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snowleopard

Brookfield Zoo - African elephants

July 2008.

Brookfield Zoo - African elephants
snowleopard, 3 Aug 2008
JOSEPH E KOSIEK likes this.
    • snowleopard
      July 2008.
    • BlackRhino
      Very Average Elephant exhibit, but will be amazing in several years as will the new rhino exhibit. The rhino exhibit though is pretty nice for the rhinos already.
    • snowleopard
      The Pachyderm House opened around 1934 and I'm not sure that there have been that many changes since then. However, like most of this zoo, the elephants will have a new home in a few more years.
    • BlackRhino
      The elephant yard here is less than a quarter of an acre and is far too small, however I do like the enrichment tree in the middle of the yard as it is great for putting browse for the elephants to forage in. The planned Elephant Trails sounds fantastic as they will have 5 acres worth of habitats.
    • snowleopard
      @BlackRhino: I agree that the upcoming elephant habitat will be much larger and more modern than the current outdated paddock. It will soon be difficult for us to rank all of the elephant exhibits in North American zoos, because in a few years from now there will be something like 15 elephant enclosures that are 3 acres or larger! It will probably come down to the number of elephants in each exhibit and the enrichment items for the pachyderms. I still love the idea of the Denver Zoo's Asian Tropics rotational yards, but the weather in Colorado is terrible in the winter and so the indian rhinos, malayan tapirs and Asian elephants might spend a lot of time indoors.
    • BlackRhino
      I don't think the weather in Denver is too terrible. I have heard they have mild winters, and when I went to Denver last winter it was like 60 degrees! It should be a great exhibit.

      To be honest the elephant exhibit I am most excited about it the Elephant Odyssey in San Diego. Even though the exhibit will be 2.5 acres it is being designed to keep the elephants active with the browse trees which is probably the most important thing more so then space. The more active an elephant is the healthier it is. The other really exciting one is the aforementioned Denver.
    • Animaldude
      Affie and Christy, the zoo's 2 elephant cows
    • snowleopard
      With all of the elephant deaths in 2009, combined with this outdated paddock that is now totally inappropriate for the world's largest land mammal...wouldn't it be an interesting idea if the Brookfield Zoo sent their only elephant (Joyce) away and expanded the black rhino yard into a world-class enclosure? Then the zoo could TEMPORARILY have zero elephants until the funding was provided for the multi-acre elephant exhibit that has been proposed. Elephants could be brought back to the zoo once a new, shiny set of paddocks were built.:)
    • BlackRhino
      You do know this exhibit was expanded to be 70% larger making it roughly 16,000 square feet. I think that is more than sufficient for a short term exhibit before the new world-class one is constructed. Besides the new elephant exhibit wont be opening until at the earliest 2013 meaning Brookfield Zoo wouldn't have elephants for 4 years at the very least. More likely 5 or 6. Here at the Cleveland Zoo we have not had elephants for 15 months and we still have another 18 months before they return. Not having the elephants is a major blow to a zoo in my opinion, and no zoo should be without them.
    • redpanda
      Sorry to bring up an old topic, but how on earth is a third of an acre big enough for such large and far-roaming animals as African Elephants - even WAZA recommends at least three quarters of an acre - and how in the universe is it acceptable to maintain a single female when she could easily be sent off to the dreaded sanctuary. Sometimes I can really see PETA's point.
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