Today at the zoo there was some wierd construction going on at the Serengeti Crossing exhibit. The exhibit which used to be shaped like a big “L” has now had one row of fences moved, cutting off a lot of the area. The exhibit now is in the shape of an “I”. There were no animals on exhibit, or people working on the construction. In the area that was removed from Serengeti crossing there is no fencing at all, so it is just a grassy area. The trees in the area removed from the crossing have been chopped down as well. Portions of the trunk were on the ground still, in the form of logs. The enormous part of the tree where all the branches start coming out were not separated into logs like the trunks were. I have no idea whatsoever what all of this construction and stuff is about. As far as I know, This has not been discussed anywhere else online (there is no info on the Zoo website or anything like that), but I am curious to see what happens.
Do you have any sense of whether there are plans to build some new exhibits at the Franklin Park Zoo now that the children's zoo is finished? I liked this zoo, especially their giraffe exhibit, but it was clear from reading reviews on travel websites that a lot of people complain that they have a lot of space and relatively little content.
I have heard lots of rumors: 1. A new entrance to the zoo, near Nature's Neighborhoods 2. Rhinos 3. Cheetahs 4. A new waterhole field animal exhibit that would replace Serengeti crossing. If you look at the image in this link from the Cambridge Seven Associates website (who I guess does the construction projects for the zoo), you can see some interesting (albeit nebulous) plans: https://cambridgeseven.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/14_02_10-illustrative-plan-linework.jpg Nature's neighborhoods is the exhibit "complex" on the bottom, and then there is the potential new entrance perpendicular (which is the big white rectangle), and then two big exhibits with water on the other side of the road. One of those exhibits would replace Serengeti Crossing, and the other would be outside of the zoo for guests to see before they even enter. I think the zoo planned on building the new entrance next and then doing the waterhole exhibit after, but maybe this construction I saw today is part of a new animal exhibit. It seems like a lot of the zoo's plans are to replace old things, rather than to expand into emptier areas. FPZ seems to give a certain number of people bad first impressions, and I think a lot of this is because of the feeling they get seeing the unused area.
It looks like the reason they are shrinking the exhibit is for a concert area, which is part of the new Zoo entrance. The entrance area will have like some garden, which will transition into a concert area, before spreading out into the animal sections of the zoo
Today I have some giraffe news: The zoo's elder female giraffe, Jana, was recently moved to the Columbus Zoo. Additionally, a young male giraffe (named Chad) was recently brought from one of the zoos in southern California to FPZ on a breeding recommendation with FPZ's 20-month-old female giraffe, Amari (who is also Jana's daughter).
At Franklin Park Zoo, a family of prairie dogs welcomes 15 pups - The Boston Globe The zoo has welcomed 15 new prairie dog pups.
The zoo's pygmy hippos are going to be off-exhibit a lot for an indeterminable amount of time, because the zoo is hoping for them to breed off exhibit
2-year-old male Bactrian camel, Alexander Camelton, has arrived at the Franklin Park Zoo. Colonial Camel | Lincoln Park Zoo
He was born at Lincoln Park Zoo but recently arrived at Franklin Park Zoo. LPZ's blog post covers his move.
This zoo really needs to get their game together. Some of the rainforest exhibit is good- but with new Rainforest exhibits soon at Capron Park Zoo and Roger Williams Park Zoo- as well as the new one at Buttonwood Park Zoo it will definitely seem a lot more out-dated. Also a lot of the outdoor exhibits already are very out-dated- excluding the lion exhibit and new children's zoo. They really need to get more animals on exhibit at the zoo and better exhibits for current animals. Maybe the best plan would be for ZNE to close this facility and strictly work on improving stone zoo- as Stone is in better condition.
The franklin park Zoo can feel empty to the average visitor, but if you go through it slowly, and appreciate the small things it offers from a more patient perspective, a visit there can be a really meaningful experience. Next time try bringing binoculars with you, to see the free flight birds and bats in the tropical forest from far away, or to see the wildebeest in the shady parts in the back of Serengeti crossing. The people who work at FPZ are such dedicated, talented, and amazing people, and FPZ is doing so many incredible things that it should not be closed down. Here are (off the top of my head) some amazing things about the Franklin Park Zoo (of course I am missing some things but this is still a pretty good list imo): They were the first Zoo to ever successfully breed Siberian cranes outside their natural habitat FPZ was able to successfully breed their Siberian cranes because of their spectacular general curator, who is an exceptionally talented ornithologist. You can read about him and some of his other work here: Zoo New England Their curator of hooves and horns (the part of the Zoo stretching from Serengeti crossing to giraffe Savannah all the way back to the camel exhibit) has been a leader in a conservation program training the first dogs to track cheetahs and investigate cheetah scat in the wild in South Africa (scat is important because it shows what animals are eating and is a good way to count animals) Large field exhibits. Their giraffe exhibit is ~2 acres, which is a huge size compared to many zoos which have far more giraffes in far smaller spaces. Their Serengeti crossing exhibit is also very large and spacious for the amount of animals it has compared to what many zoos provide. These exhibits may be grassy fields with shade and hills and not much else, but this simplicity is natural. I do not see why this simplicity is a bad thing. Kori Bustards naturally molt their feathers. FPZ has kori bustards so it collects and distributes these feathers to fisherman to use in flymaking, which means that people do not have to hunt kori bustards to obtain these feathers from the wild. Giraffe wasting syndrome is a disease that giraffes contact in zoos and in the wild. Once a giraffe gets the disease, they will live for only 1-2 more years. Due to their veterinary prowess, FPZ is the first place in the world where a giraffe has contacted the disease, and then lived for ~SEVENTEEN more years, which is like 8x the expected life expectancy for giraffes with wasting syndrome. FPZ was home to the oldest Bactrian camel in the world Unfortunately, most zoo-goers don’t know about most of these things. What FPZ lacks is money. If they could get money faster, the Zoo would be more modern and less empty, and it seems like that would solve your qualms.
both zoos are secretive about their master plans because if the public finds out about it too much then they will all get very excited. that means that if in the end the zoo can’t raise enough money and has to cancel parts of the plan, the public will be very upset with the Zoo for not following through.
When born, Cleo and the calf will live in the capybara exhibit for a bit, since the water there is shallower, until zoo staff decide that the calf is ready for the deeper waters of the normal pygmy hippo exhibit / pool. Ino will still go on exhibit in the normal pygmy hippo exhibit during this time period.
