Layout of proposed Savannah, April 2016

From the zoo's display board.

I am a bit concerned that a) the current Mandrill enclosure is not labelled (is this ominous?), and b) that the fence I lean on to watch them appears to be inaccessible. There is a new path between what is now the Mandrill House and the Maned Wolves.

Looking at these plans leaves me extremely underwhelmed, quite a cut in species and nothing that looks amazing. No primates, no new carnivores, in fact the only thing that looks new is the aardvarks. And I love the fact that the Barbary sheep enclosure is still labeled but now houses more tur than sheep...

And I notice that it says elephant rather than elephants, it does seem to imply Duchess will be the last of her kind there! Thanks for posting Gigit.

Underwhelming indeed. I imagine the White Rhino won't arrive until Duchess has gone to the great paddock in the sky as they'll need her half of the house to live in. I'm not sure that the zebras are good mixers so they might end up in the off-show area, leaving the giraffes and Duchess filling the space like they do now.

The one remaining Barbary Sheep probably won't live to see the changes. Hopefully they'll be able to get a new male Tur and increase their numbers. I like the idea of the Takin being in a more interesting enclosure opposite them, but that could have been done without building a new Savannah.

Several other taxa are also listed in the singular, so I'm not sure you can read anything into that (although I also doubt she'll be replaced).

Has there been any word on how much it'll cost? With no major developments since 2008 and the apparent failure of the baboon campaign, I'll believe it when I see it.

Having said that, the immersive approach is intriguing; possibly an indication of Chester's influence on the UK zoo scene? I'm not sure how well it'll fit the character of that area, though.

Paignton Zoo reveals £2.3m plan for African-style savannah area | Torquay Herald Express

From the plan it seems that Duchess will be sharing the paddock with the giraffes and zebras, would that be a good idea given her advancing age? I thought elderly elephants weren't very responsive to major changes?

And I always thought the zebras were anti-social, hence the reason they'd never been mixed with the lechwe. Hopefully there will be an alternative way to view them if they aren't mixed.

I agree with all of this, a male tur would be fantastic and the takins getting an upgraded (and more suitable!) enclosure can only be good news.

A lot to think about here, although I agree that there are not many major changes.
I hope the mandrills stay - perhaps the outdoor area will be reconstructed (it is rather ramshackle now). On the other hand, the maned wolves look like odd-men out. The two walk-through aviaries intrigue me: the new Upper Aviary could hold large birds, perhaps ibis and the like, while the Lower Aviary might have ducks, softbills and weaver-birds (rather like the Tsavo Aviary at Chester) - but I can't imagine the ground hornbills in a walk-through.
The area marked seems very large for just meerkats and aardvarks, I know they have been kept together at Regent's Park, but Chester eventually separated them. Incidentally I hope the anoa can be found a new home in a wooded area of the zoo, but I'm not sure where the tapirs could go. I would guess that moving them would have to be the first step in implementing these plans.
It seems that the zebras will mix with the giraffes (and white rhinos eventually) unless some sort of barrier is created in the dry river bed, which would seem to miss the point of constructing it in the first place. I wonder if common zebras would be more suitable than the Hartmann's: perhaps there might be an exchange.

Common Zebra are certainly better mixers- Hartmann's are very antisocial creatures and I don't know how often they have been mixed successfully with other species- or what, in other zoos. Marwell mixed theirs with Gemsbok a long while ago but nowadays they always seem to be on their own.

Thanks for posting, why maned wolves?

Because they are already in that enclosure, and it seems that no change is planned - hence my comment that they are odd, as the only non-African species in the area (apart from the semi-natural badgers in their sett).

Alan