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Los Angeles Zoo & Botanical Gardens Los Angeles Zoo News 2017

Discussion in 'United States' started by Coelacanth18, 28 Dec 2016.

  1. Coelacanth18

    Coelacanth18 Well-Known Member Premium Member 5+ year member

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    The old thread was titled 2016, so I thought it best to create a new thread for the new year. Please begin using this thread on January 1.

    Hope everyone is looking forward to the new master plan! :D
     
  2. jpc323

    jpc323 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Can. not. wait.
     
  3. African Grey

    African Grey Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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  4. GraysonDP

    GraysonDP Well-Known Member

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  5. African Grey

    African Grey Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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  6. jpc323

    jpc323 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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  7. African Grey

    African Grey Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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  8. jpc323

    jpc323 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Interesting, I wonder why they're getting rid of the kangaroos...
     
  9. Coelacanth18

    Coelacanth18 Well-Known Member Premium Member 5+ year member

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    Hey, sorry this is last minute. Assuming nothing comes up, I will be attending the Master Plan meeting tonight at 7pm PST. If anybody has a question that they want me to pose, let me know and I might be able to get you an answer! (Keep in mind that they probably don't have many, if any specific plans or details at this point in the process.)
     
  10. GraysonDP

    GraysonDP Well-Known Member

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    Ask what the future of rhinos, hippos, giraffes, zebras, lions, tigers and/or bears is in the zoo
     
  11. tigris115

    tigris115 Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    So what are the results of the master plan meetings and livestreams? Anything tangible yet?
     
  12. DavidBrown

    DavidBrown Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    They have just started the meeting process. You can watch the video of the first meeting and it gives some clues about what they are probably thinking about doing (e.g., an African savanna area), but nothing definitive.
     
  13. pachyderm pro

    pachyderm pro Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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  14. pachyderm pro

    pachyderm pro Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Can someone link the master plan live stream?
     
  15. jpc323

    jpc323 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    African savannah makes all the sense in the world. The lions are the kind of glaring, embarrassing enclosure left from the zoo's last era.

    I know they love their roots as a botanical garden, but if they moved the bongos and pulled some trees, they could turn everything from the existing giraffe exhibit down to the zebras into a savannah exhibit. More if they reposition the gerenuks within that area.

    My concern is how it'd affect the current orangutan area, which just got an excellent redo.
     
  16. DavidBrown

    DavidBrown Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    The orang exhibit will likely not be affected. It sounds like they are planning on doing some major reconfiguring of the zoo's trail systems to separate out visitor paths from the tram system and service roads. That would probably result in opening up large areas of developable space (they showed some maps in the first meeting video of how much developable space there is).
     
  17. Coelacanth18

    Coelacanth18 Well-Known Member Premium Member 5+ year member

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    Got back from the meeting. @pachyderm pro, they live streamed it through Facebook, but I'm not sure how to link/embed it here. I might try later.

    Updates from the meeting: they've made a lot of progress and while it is still a work in progress, they seem to have the proposed layout mostly figured out. The area where the Children's Zoo currently is, along with a large area of undeveloped land next to it, will likely become a California-themed exhibit complex. The entire area where the African exhibits are now will be redeveloped into a more holistic exhibit complex that will likely resemble mixed-species savanna exhibits at other zoos. Asian exhibits will be added around Elephants of Asia, and a market-style area will dominate the old section of South America. There are tentative plans for a water play area in the northwest part of the zoo, and for three "lodges" to be used as event spaces: a turn-of-the-century California-themed lodge in the California area, a two-story safari lodge-type building in the African area, and a renovated Treetops Plaza in the Asian area. The plan is also to keep Australia and renovate it, and possibly add an expansion to LAIR. On top of all of that, they are redesigning the pathways for better circulation, redesigning the parking lot and adjacent intersection to improve safety and ease congestion, expand parking to the south, and renovate/replace the infrastructure for water, electric, and utilities, which for the most part haven't been updated since they were built in the 1960's. Keep in mind that none of these plans are finalized and could change in the near future.

    @GraysonDP and others who are surely interested: they are not to the stage of collection planning yet. They are still in the process of designing the layout and infrastructure that will be built; once that is complete, they will do a collection plan to evaluate what species to include in the space they have.

    @DavidBrown, you are correct; they are not looking to renovate or drastically change any of the new areas. The elephant, great ape, LAIR, and RotA exhibits are unlikely to be affected much (if at all) by this development.
     
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  18. GraysonDP

    GraysonDP Well-Known Member

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    Hopefully this is RIP to the god awful roundhouses.
     
  19. Kifaru Bwana

    Kifaru Bwana Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    Even if it is tentative, the early redrawing and proposed layouts look promising. Welcoming what transpires about African and Asian areas, but particularly pleased for a special Californian themed area in the undeveloped area.

    I will check shortly if I can upload the LiveStream from Facebook or the special website. Thanks for sharing!
     
  20. Coelacanth18

    Coelacanth18 Well-Known Member Premium Member 5+ year member

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    They have more or less confirmed that the roundhouses are coming down to make way for larger, more naturalistic enclosures.
     
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