Bronx Zoo Bronx Zoo Walkthrough

For me I think I would:

For Madagascar: I agree: nocturnal area for aye-aye, foosa, mouse and dwarf lemurs, tenrc, jumping rat and maybe some of the geckos or snakes.
Then the old foosa exhibit could be expanded for maybe the return of the blue eyed black lemurs and maybe if they expand the Masola rainforest another species of lemur can live with the red ruffed lemurs. Chameleons, matella frogs and other species can also be added.

For the old bird house: I like the idea of a penguin habitat. I know Central Park does have one; but I think it can focus on the changes happening due to climate change and how penguins and other Antarctic species will have to adapt.

Monkey House: I wish they may have added the capuchins and maybe other primate species to the Children's Zoo and greatly expand the space in the Monkey House for the small marmosets and tamarins.

Large Bird Building: This is not a large building so it would be interesting to focus on maybe insects or amphibians.

Horn and Hoof Museum: I think a nice zoo restaurant/special event space maybe even with some of the history of the zoo etc.

As for fountain plaza to Rainey gate. I wish there was no parking there and guest could walk around the fountain and maybe even be able to have picnics and more gardens there (maybe move the old monkey and bird cages here for some animal life).

As for World of Darkness I would reopen with some restoration and renovation of course. I miss my bats, naked mole rats, sand cats, leopard cats and night monkeys.

 

@bigfoot410, Just thought of this now but I think it'd be cool if the zoo had one of the buildings turned into a mini-museum of sorts to tell the history of the zoo.

~Thylo

 

Thanks for the second post TA, Bronx is clearly struggling a bit with some of its animal houses, although at least they have plenty of space to move species to if they wanted - cf. London, etc, where historic exhibits simply take up valuable space. Hopefully they don't close any more though.

Looking at the Bronx map, there appears to be heaps of empty space, which is extremely unusual for a city zoo. Is this a true reflection of the zoo? Is the spare space mostly woodland? I realise there is a large part of the zoo that is currently "closed" for winter (Wild Asia monorail).

 

The Bronx Zoo does have heaps of woodlands...the area near the Aquatic Bird Building and Seabird Colony does have at least 10+ acres of land that used to be the Rare Animal Range as well as several acres that used to be part of the African Plains. A lot of the land along the Bronx River behind Tiger Mountain and throughout is woodland so I am not sure if they ever will really develop it. However; there is plenty of space and buildings that can be refurbished. It will be interesting what area they will develop after the Children's Zoo.

 

There is quite a lot of empty space at the zoo, yes. And much of it is indeed woodland or off-show space. However, the zoo also has quite a lot of space that was once exhibit space but now sits empty... If you look at the current map where the robo-saur ride is, that whole area used to be home to hoofstock as was the bottom area of African Plains.

~Thylo

 

Where is the robo-saur ride? What happened to the African plains hoofstock area - did many species leave the zoo? Empty exhibit space always looks awful at a zoo, hopefully they can add more species in.

 

The Arabian Oryx and Blesbok left the zoo from the African Section. They only had 1 of each I believe when they left in 2009. These exhibits were basic fenced in grassy yards (not really Bronx Zoo quality). In the northwest corner of the zoo the Guanaco and Formosan Sika Deer exhibits closed. The guanacos went to the Rosamond Gifford Zoo and the deer moved to the Wild Asia section. The zoos nocturnal house known as "World of Darkness" was the biggest loss.The zoo relocated many species to other zoos (including WCS zoos) and kept a few species off display. The robo-saur ride is in the northwest corner of the zoo near both the Aquatic Bird House and the Birds of Prey area. The empty areas of the zoo are not really noticeable. The zoo has added many species since then including Spotted Hyena, Moholi Bushbaby, Aardvark, Komodo Dragon, Maleo, White Rhino, Lesser Kudu, Peruvian Pelican, Kiwi and Aldabra Giant Tortoise.

 

Despite Blesbok officially leaving the zoo in 2009, I still saw at least one in 2011 in the Thomson's Gazelle enclosure. Not sure why it was there or what happened, but before seeing this animal I didn't even know what a Blesbok was so I certainly didn't mistake the signage.

The bushbabies were actually one of the species that went off-exhibit when World of Darkness closed. Also, the bushbaby, kudu, pelican, kiwi, and giant tortoise enclosures all had species in them before the zoo brought them in, they mostly just replaced the previous occupants.

@zooboy28- in 2009 the zoo was hit with severe budget cuts and they had to go out of a lot of species and closed down some exhibits such as World of Darkness and Rare Animal Range. Unfortunately and to my obvious despair, I'm just too young to recall having visited these enclosures and seen the species in them apart from Leopard Cat. Fortunately, though, I've managed to coincidentally see most of the species that left the zoo from these exhibits in my regular zoo travels The big ex-Bronx species that really hits me is Proboscis Monkey....

~Thylo

 

The World of Darkness was a real great loss; even though when you do go into the building you can see some of the exhibits were not that big.

The Rare Animal Range has had several species since I was a child. I remember yaks, European bison, Mongolian wild horse and Pere David's deer. The deer and horse moved and at times the yards held sika deer, guanacos and for a few years the Big Birds area with ostrich, emu, rhea and cassowary. The area also had Cope Lake which had several waterfowl species, white and brown pelicans (with pelican feedings) as well as an island for white handed gibbons. It was never a big visitor area, but was nice and quiet.

Thlyacine is correct that blesbok were in the gazelle yard at times during the last 20 years. For a time they were even on the signage. This was all before the kudu came.

 

Thanks all, I haven't followed Bronx super-closely, so its great to be able to get this walkthrough and additional info from the locals.

Where was the Rare Animal Range - was this the north-west corner? Beyong the Aquatic Birds Building?

 

No problem Not sure when the next part will come out due to me having midterm exams this and next week but will try and get it out sooner than later!

Yeah that's where it was. I went through there once as it was part of the Run for the Wild event trail and it was quite sad to see all of the enclosures overgrown with vegetation and in a pretty bad shape....

~Thylo

 

Hope this week flies by then. Good luck on midterms.

 

Thank you They've been easy so far and don't expect them to get much harder. Even though I should probably be going to sleep now, I'm starting the next section as we speak.

~Thylo

 

*Starts playing celebrate tonight on his phone*

 

Does anyone have information about the Mexican Wolves once at the Bronx zoo I believe this was maybe 10-15 years ago or less.

 

I did find this old map of the zoo below which has them on it near world of birds I am guessing Tiger Mountain took their place?

 

Yeah Tiger Mountain sits on the old location of the Mexican Wolves.

~Thylo

 

Well due to an unfortunate event called my stupidity, I missed my exam today No harm done, though, as I'll just make it up on Monday. This is good for all of you, though, as it gave me time to finish the next little part:

Aquatic Bird House-Birds of Prey
Now when you exit Madagascar!, you’ll note that on your left is a large stairway leading West. A short walk from the bottom, the path will diverge with the Aquatic Bird House directly in front of you and Birds of Prey down to the left. Walking forward, you’ll first encounter a large pool home to a nicely sized flock of American Flamingos (Phoenicopterus ruber) to your right. After this you’ll come to the entrance of the building. While I enjoy visiting the Aquatic Bird House just as much as World of Birds and while it holds many great species, this exhibit is unfortunately of a significantly lesser quality of its more popular sibling. The building is a bit small at parts, especially at the doors, and is noticeably a bit run-down with many of the enclosures being of a slightly lesser quality when compared to the zoo’s other indoor exhibits. That said, this building is still home to a great collection of birds and certainly has its highlights. The majority of the enclosures here are designed to be run of the mill wetland displays of varying sizes but other enclosures feature a coastal cliff, a nocturnal forest, and a shoreline. The later of these is probably my favorite with small wooden beams, small sand dunes, and even a small wave pool although the water is pretty shallow. Sadly, said enclosure has lost some of its more interesting species in the past few years… As with World of Birds, the species found in the Aquatic Bird House often change on a fairly regular basis (although not quite as often as other indoor exhibits at the zoo), though the highlight species include:

Chilean Pintail (Anas georgica spinicauda)
Puna Teal (Anas puna)
Anhinga (Anhinga anhinga)
North Island Brown Kiwi (Apteryx mantelli)
Grey-Necked Wood Rail (Aramides cajaneus)
Giant Wood Rail (Aramides ypecaha)
Storm’s Stork (Ciconia stormi)
Little Egret (Egretta garzetta)
Tufted Puffin (Fratercula cirrhata)
Southern Bald Ibis (Geronticus calvus)
American Black Oystercatcher (Haematopus bachmani)
Madagascar Crested Ibis (Lophotibis cristata urschi)
Forster’s Tern (Sterna forsteri)
Guam Kingfisher (Todiramphus cinnamominus cinnamominus)

Other species include:

Javan Pond Heron (Ardeola speciosa)
Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola)
Ringed Teal (Callonetta leucophrys)
Yellow-Hooded Blackbird (Chrysomus icterocephalus)
Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae)
Scarlet Ibis (Eudocimus ruber)
Orinoco Goose (Neochen jubata)
American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos)
Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis)
Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja)
African Spoonbill (Platalea alba)
Pied Avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta)

Upon exiting the house, you’ll find a short path leading straight into the Sea Bird Aviary. However, before reaching that you’ll come across a very large and very tall aviary with some nice flying space and a good water area. This is the zoo’s large breeding aviary for their Lesser Adjutant Storks (Leptoptilos javanicus). The storks, though, can only be viewed during the warmer months and once it gets cold out you can find a variety of different species in this enclosure such as Brown Eared-Pheasant (Crossoptilon mantchuricum), Black-Capped Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax hoactli), and White-Naped Crane (Grus vipio).

After this, you’ll enter the large Sea Bird Aviary. This exhibit is simply one large netted aviary designed to look like a rocky South American coast. The path curves a little and goes through a small rocky cliff designed and takes you right past a nicely sized but pretty shallow pool. There are also quite a few bushes and such to add plant life to the enclosure. In here you can find Magellanic Penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus), Guanay Cormorant (Phalacrocorax bougainvillii), Black-Faced Ibis (Theristicus melanopis), Flying Steamer Duck (Tachyeres patachonicus), Inca Tern (Larosterna inca), and Peruvian Pelican (Pelecanus thagus). While most of the species in here are represented by only a couple of individuals, the terns live a very huge flock. It’s quite the sight to see them resting on the mock cliffs just above your head or see them flying around in a large flock towards the top of the aviary or just above the water.

After the aviary, you have to backtrack around towards the entrance to the Aquatic Bird House again. From here you’d go down the path that diverged to the left after Madagascar! and find yourself at Birds of Prey. This exhibit is more or less a row of decently sized aviaries for multiple raptor species such as Andean Condor (Vultur gryphus), Northern Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus washingtoniensis), American Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos canadensis), Cinereous Vulture (Aegypius monachus), Snow Owl (Bubo scandiacus), and Northern Barred Owl (Strix varia varia). Personally, I find the size of these enclosures to be pretty good, they’re well designed with grass and trees, and the height is decent enough although some of the species held here are probably too large for them. If it held smaller species I think people would like the exhibit a lot better. If you head down the path you’ll find yourself behind the Children’s Zoo and at a small pond home to Black-Necked Swans (Cygnus melancoryphus). After this, there are no animals until you loop back down to the Zoo Center.

(Below are images for Peruvian Pelican, Inca Tern, Storm's Stork, Forster's Tern, American Golden Eagle, and Anhinga)

~Thylo

 

This walkthrough is extremely detailed and extensive. very impressive!

does anyone remember what the mexican wolf exhibit looked like?