In discussing the then-upcoming renovation of Kovler Lion House, long considered Lincoln Park's main eye sore, Director Kevin Bell seemed to approach it as sort of a grand finale - more obviously, as the final part of the Pride of Chicago capital investment campaign, which included the construction of Macaque Forest, Penguin Cove, Arctic Tundra, and some Seal Pool renovations, it concludes a period high investment and big renovation over many of the zoo's most aging exhibits. More subtly though, it seems to bring a point where nearly every exhibit at the zoo has been renovated under Bell's tenure as director, save Helen Brach Primate House, which many zoochatters would agree could use a touch-up, but is far less controversial, and the Antelope-Zebra Area, which hasn't undergone much serious modification since the early eighties. All that said, like every zoo, thee are still elements in flux - popular elephants and tigers have both been forced out due to other renovations favoring more iconic species, and the outdoor African Savannah has become a little empty over the years. Much of the Antelope-Zebra area collection shifts often and unexpectedly, with only zebras themselves being a truly consistent and enduring staple over the last fifteen years. Though most exhibits have been renovated since the mid-nineties, some of those earlier modern additions are showing early signs of age as well. So, my central question - what kind of renovations and development do you think we may see from Lincoln Park in the future?
Personally I think after the lion house is complete the zoo will slow down on major developments for a bit. The zoo has already opened the brilliant Macaque Forest, Penguin Cove and Arctic Tundra habitats, a trio of consistently excellent exhibits. Plus renovated the seal pool and opened a wonderful new visitor center, all in the course of less than three years. With the new lion house opening as early as next year to cap off the pride of Chicago campaign, that’s quite a large amount of money sunk into the zoo as of late. By the time it’s all over there really aren’t any more unpleasant exhibits left in the zoo. I think there will 2 or 3 years after the lion houses completion of no new animal exhibits just to let the dust settle. However, as far as what the next project(s) will be, I agree that the hoofstock loop and primate house are next to get a renovation job. They are certainly the weakest exhibits left in the park. As far as what they will be, the idea of an Asian area to compliment African Journey has been thrown out there. Other than that I am unsure what else the zoo might do.
Do you mean by other zoochatters or in some official capacity? The potential is certainly there, as it would allow the zoo to re-integrate tigers and some form of leopard, as well as both takin and possibly camels, maybe room to move gibbons from the Primate House, and that's without considering new species for the collection, which we would all like to see. They've had Chinese White-lipped Deer around as well. Of course, if they built something like that over the Antelope-Zebra Area, they would lose zebra and kangaroos, ABC species, and the peccaries they've had lately as well, which aren't ABC but are kind of neat. Definitely not a slam dunk plan here. And yeah, I'm not expecting LPZ to perform any more renovations for a few years, but I thought given the significant recent comments about the zoo's dwindling collection, it seemed appropriate to explore how it could be improved. I'm not expecting anything exciting to be rotated into most of the existing infrastructure.
The zoo has 2 common zebra that share an exhibit with the giraffe, so they would not be losing zebra all together. Although they would be missing the rarer more important species. Personally I enjoy the antelope yards yet the collection is definitely pretty uninspired given that space comes at a minimum at this zoo (wasting that much space on camels, alpaca and peccary seems pretty desperate). Due to this fact I would like to see an asian complex on the site of the yards, keeping the takin while bringing in a leopard species, red panda, amur tiger and additional smaller species. The primate house when I visited this week definitely stuck out as being outdated and that was clear to casual visitors as well. The issue I run into is their is not much room to build outdoor exhibits for the monkeys, which is the improvement I think is mosy needed. So I don’t know best how to handle this building. Lastly I enjoyed the bird house but it definitely is in need of a renovation. The building has so much wasted space and the exhibits are for the most part rather small. It does have a nice collection in a zoo that has few birds elsewhere.
Oh Gosh, they were able to move some zebra into the old Savannah Yard? I'd heard it was being considered but with the well-known reputation of zebra I didn't think they'd actually move them. Well then, there's no reason left not to eventually do an Asia Trail then. I like the collection more than the enclosures personally. I skipped much of the area last time I was over there so my memory's a bit faded, but while they are mostly spacious, it always felt like no matter how interesting a species, the viewing was never very great, and the whole area is pretty lacking in antelope these days. If they moved gibbons to Asia Trail per my concept, they would be able to give another monkey species outdoor access instead, and they sometimes house Colobus Monkeys into African Journey, which perhaps with a mild renovation could be more appropriate; two fewer species in the Primate House could open up some flexibility.
I kinda wondered why they dwindled down thede hoofstock some wasnt sure of they got rid of them they use to focus on the Arabian oryx they had sable antelope I think they still dont I forgot zebra and camels and I think a few other species over the years I know phasing comes and goes but per the size of some of the yards it suprised me they didnt do multiple specis in the bigger yards. The primate house wouldn't be so bad if they had all the exhibits look like the colubus other big exhibit I know they like to give the Gibbons the outdoor access but I would of moved them to the aka original south American area bc it had quite a bit of room. But outdoor areas could be done as mixed varieties or rotating via gibbon area one next to that and 2 on the other side where bushman old outdoor area use to be provided that's still there
Lincoln Park is fine since their improvements were outstanding. Although some improvements with the primate house and hoofed animal pen are a must. The latter always felt like a part of the zoo that leaves much to be desired. At least with the former elephant section, the camels gotten quite enough space.
