The Rainforest of the Americas site plan

Legend:
1 - River\'s Edge Entry Plaza
2 - Stilt House & Aquaria
3 - Harpy Eagle
4 - Giant River Otter
5 - Bamboo Thicket
6 - Baird\'s Tapir and Cotton-top Tamarin
7 - Village Plaza
8 - Agouti, Curassow and Howler Monkey
9 - Uakari
10 - Oropendola
11 - Support Facilities/Holding
12 - Strangler Fig
13 - Toucan
14 - Rainforest Harvesting
15 - Rainforest Marketplace

Well, Los Angeles has the worst jaguar exhibit in the AZA (or perhaps tied with Albuquerque) and I see they have no plans to remedy the situation. Not only does this new exhibit lack any cat exhibits (jaguar, ocelot, etc), it lacks any mammalian carnivore whatsoever (maned wolf, bush dog, etc). Translation - there is no reason for me to ever return to the Los Angeles Zoo.

While I agree that it certainly is a shame that there is not new jaguar exhibit included in this plan, I would like to point out that the giant otter IS in fact a mammalian carnivore.

Yeah, finally some real information about the exhibit. Thanks for posting. Is this sign posted on the construction site?

A great giant otter exhibit will be a terrific thing if they can pull it off. I wonder what will be in the aquaria? Piranhas or other Amazon fish?

It is disappointing that the jaguar exhibit was not included. The current jaguar exhibit isn't great by any means, but is it really any worse than several of the cat exhibits at the San Diego Zoo? It doesn't seem much smaller than even the new jaguar exhibit in "Elephant Odyssey", but I may not be judging the scale correctly.

The original plan had the Jaguar exhibit going where the Baird's Tapir exhibit is, but that was scrapped when some funding was used for the Elephants of Asia. The zoo's plan is to still build a new Jaguar exhibit after the Rainforest of the Americas opens, but that most likely will be in the current South America section and not in the new RotA.

The sign was posted on a trailer just inside the construction site. I just zoomed in and took the photos.

Yes, it is MUCH worse.

(And thanks to Ituri for setting the record straight regarding carnivores).

Some of the cat cages at San Diego are pretty small Arizona Docent; I'm thinking of the ones up on the hill in Cat Canyon and the smaller cages near the old elephant exhibit. What do you hate about the LA cage? Too small? No pond?

Yes to both. The San Diego big cat cages are too small also, but the jaguar cage at Los Angeles is less than half the size of those. Plus no real climbing opportunities like at San Diego. Just a depressing, grossly outdated exhibit.

Since my tour of the Los Angeles Zoo in 2008 (which left me grumbling that there were at least 40 better American zoos) there has been the opening of the Francois langur exhibit, the $40 million Elephants of Asia complex, LAIR's imminent arrival and the future Rainforest of the Americas. It is time for me to make another visit to this improved establishment! However, I simply cannot stand the 1960's C-shaped roundhouse exhibits and as long as those 20+ structures remain then a good chunk of the zoo's enclosures will still be subpar and worthy of a bulldozer. It seems harsh but I honestly feel as if the zoo would be vastly improved if those C-shaped cages were all demolished sooner rather than later as having 50 year-old outdated exhibits in nearly every part of the zoo is rather disappointing.