No more bars and cages in zoos!: Houston Zoo starting work on $50 million African Forest | Breaking News | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle Moving away from the concept of bars and cages, the Houston Zoo in September will break ground for a $50 million African Forest, a 6.5-acre exhibit designed to give patrons the illusion they are strolling through an open landscape populated with chimpanzees, giraffes and other equatorial animals, zoo officials said Tuesday. The exhibit will open in December, 2010, and could eventually expand to 13 acres in size. Houston's African Forest will be a second- or third-generation manifestation of the “immersive landscape” concept in exhibit design. The style is notably characterized by a massive African gorilla exhibit that opened a decade ago at the Bronx Zoo.
Sounds exciting. Is the elephant exhibit included in that 6.5 acres? I ask that because of this line: "For the first time in years, the African Forest will return chimps and rhinos to the zoo. Two features of the project, an elephant barn and a quarantine facility, already have been built, Cannon said."
I believe that the elephant paddocks will total 3.8 acres, but that is still a huge amount and yet another example of the multi-acre pachyderm enclosures that are springing up everywhere in the United States.
Yes, that is a lot, however that only leaves 2.7 acres for rhinos, giraffes, chimps, whatever else they plan on putting in there, plus non animal space.
@mwebo8: great point, and that does leave a question mark in regards to the plans. Perhaps the elephant exhibit has been scaled back? Who knows?
I thought the elephant exhibit was going to be part of the McNair Elephant habitat as Asian elephants wouldn't fit to well in an African Forest exhibit. Probably an error on the author of the articles part.
The elephant exhibit is not part of the African Forest expansion. They hold Asian Elephants so that doesn't fit. What they are referring to is that there will be a big area for giraffes. The giraffes currently occupy a space that will become the remainder of the elephant exhibit. The first part will be for giraffes and chimps from the last I heard. The chimps and gorillas (when they eventually come in) will be in a rotational exhibit.
Here is an updated page on the upcoming African Forest at the Houston Zoo: About The African Forest - Houston Zoo It seems like it will be a pretty cool exhibit although December 2010 seems kind of short of time for an exhibit of this size and scope. Congo Gorilla Forest took a full three years of construction before it opened, yet this will only take 15 months.
Altough giraffes and white rhinos are not inhabitants of forests, I like the idea of new exhibits for them. I would try to mix the white rhinos with the giant eland or the eland with the giraffes. Giant elands are forest animals.
@Quartz: That would be very nice! @Zebraduiker: I think they are being inculded because they can be found in scrub savannah forest (Although I would think for the rhinos, they would use black rhino instead) Looks like a very promising exhibit and I can't wait to see pictures once it is complete
Yeah, the species selection is questionable. I like that a zoo is actually doing something new for giraffe's and rhino's since that seems rare, but don't care for the theme they're being included in.
The plans look fairly nice. From what I've seen of the area phase one looks like about 75% of the available area. Phase 2 I've heard will be something along the lines of Hippos and Gorillas (naturally not together).
Further phases of African Forest Not sure how it will progress, but there are many more animals planned to be added to African Forest. It's possible that they will just do 2 phases, or maybe more. The whole site is 13 acres. After the chimpanzees, rhinos, and giraffes - the following animals will be added. Gorillas (absent since the only Eastern Lowland gorilla died 5 years ago), hippos (w/underwater viewing), leopards, okapi, nile crocodile, colobus monkeys, and an aviary.
About The African Forest - Houston Zoo Revisiting the zoo's website, I have to say that the plans look very impressive. The first stage will open in exactly one year, and concentrating on 3 major exhibits (chimpanzees, giraffes and white rhinos/antelope) is an intelligent decision before the African forest potentially doubles in size with gorillas, leopards, hippos, etc, in the future. Here is a long list of donors for the ambitious project: Thank You to our Generous Donors! - Houston Zoo Texas Zoos have an exciting 2010, as with Houston's "African Forest", Dallas's "Giants of the Savannah" and Fort Worth's "MOLA" (reptile house) there are 3 hugely expensive, massive zoo complexes all opening in the same year. The San Antonio Zoo also has the $10 million "Africa Live! Phase 2" opening in spring of 2010.
