What excitement is ahead in the zoo world for 2015?

DavidBrown

DavidBrown

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
We aren't at the end of 2014 yet as I write this, but it's rapidly approaching.

What new interesting, exciting, or innovative exhibits lie ahead for zoos and aquariums around the world in 2015 (and beyond)?

Is any zoo building something spectacular that isn't on our radar?

Are there any plans to display new species or old favorites in innovative ways?

On my radar is the massive new Africa exhibit at the Fresno Zoo in California that will have an African elephant herd, a multi-species savanna with rhinos, giraffes, and antelope, and new lion and cheetah exhibits.

Chester Zoo proceeds with its massive Islands complex.
 
As David briefly alluded to, the Islands complex at Chester will be the biggie for the UK and is one I'm personally looking forward to. I'm also intrigued as to what Wild Place can pull out of the bag, the site has a lot of potential and the initial plans were epic so here's hoping they can make steady progress over the next year or so.
 
i'm looking forward to the new Africa exhibit at Fresno Chaffee. i'm hoping to be there at the opening.

i'm also hoping for the building of the tiger exhibit phoenix zoo has been promising for the past two years.
 
The new penguin exhibit is suppose to open at the Detroit zoo in 2015. Also, Woodland Park's new sloth bear and tiger exhibits could help round out their Asian zone of the zoo quite well. Perhaps the largest single exhibit that is suppose to open in the US might be Elephant Lands at the Oregon zoo. It will be interesting to see if this exhibit can help pull around the current media portrayal that is looming over the zoo.
 
Zoorasia will be opening their African savanna section in April 2015 and will become the largest (in area) in Japan.

There will be a mixed exhibit of cheetahs, elands, giraffes and zebras.
 
JBZvolunteer said:
The new penguin exhibit is suppose to open at the Detroit zoo in 2015. Also, Woodland Park's new sloth bear and tiger exhibits could help round out their Asian zone of the zoo quite well. Perhaps the largest single exhibit that is suppose to open in the US might be Elephant Lands at the Oregon zoo. It will be interesting to see if this exhibit can help pull around the current media portrayal that is looming over the zoo.
Click to expand...

Has Oregon Zoo been having lots of problems lately?
 
elefante said:
Has Oregon Zoo been having lots of problems lately?
Click to expand...

I've seen some people advocate for their elephants to be released into a sanctuary, specifically with a focus on Packy. But I have no idea why that elephant gets more attention than the others, or why this specific zoo is the subject of a specific campaign.
 
I too am looking forward to Houston's new Gorilla exhibit. I may check out the progress tomorrow.
 
I consider Akron and CMZ my home zoos considering I'm between both. So Im really looking forward to Cleveland's 10 year master plan since it started this year and Ive been wanting to see improvements for a long time now. Also Akron apparently has 25 acres to expand on, but has no current plans, but I really wanna see where those acres are, It being neighborhood locked, and what might be added to our small zoo. ;)
 
TheMightyOrca said:
I've seen some people advocate for their elephants to be released into a sanctuary, specifically with a focus on Packy. But I have no idea why that elephant gets more attention than the others, or why this specific zoo is the subject of a specific campaign.
Click to expand...

The whole matter started with the abuse of the elephant Rose-Tu about 15 years ago (the handler involved was fired and received a sentence for animal abuse), which awakened anti-zoo people. Following campaings they seemed to genuinely think they were about to win this battle: no more elephants in Oregon. Instead Oregon decided to built a completely new complex, which based on what I've heard will be state of the art. I suspect what can be seen in Oregon (Toronto, etc) is only the beginning and similar can be expecteded in every single future elephant complex built by a zoo in North America, especially if it is outside subtropical regions (California, the Gulf States, etc).
 
jbnbsn99 said:
I too am looking forward to Houston's new Gorilla exhibit. I may check out the progress tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Note: I did indeed visit Houston yesterday. A year out, it is already the lushest gorilla exhibit I've seen, and there is still major construction going on.
 
temp said:
The whole matter started with the abuse of the elephant Rose-Tu about 15 years ago (the handler involved was fired and received a sentence for animal abuse), which awakened anti-zoo people. Following campaings they seemed to genuinely think they were about to win this battle: no more elephants in Oregon. Instead Oregon decided to built a completely new complex, which based on what I've heard will be state of the art. I suspect what can be seen in Oregon (Toronto, etc) is only the beginning and similar can be expecteded in every single future elephant complex built by a zoo in North America, especially if it is outside subtropical regions (California, the Gulf States, etc).
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of elephant captivity, (though for a number of reasons, I don't want to see it phased out, at least not for a while) but I won't lie, the new exhibit looks pretty great. The new elephant exhibits being built look great, lots of thought and effort put into them, especially with focus on combating a lot of the problems that captive elephants commonly face. The Dallas Zoo elephant exhibit is a more recent one and it looks pretty fantastic. It still seems weird to me that people would target this one specific zoo, rather than either going after elephant captivity altogether or going after lower quality facilities/venues. I'm not generally one to tell people "You should care about this instead of that!", but it doesn't really make a lot of sense to go after this specific zoo. It's not particularly prominent or important, so it's not like the victory would be symbolic or have some kind of big impact. The new facility looks like it will be pretty good, so it's not like the elephants have it bad.
 
I'm very much looking forward to the completion and 2015 opening of our new Jaguar habitat here in Los Angeles. After viewing the construction site with David Brown, just a couple of weeks ago, we were impressed with its size. And during construction of the Rainforest of the Americas section, it was almost dropped from the plans.
 
jbnbsn99 said:
Note: I did indeed visit Houston yesterday. A year out, it is already the lushest gorilla exhibit I've seen, and there is still major construction going on.
Click to expand...

I'll be going in December, so I'll check it out then. I really can't wait until the gorillas come, though. I hope I can see them soon enough.
 
Birmingham plans to integrate Bull Elephants, Rhino, Giraffe, Hippo, Zebra, Ostrich, and Gazelle together in various combinations by the end of 2015.
 
Zoo Parc Overloon in the Netherlands has planned to constuct a new walk-through area for Penguins and Ibisses in 2015.
Also some new species which they have planned to start to keep during 2015 :
Bush dog
Striped hyena
Snow leopard
 
Wild Encounters at Brookfield and Regenstein Macaque Forest at Lincoln Park. I don't imagine either is too impressive from a national standpoint but that's what Chicago's up to.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top