Just letting y'all know what's going on at the Audubon Zoo, my home zoo! Construction for the new elephant barn for our two females (Panya and Jean) is complete; however, their exhibit is still being worked on. No time frame has been given for its completion. Construction for the new orangutan exhibit (located where the old elephant exhibit was) is nearly finished; rumor has it that they're *shooting for* the orangutans on exhibit by Labor Day. Don't take my word for it. A new frogs exhibit has opened in the former EarthLab. A new petting zoo, called "Watoto Walk" has opened across from the giraffe exhibit; behind the petting zoo is a 3-story high ropes course (for an additional fee, of course). The Cool Zoo opened a new lazy river called Gator Run; an emu has been put back on exhibit now that the construction is competed and can be seen from the lazy river (as well as the main path). A new education trail has opened up in place of the former Discovery Walk; this new southeast Asia-themed "Bambu Village" will be the exit to the new Asian Domain section once the construction on the elephant and orangutan exhibits are completed. Right now, this trail features 1.1 sulfur-crested cockatoos, 0.2 Burmese mountain tortoise, along with other educational components ("building blocks" for kids, an Asian garden, an animal encounter with staff holding various small Southeast Asian animals, and an elephant cart with different biofacts interpreted by staff.) Future additions to this section will include a bug eating cart, a puppet show involving southeast Asian animals, new education species (Chinese water dragon, tokay gecko, and cobalt blue tarantula. They come out of quarantine tomorrow!) and possibly new exhibit species (rumor has it they're hoping for a chevrotain... they also want several more birds but are unable to get any due to avian flu at the moment). If you have any questions about the zoo, just ask and I'll do my best to find an answer for you!
Just found out today we have new Wolf's Guenons - I don't know what they replaced (if they replaced anything). I'll have to go check it out when I'm there on Friday. We also have a new female African Wild Dog, and they hope to breed her with our male. Personally, I think 2 individuals is too small of a group for this species, so hopefully we get more if that's possible. By the way, I notice this thread doesn't show up when you click on "Audubon Zoo". Could someone with the know-how please put it there or tell me how to do it? I know it's not a very popular zoo on here but it's the only one I go to on a regular basis so I'm happy to keep people updated on what's going on.
Orangutan Info: Audubon's orangutans get spacious new exhibit - FOX 8 WVUE New Orleans News, Weather, Sports, Social
