No worries mate. I am there now for school to do Landscape Architecture, to jog your memory. Its probably hard to keep track of everyone on this forum.
Ah but it's not uncommon. It has been thought to be an Asian elephant behavior, but that's not entirely true. http://www.zoochat.com/1129/nashville-sept-20-21-2009-a-106849/ http://www.zoochat.com/560/giants-savanna-elephants-171291/
I would have to agree that once all the elephants are together Dallas will be THE best! There are three elephants Gypsy, Congo, and Kamba that are known as the water babies! Because they swim constantly. Ages 28,30, and 32. So young at heart I guess
I agree with the above quote 100%. I think the difficulty lies in the fact that African bush elephants (since no zoos house forest elephants) are savannah animals, so it is easier to replicate that environment. Asian elephants are forest animals, and since they destroy any vegetation in a confined space, there is no practical way to recreate their natural environment. I will be very interested to see what Los Angeles (where I grew up) comes up with for their Asians. I do agree with the earlier ranking of St Louis for Asians - it is the only good Asian elephant exhibit I have personally seen. As for Africans, Nashville is the best I have personally seen although I think Dallas will likely push it to the #2 slot. North Carolina looks good based on photos, but I have not been there. One year from now (or a bit more), I am going to project Reid Park (Tucson) as the #3 African elephant exhibit. Of course my opinion is completely biased here and probably doesn't count! But one thing we will incorporate that I have not see elsewhere is an encounter fence where at certain times of day keepers will open a latch to let visitors actually touch the elephants' feet or ears. Plus we will have two mothers with calves from San Diego Safari Park.
Yes. I mean I think that was the original intent - to have a large enough breeding group to supply other zoos once they started reproducing.
Asian elephants actually live in both rainforests and savannahs. There are grasslands in India and pockets of savannahs throughout SE Asia. So they do have a wide variety of habitats that they can replicate because there are different types of tropical forests and grasslands. A little off topic, but I wish zoos did more to give some other habitats some credit. Just look at the long list of African savannah exhibits, every zoo practically has one, even the small ones.
Yes, that is one of the better ones. I'd say that, along with NC, Dallas, and SDSP are among the best.
Some exhibits, like Kansas City, have size, but it isn't necessarily as realistic as some exhibits, like Dallas. I love Kansas City's, and their herd of six is a joy to watch, but its main asset is definatly size. I'd say Dallas, NC, Nashville, St. Louis, and SDSP are the best.
Having just seen Giants of the Savannah for the first time,we gotta put Dallas ahead of Nashville.We have not been to NC.It should be interesting to compare Clevelands Elephant Crossing when it opens but we don't think it'll quite be able to compete for a top spot on this Team Tapir
One of the reasons Nashivlle is considered so great is because it is a small zoo, and in comparison to its size, it is a great exhibit. This exhibit wouldn't be so great if it was opened at a zoo like San Diego or Bronx.
While that is true, a great elephant exhibit would blend in at Bronx, known for great exhbiits, while at Nashville, there aren't any other amazing exhibit (but Nashville does look like a very nice zoo)
In the two years since this thread was active there have been several more new elephant exhibits debuting in the U.S. Has anybody's opinion of where the great elephant exhibits are shifted? One question that I have is where the active family herds of elephants are? One potentially worrying trend is that many of these new exhibits, especially the Asian elephant exhibits, have mainly geriatric females. There are active African ele family herds with youngsters of several ages at SDWAP, Lowry Park, Reid Park, and where else? Are there ANY Asian elephant herds with youngsters in the U.S.? How worried should we be about failing demographics of Asian elephants in American zoos? Do any of these new exhibits enhance the possibility for a baby boom? The LA Zoo exhibit is now almost two years old, Billy the bull seems to be near or at sexual maturity, and there are no reproductive age females in sight. Where are the great Asian elephant exhibits in the U.S. now? I have seen LA and Smithsonian National...neither are naturalistic, but they both seem like really good homes for their elephants. Are there any naturalistic Asian elephant exhibits in the U.S.? There are at least semi-naturalistic African elephant exhibits at Disney and Dallas (and Nashville?).
Still no great asian exhibits that I am aware of (from the few photos I have seen, the brand new Denver is a disappointment, though certainly better than what they had). In my opinion (and it is just that), there are only four truly outstanding elephant exhibits in the USA - all for africans. They are (listed alphabetically): Dallas Zoo, Nashville Zoo, North Carolina Zoo, Reid Park Zoo.
The national zoo's asian elephant exhibit looks pretty good. Also Columbus Zoo has a young male elephant and sent another young elephant Bohdi to Denver to be apart of their new exhibit. Also their exhibit is also pretty good.
@AZ did we forget Disney's Animal kingdom's 9.5 acre enclosure? Which may I remind you was built in the 90's... And then the Birmingham zoo's elephant enclosure is also very nice. It was designed by the same firm as Dallas, but seems to not get as much attention. But I was also very impressed by that exhibit as well As for great Asian elephant enclosures.... Oklahoma City, Columbus, Syracuse, St. Louis, and the Smithsonian seem to be the best in the country right now. But I think all of them will be blown out of the water by Portland when they open their enclosure in the next few years. Denver was rather disappointing.
What would be a cut off age for female elephants to be mothers? Both female elephants at the Buffalo Zoo just entered their 30's.
