Some more bad news I checked two days ago and today and I have not seen the Maxwell's Duiker and two days ago and yesterday I have not seen the Guam kingfisher or Guanay Cormorant....
Some more updates: Guam Kingfisher will be coming back on-show soon Still don't know of duiker/cormorant. The show will be coming out in January-ish. There's a mouse deer in the land part of the last JW exhibit Also, I realized that my "updates" are probably a little to frequent so I'll limit it to around every other day.
To be honest I think this is a terrible decision (I'm biased since Bronx is my favorite zoo and I absolutely love elephants.) Bronx has the land to exhibit elephants well, could have created an exhibit with a profound conservation message funding projects to save the species in the wild and the expertise in exhibit design to create an immersive exhibit for the pachyderms. Now the country's largest metropolitan area will have no elephants for visitors to see in the near future and this will be a huge loss. You need to see them in person to fully appreciate the emotional complexity, size and majesty of elephants and Bronx would have been the perfect place to show a state-of-the-art habitat for Asian elephants.
@GraysonDP: Absolutely agree. Further more, I'm profoundly convinced that with a little effort WCS would be able to find sponsors for a new elephant exhibit. And Zoo Zurich (with also strong and long winters) in Switzerland is the evidence, that it is possible to create at least adequate indoor exhibits for those pachyderms. See here: http://www.zoochat.com/476/kaeng-krachan-elephant-park-october-2014-a-391195/ And what the "little swiss" can do should also be possible for the "big americans"...
Elephant Park, at least the house, looks amazing. For $58 million or so, I don't think it could be done at that price in Bronx. Where would a house and paddocks of that size even go at Bronx? Wouldn't that upset the nerds that care about zoo geography as a complex that size wouldn't fit near the asian exhibits. Not without displacing something, cutting trees and building on areas that the Zoo uses already. Where would something of that scope even go in the park? I'm being seriouus, as I'm curious to what others think. Especially if the nerds won't get bent out of shape if it was located elsewhere in the Zoo.
@Gulo gulo: Space for a new elephant exhibit? Absolutely no problem: Area behind the Aquatic Bird House and the Center for Global Conservation (which would already have a pond) OR the area between Zoo Center, World of Reptiles, Northern ponds and the Milu/David's Deer exhibit (and put the temporary butterfly house somewhere else) OR the area between Himalayan Highlands and Jungle World Road (and remove the cranes to another exhibit) OR use the Asia Parking area from level Shuttle Station down to the monorail tracks and remove the parking zone to the left of the Bronx River Entrance (accross the river of the Bronx River Parking), OR, OR, OR... As for the costs: Of course it won't be cheap. But comparing the costs to built an ordinary house in the USA and in Switzerland (where it is more expensive), I doubt that an elephant exhibit of a similar standard would become more expensive in New York Bronx (not Manhattan!) then in Zurich. (Although, I must confess, I'm not very familiar with the real estate market in N.Y.) Finally, I'm also interested in the opinions from other zoochat members.
Of course WCS could build it if they wanted to. Location is a bit of a challenge since the zoo consists of granite ridges separated by mucky valleys, so areas that have not been developed are not really suitable. And the sites you suggest all involve costly relocation of other exhibits or service areas, so this could be more expensive than Congo Gorilla Forest and require more acreage. A suitable barn would be very expensive to build and to heat in the winter; construction costs between one NYC borough and the next don't change (only the price of the real estate which is irrelevant in this case)
I personally wouldn't care if it went elsewhere in the zoo as long as it didn't disturbe another exhibit. I imagine the prime areas people would choose by looking at a zoo map would be the Asian parking lot or the site of the old Rare Animal Range. Of course those locations provide their own set of problems outside of funding. The former being a valuable overflow parking area and the later being covered in trees and large rocks. The rocky soil at the zoo will be a huge barrier to future exhibits I imagine. While I do think the zoo should keep elephants, one must also look at the current situation of elephants in the US. Tbh with the current issues surrounding Asian Elephants over here it might be better for the zoo to move their sights on African Bush Elephant (if they were to keep any species) as they seem to have a better foothold in captivity. ~Thylo
While the composition of the ground/soil without doubt may have an impact, I'm not agree with the second part of your answer/post: Come on, the relocation of my suggested sites won't be that expensive. A parking space is mostly nothing else then a tarred area, similar to the roads in a zoo, which changes many times when new exhibits will be built. And to find another place for a butterfly tent (which is only running during the warmer months by the way) won't be difficult either (same goes for the relocation of one or two simply crane exhibits). I'm not an architect but I bet that heating a suitable barn for elephants won't be more expensive then heating Jungle World, World of Birds or the Aquatic Bird House. Masoalahalle at Zoo Zurich for example is heated by very cheap wood chips during winter. All in all - and here we are obviously mostly agree - it is more a question, if the zoo management wants to keep elephants or not.
Forgot something: There's now a mouse deer in the land part of the final exhibit in JW, and the tv show will hopefully be aired in January
I know I said I wouldn't be doing daily updates but this is fantastic news: Just checked today and the Storm stork has an egg!!! BTW- This was on-exhibit, not off-show
Two California sea lion pups born in June made their debut: SEE IT: Bronx Zoo?s sea lion pups make public debut, are adorable - NY Daily News
Another article about the 2 Sea lion pups : http://www.zooborns.com/zooborns/2016/08/sea-lion-double-trouble-at-wcss-bronx-zoo-.html#more
No clue but I know for a fact that Bronx has a very large (and still growing) family of maleos and I highly doubt they would take them away. BTW: Welcome to zoochat
I was truely disapointed ... if they have a lot of maleo, I could have hoped that they showed them in more than one exhibit :/ Other question : is there andean cock-of-the-rock in the zoo ? I didn't find them in World of Birds ... Same question for Maxwell's duikers (english wiki says that we could find two of them on Africa Plains)
Cock of the rock are indeed still at the zoo; a pair I believe. Maxwell duiker I'm unfortunately not as sure about, considering I was there for 4 consecutive days and I didn't see them (In the Aardvark exhibit). It would be a huge shame if they are not there anymore. Just out of curiosity, did you see if there was a guanay cormorant in the Sea bird aviary?
Just to make sure we're on the same page, they should be in the second enclosure on the first floor of World of Birds right after the bee-eater enclosure and before the monkey enclosure. The cock-of-the-rock are on-exhibit on the second floor of World of Birds mixed with the Ocellated Turkey and mountain-toucan. As STE said there are usually two in the Aardvark enclosure in the giraffe house, but they haven't been seen in a while unfortunately. ~Thylo
