and this fits with the theme of them being low on $. Second, there were already gorillas at stone zoo, in a bad exhibit, and so those gorillas could just be moved to franklin park.

Today, it seems unlikely that Franklin Park Zoo will get elephants ever in the future. The zoo staff claim that they do not have enough space in the park, even though the zoo is more than 70 acres, and most of the land is unused. I think the real reason why they cant is because of the money. The most likely new big animal to be added to the zoo is probably southern white rhinos. The giraffe savannah exhibit was originally meant to include giraffes, zebras, and rhinos, but rhinos were cut last minute. The exhibit has a strong enough fence for the rhinos, and is large enough for them, they just need to build the barn. It would be a great addition, since rhinos can withstand colder weather than giraffes, and so that part of the zoo would be much less empty for more of the year.

The zoo is not doing too well financially, and really struggles with having a lot of empty space, and not as many animals, in my opinion. If you look at the original plans for their new children's zoo, nature's neighborhoods, and the final result of the construction, you can see what I mean. The next big construction project is a new entrance, and after that is some big waterhole exhibit, so we will see how those turn out. On the upside, they are growing (slowly), and are raising money faster than ever before. The zoos struggle materials-wise, and financially, but overall have a wonderful and very very dedicated staff and volunteers.

Here is a link to an article about the zoo's old masterplan with all the domes: FROM A to ZOO
 
Are there any plans for an outdoor habitat for gorillas? That should be the zoo's number on priority in my opinion.
 
Back when little joe escaped there were plans to revamp the indoor exhibit and completely redo the outdoor exhibit, but only the indoor exhibit was redone, since they ran out of money once again. For now, those plans have been put to the side. I am sure that eventually, something will be done. I go to this zoo a lot, and each time spend hours in the TF, and I do not think that the gorillas are suffering from not being able to go outside. The young ones are always playing, and socializing, and I notice a lot of positive behavior among them all. They act like how they should act, and they are very creative. Some of the females are learning from the mom, Kiki, about raising a baby, and I see baby Azize climbing on their backs a lot instead of on Kiki's. Just days ago, I saw one of the adolescent girls playing with Okie, one of the silverbacks. They were fighting over a bunch of blankets, and when one of them had more blankets, they kept showing off. This is good behavior for gorillas, and I do not worry about their social lives or mental well being at all.
 
I am planing to visit Franklin Park Zoo next month. Are the white-crested hornbills and pottos still on exhibit in the rainforest building?
 
DavidBrown said:
The pottos were still there when I visited in July 2016, and they are still listed on the website. Don't know about the hornbills, but they aren't listed on the zoo's species list.
Zoo New England
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Thank you! I saw that the hornbills aren't listed on the website. I know that the zoo still has 2 males, but am afraid that they were taken off exhibit
 
The Zoo absolutely still has pottos but I am pretty sure the hornbills were taken off exhibit. If I recall correctly, there is a mixed exhibit for a sloth and multiple species of tamarins where the hornbills once were
 
I know that this is an older thread but I just want to bring it back to life a bit so I’m wondering how everyone thinks about clouded leopards coming to the tropical forest and also the newish outdoor gorilla exhibit! Also just wondering but is Little Joe who is one of the zoos resident silverback gorillas breeding viable?
 
Zoo-Lover-1-2-3 said:
Also just wondering but is Little Joe who is one of the zoos resident silverback gorillas breeding viable?
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There is no good reason to place Little Joe in a breeding situation. Little Joe's sire, Kongo, was a prolific breeder at the Bronx Zoo, so Little Joe has many full- and half- siblings, many of whom have had kids of their own:
  • Koga (deceased): half-sibling, 3 offspring
  • Tusa (Cleveland): half-sibling
  • Holli (Houston): half-sibling, 2 offspring
  • Tunko (Bronx): half-sibling, 2 offspring
  • Honi (Philadelphia): half-sibling, 2 offspring
  • Tommy (Sedgwick County): half-sibling
  • Billy (Sedgwick County): half-sibling
  • Pattycake (deceased): half-sibling, 7 offspring
  • Imani (deceased): full-sibling, 2 offspring
With six living half-siblings, and eighteen living nieces/nephews, needless to say Little Joe has no shortage of relatives in the population. Furthermore, this isn't even considering that some of these nieces/nephews have offspring of their own, more distant relatives, or his maternal relatives. Little Joe's mother, Triska, is still alive at the Bronx Zoo, and Little Joe has three additional living half-siblings on his maternal side, at least one of which has children of her own.

Given these genetics, Franklin Park has historically used Kitombe as their breeding male, as Kitombe is far less over-represented than Little Joe is. That said, female gorillas, such as Kiki, typically go into senescence around the age of 40, so it is highly unlikely that Franklin Park Zoo has any additional gorilla births in the near future unless more females are acquired to breed with Kitombe, or a new silverback is brought in to breed with Kambiri and Azizi (both of which are nearing reproductive age and are genetically somewhat valuable).
 
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