Kingdoms of Asia Conceptual Design

What old exhibit(s) will the new sloth bear exhibit will be on the footprint of? The tapir exhibit?

@DavidBrown That seems to be the case. The tigers are crossing over to a new yard taking over the old giraffe facility. (Personally I wish they'd move the Indian rhinos, using tapir or babirusa instead.)

@DavidBrown The sloth bear exhibit will encompass half of what is now the valley farm petting zoo and half of what was the old giraffe yard. from what I can tell from the map, the old tapir exhibit (currently barbirusa) will not be encompassed by Kingdoms of Asia.
Tiger Habitat A will cover the footprint of the current tiger exhibit, serval exhibit (previously 2nd tiger exhibit), and some of the space between the spur-thighed tortoise exhibit and the serval exhibit.

Tiger Habitat B will cover the footprint of the the current aoudad exhibit (old bear grotto) and the current spot-necked River otter exhibit.

@Wyman I too wish they would give the Indian Rhinos more space or replace them with tapirs. I would have designed it with the rhino exhibit extended over what will become the Komodo Dragon habitat and I would have put the komodo dragon exhibit where the entrance aviary is (and moved the birds to a new aviary that would be built where the current warthog exhibit is because the birds in that entrance aviary are primarily Australian birds so it would fit for them to be next to Kangaroo Walkabout). My guess is they don't want to deal with tearing down one side of the rhino enclosure for only a small increase in habitat space. Plus the majority of the public probably sees the current habitat as enough space so the zoo would rather add a new exhibit than to just increase the size of one.

I'm not sure why they wouldn't just put the sloth bear exhibit in the empty space perpendicular to the tigers, across from the Valley Farm (unless they want to get rid of the farm area). The footprint is certainly large enough for sloth bears as is without having to do any significant reconstruction or demolishing of other areas.

Also not sure why they committed to holding flying foxes but not exhibiting them...

@Coelacanth18 I don't think I'm exactly following where you are proposing the sloth bear exhibit should be, but I think their overall vision/masterplan is to update the entirety of the zoo with high-quality exhibits and to reorganize the zoo by continents. They have the funding to tackle the renovations in big chunks at a time, so it makes more sense to lay it out how they want even if it requires some significant reconstruction and demolishing. They are definitely planning out Kingdoms of Asia to highlight the Malayan tigers and the sloth bears so it doesn't surprise me that they are willing to dedicate so much space to them. The plans list the larger sloth bear exhibit as almost 13,000 square feet and if you add in the second habitat it adds up to a total of 16,000 sq ft!! To my understanding that is huge compared to many sloth bear exhibits and a primary factor for that is to set themselves up to facilitate breeding and to improve the bear's quality of life.
As for Valley Farm, it will shrink significantly during renovations, but I am fairly sure one of their smaller projects after Kingdoms of Asia will be constructing a new petting zoo over near the Dino Dig and Wilderness Falls as it seems that area is developing into a kid's zone. I know that if they continue to have the funds from Measure Z, the area of the zoo south of Kingdoms of Asia (rainforest/aviary, chacoan peccary exhibits, and the remaining half of valley farm) will be redeveloped into a South American section so any effort to avoid significant demolition/renovation now would be pointless because eventually it will all be renovated.

As for the flying foxes, they did not actually commit to holding them. They originally planned to exhibit them and the exhibit labeled "TBD" was previously labeled as flying foxes. Since then, however, they have talked about possibly switching to a totally different Asian species. You can see in the diagram a lighter green box behind "TBD" where they covered "flying fox". My guess is that the holding area labeled as "flying fox holding" was just not covered because it would obstruct the layout of the building diagram, but that it will be used for whatever species end up in that exhibit.

@ChaffeeZooFan Any idea why they are considering going with a different animal than flying foxes?

@Coelacanth18 Yeah, there has been some mention of a false gharial exhibit which as of now seems most likely. Some of the early plans included a muntjack exhibit so that could be a possibility as well.

@ChaffeeZooFan I mean, false gharials would be great... but there is a such thing as mixed species exhibits. Food for thought, Fresno!

@Coelacanth18

Yeah, you could always have a walk-through aviary with fruit bats and birds in the trees and false gharials in a body of water and shoreline area with underwater viewing. A little derivative of Bronx Zoo's Jungle World, perhaps, but I love Jungle World, so I wouldn't be opposed to Fresno Chaffee Zoo, which has become perhaps my favorite medium-sized zoo, having an outdoor equivalent of that. It would enhance the future Kingdoms of Asia experience I feel.

Since it was mentioned that the babirusa's current habitat (old Malayan tapir exhibit) will not be encompassed by this new development, any idea if they will be included in future additional Kingdoms of Asia plans, kind of like warthogs being a more recent addition to African Adventure?

@Anniella I won't say it's impossible for them to ever add the babirusa to the kingdoms of Asia plans later, but I think is it unlikely. Unlike African Adventure, there will not be a lot of unused space in Kingdoms of Asia and it is in the middle of the zoo so there wouldn't really be an easy place to build a new exhibit later. Perhaps the babirusa could later be put in one of the exhibits that they build, even if it wasn't originally built for the babirusa... perhaps a mixed species exhibit with the hornbill or as a replacement or another species down the road. As much as I want the babirusa to stay, my understanding is that they are not in the long term plans for the zoo.