Los Angeles Zoo & Botanical Gardens Los Angeles Zoo News 2020

The plans for the new Asian exhibits coming to the Los Angeles Zoo have been changed dramatically! The elephants of Asia at the Los Angeles zoo are getting more space! It seems like according to the plan that they’re doing what the Denver zoo does and that’s rotate their Indian rhinos and the Asian elephants through their yards. This would mean the elephants of Asia would be somewhere around 9 acres now with this 3.3 acre expansion. Is the correct?

 

Where is the Link for the new project description?

 

https://eng2.lacity.org/techdocs/emg/lazoo/deir.pdf on page 146

 

So I cross-examined this with the old plan and it appears the left side is very similar except the tigers were moved. They also didn't include where the anoas tapirs and clouded leopards will be going. It just gives a general idea and isn't very informal on the actual plan for animals, which makes sense because its an environmental impact sheet.

 

So after looking through further it appears Africa, Rainforest, California, and Islands areas will be untouched. However, they have decided to put the new children's park where the water is life exhibit would have been. The only thing that will stay is the LA river exhibit. So the penguins, flamingos, aquariums, and the large 360 underwater building will all be scrapped. I understand why they chose this area I'm just mad because it would have been a great exhibit to be added to the park. It would have been very beautiful but it does mean we get a larger Asian section which is good.

 

The aquatic area always looked like a bit of a stretch to me - both the content and the amount of space it was slated to be on. The flamingos are going to be in the Rainforest area, but I'm slightly surprised to see penguins just get axed entirely. Perhaps they'll end up being added back in somewhere else... maybe little blue in the Islands area? (fingers crossed)

It makes more sense to put the playground closer to the entrance anyway, otherwise parents would have to walk their kids up a fair ways into the zoo and uphill in order to reach it.

I hope that they haven't axed some of the Asian species... the area looks reconfigured and it's hard to tell whether they just moved everything around or whether some of the species had their enclosures removed to give more space to elephants.

 

The plan does say there could be other species added so an Inca tern and Humboldt exhibit could be possible. On the original plans, it said they would be African penguins and there is an area next to the hippos that was unmarked in both plans and in the first plan I couldn't find a species that was going there.

It appears the space where the tigers were is still there so species could be added there. There is still an aviary behind and next to the langurs. It looks like there are also 5 exhibits that go around the tiger exhibit. The clouded leopard exhibit appears untouched. And they added the hillside exhibits to the area So we should be fine.
Also in both plans, they never put the taking anywhere and I think it would be cool if they got put in the elephant exhibit. They said they could introduce other species. Really any sort of ungulate like chital or guars would be really nice to see in the exhibit.