Elephant Crossing - Asian Elephant Exhibit

Aug. 16th, 2012.

This would probabaly be a good yard for rhinos or tapirs when the elephants leave.

Since the Asian Elephants were sent away this area has been a Greater One-Horned Rhino exhibit. Beginning in 2018 the exhibit will be dramatically renovated to house 4 Giant Pandas (1.1.2 from Toronto Zoo) and then somewhat remarkably the exhibit will be home to orangutans beginning in 2023 as the pandas are only temporary. From elephants to rhinos is not much of a leap but to then showcase bears and great apes is a little more of a stretch. I'll be intrigued to see how the space is transformed over the years.

Does that mean that Calgary will no longer have rhinos either, or are they building a new rhino exhibit also?

I was wondering the same thing, but there is a side exhibit that houses Bactrian Camels and that could feasibly be re-purposed for rhinos. My guess is that will be the plan as the rhinos have only been at the zoo a couple of years. Also, Komodo Dragons have fairly recently been added (2014) inside the old elephant house. This part of the zoo has certainly undergone a lot of changes in recent years, with pandas and orangutans to come in the future!

Here is a photo that shows the old elephant exhibit on the left (now for rhinos) and the camel enclosure on the right:

http://www.zoochat.com/525/elephant-crossing-288056/

There are two male pandas (adult male Da Mao and cub Jia Panpan) and two female pandas (adult female Er Shun and cub Jia Yueyue).

I think the rhino was only brought in as a place holder until the pandas arrived. If they planned on keeping him I think they would have brought in a female for breeding by now seeing as he is an unrepresented import. Odds are this is probably his last summer at the zoo. They will need next summer to do the massive renos before the pandas arrive in 2018 and it's very likely the pandas will be arriving as early into that new year as possible. Er Shun should be ready to breed by then so they would want her settled and comfortable by spring when breeding season kicks off. Toronto wanted to do that their first year but a later than expected arrival torpedoed those hopes. If Calgary starts the first year they have a good shot at two pregnancies.