Los Angeles Zoo & Botanical Gardens Los Angeles Zoo News 2020

Take a look at Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Lincoln Park, Detroit, and among others and you'll see a change in where you place these exhibits. For example, Kansas' exhibit is 3 acres large .

Here's a link with all of the zoos in the Chimpanzee SSP .

Locations | Lincoln Park Zoo

 

Not to mention North Carolina's very own Kitera Forest! A dense hardwood forest hillside with clever plant choices as representative of an African forest, multiple chimpanzee births and a unique predator/prey viewing opportunity (the upper portion of the lion exhibit is on top of the chimp holding building, both species are separated by mesh and a rock wall). All this (and floor to ceiling glass viewing areas) provide an immersive and memorable experience. I don't mean to divert this topic from being Los Angeles Zoo related news, so from this (and maybe one or two subsequent comments) point onwards, let's get back on topic! (pun semi-intended)

 

Nobody I know of... I know some of the exhibits aren't great but I don't know that I've ever seen anyone say they hate the zoo itself.

 

Not on This thread. But I do know I’ve ran into a couple zoochaters over the years that haven’t liked it that much no. Granite I Did word it wrong but I do know it’s not a well loved zoo. It’s gets a lot of hate for its roundhouses. Yes their terrible but the whole zoo isn’t terrible. They have the best Asian elephant exhibit in the nation, along with the best reptile and amphibian exhibits. I love the rainforest of the America’s. Especially the Giant Otter, Harpy Eagle, and Jaguar exhibits. The Sea Life Cliffs is great in my opinion. I love the orangutan and the chimpanzee exhibits. The gorilla exhibit is nice. The Francois Langur exhibit is stellar. I just think it’s a zoo that’s underrated for the most part. Ppl don’t give it enough credit

 

Criticism doesn't mean it's hated. There's a lot I don't like about the LA Zoo but I still love it and it's the only zoo in California I've been to twice (not counting my two-day visit in SDZ). That said... I don't know if I'd say they have the best Asian Elephant exhibit, best reptile house (though it's up there), or best ape exhibits. Those areas of the zoo are great, though. The roundhouses aren't bad for a lot of species but they often put way too large of animals in them or animals who aren't appropriate for those spaces. The situation has been improving over the years and I'm sure it will improve, but the roundhouses along with the old-style ungulate grottoes are a bit outdated nowadays and it doesn't make someone doesn't have to hate the zoo to recognize that. I will say, though, I'll be a bit sad to see the last of the roundhouses go seeing as they've become so synonymous with the zoo. Still, I look forward to their improvements but still quite like the zoo despite its flaws. It's totally incorrect to say the zoo is underrated and people don't give it credit, though. The zoo is one of the most famous in the world amongst the zoo loving community, and their mammal and herp programs make most zoo nerds drool.

~Thylo

 

Here’s a social media post showing the new bongo with their father if anyone needs a pick me up

https://twitter.com/lazoo/status/1283488025616384001?s=21

 

Latest animal transactions: https://www.lazoo.org/wp-new/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/07.2020-animal-transactions.pdf

June meeting minutes: https://www.lazoo.org/wp-new/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Zoo-Commission-Minutes-June-2020-FINAL.pdf

 

Speaking of something I love about the LA Zoo

Oh I wish more zoos publicized these types of documents.

~Thylo

 

Wait other zoos don’t do that much or often? I haven’t tried looking up documents like this other than the LA Zoo since it’s my home zoo

 

I don't know of any other US zoo that is this transparent with their transactions.

~Thylo

 

Oh wow that’s surprising, I thought some would have to since they may be run by their local government aside from privately run zoos. I am glad for the transparency as well, it gives us a heads up of both good and bad that has come about.

 

Maybe they do and I'm unaware of it, but I don't think any of the zoos I follow do this. It's certainly not the norm.

~Thylo

 

Now you gave me an incentive to hunt down documents like these from other zoos now during my days off

 

Yeah please, if you find more documents like that share them.

 

Will do!

 

Overall 9 mountain tapir in captivity and a wild population that scores it in the EN a/o CR box. I assume the LA Zoo has 6 (5.1? or 6.2? - noting there was a preponderance of males bred in the collection). Any hope that a captive-breeding project can be set up in range states like Ecuador for the species and some of the LA Zoo stock might be more than just the - mind-boggling - phase out policies?

 

I believe they misprinted. I know for a fact LA has 4.1 tapirs and Cheyenne Mountain has 1.1. The only potential breeding pair is at CMZ but the female, Carlotta is too old to handle breeding. The only other two mountain tapirs in human care are at the Cali Zoo in Columbia and I believe those two are related to the LA tapirs (not positive on this one, either way, Cali Zoo is not interested in sending their tapirs to the US). There doesn’t seem to be much interest in starting a captive breeding program in Colombia or Ecuador so right now the focus is to support conservation in those countries through research and land conservation.

 

The species was switched to phase-out not because of lack of institutional interest, but rather the extremely tiny captive population is mostly directed related (LA has indeed sent at least one of their tapirs to Cali Zoo) and Ecuador and Colombia refused to send more founders to the US when animals were still young enough to breed.

~Thylo