los angeles zoo is building a new 'pachyderm forest' for asian elephants. it will cover 3.5 acres and looks alright from the plans, providing space for a herd situation.
From the description on the website, it seems they're housing their golden monkeys outdoors! I'm surprised... it can get pretty hot in the summer in LA
http://www.lazoo.org/support/images/PachydermForest.pdf That is a link to a 9 page document outling 2009's $40 million elephant exhibit. The outdoor space will be 3.5 acres, and it will be 7 times larger than the current enclosure.
Has anyone visited the Los Angeles Zoo recently? The number of new exhibits that have been built in the last decade is staggering, and the cost must be at least a couple of hundred million dollars. A once poorly rated collection has gradually become a much more highly regarded establishment. I might make my way down to southern California in another couple of years, as by then the zoo should be fantastic. New Exhibits: 1998 - Chimpanzees of Mahale Mountains 2000 - Red Ape Rain Forest 2001 - Children's Zoo 2002 - Animal Health Center 2004 - Children's Discovery Center 2005 - Sea Lion Cliffs & Entry Plaza 2007 - Campo Gorilla Reserve 2008 - Golden Monkey Exhibit 2009 - Pachyderm Forest (3.7 acres of paddocks and 6 acres in total) 2010 - Rainforest of the Americas 2010 - Reptile House
Snow Leopard: Don't plan a special trip to LA to see the new developments--they are almost without exception disappointing. Chimps of Mahale--combined and reused ugly existing concrete grottoes, added new viewing building (one of a series of "abandoned logging camps" perpetrated on US zoos by CLR architects). Landscape is basically sod lawns with a few hotwired palm trees, and bad rockwork. Chimps got out a few times--and the security additions just made things worse (visually). Pretty nice new holding spaces added however. Red Ape Rain Forest--three linked mesh enclosures for orangs, surrounding a large "Indonesian-inspired" viewing area. Not nearly enough climbing structures included, so often orangs still sit on the ground. Very little sense of "rain forest," even in a climate where you can grow anything. Decent holding area. Children's Zoo--OK, nothing new here Childrens' Discovery Center--basically education offices (nice) with a multipurpose room that until last year had not opened to the public (ran out of $$ to install exhibits). Sea Lion Cliffs and Entry Plaza--huge, very "Hollywood" entry gate (previous director wanted visibility from freeway 1/2 a mile away!). Sea Lion exhibit is horrible--underwater viewing negated by bad reflections, generally poor exhibit detailing throughout. Good IDEA for first animal exhibit--just not pulled off right. Campo Gorilla Reserve--have not seen this in person, but from photos clearly breaks no new ground (Dallas, Seattle, Bronx, Louisville etc. all much better earlier examples). Again, landscape detailing is crude, and poor use of outdoor glass without accounting for annoying reflections (a very common sin in zoo design). Golden Monkey exhibit--not done yet, but basically a mesh tent with a Chinese-themed viewing structure. Will be great if they ever acquire golden monkeys, still a big question last I heard. I would not be surprised to visit in a few years to find some more common Asian primate species in this exhibit. Pachyderm Forest--now in its third design iteration (original included black rhino, hippo with underwater viewing and some smaller species). Current version looks like a good urban zoo elephant exhibit, with all the limitations that suggests. But LA currently only has one ele, and animal rights activists have been all over them based on past bad track record. Huge expenditure--will it be worth it? Rainforest of the Americas--haven't seen designs. But is an indoor rainforest exhibit a good choice in subtropical southern California? Reptile House--spent over $1 million on an avant-garde design by a high-profile architect, then scrapped it and started over from scratch, in a new location. Hope it's a better design--LA had quite an interesting herp collection. Bottom line--well over $150 million will be spent, and not one new exhibit can be described as (a) innovative, (b) beautiful or (c) world-class. A bit of a wasted opportunity. Even in LA, it will be hard to generate that level of public/private funding again in our lifetime.
@reduakari: wow, that was a negative summary of all the new exhibits! It was actually terrific to hear from someone who has visited the Los Angeles Zoo, as it tends to be forgotten with all of the numerous other attractions down in southern California. Two years ago I went to the San Diego Zoo, SD Wild Animal Park, SD Seaworld, Monterey Bay Aquarium and the San Francisco Zoo on an epic road trip, and only the San Francisco Zoo was a major disappointment. It's utterly amazing that the Los Angeles Zoo can spend such an enormous amount of money, and yet end up with substandard exhibits. I wonder if hardcore zoo fans like people here on ZooBeat are much more critical...and perhaps the average zoo visitor will be head over heels with the L.A. Zoo's improvements?
I dont think the American Rainforest exhibit will be indoors, just covered. I have yet to see the plans (i dont even think they have them yet). But it would only make since that it would replace the current aviary complex on the hillside between the main zoo and the entry/children's zoo. It wil probably be mostly netted like San Diego's Rainforest Aviary or Miami's Wings of Asia. Its ashame that the money was approved in the 1990s, back when everything was cheaper. So unless they magically get a huge benefactor, I expected the new exhibits to be down played more than originally hoped. Basically it is just the wrong time to renovate a zoo in California - look at San Francisco. ...it might actually be cheaper to build it in another place and ship it to California
Great post reduakari! Money does not always translate into great exhibits or a great Zoo! The Los Angeles Zoo has a lot of small uninspiring exhibits that despite well over a hundred million dollars of Zoo renovations will likely remain for many more years. For example, recently they had a 1,200 square foot exhibit with 4 gaur, 5 axis deer, and 4 blackbuck. If each animal was evenly spaced out they would have a bubble of space around them with a radius of about ten feet ! The Los Angeles giraffe exhibit is not much better. It comprises only 8,000 square feet . Basically it is a sand pit with some concrete edges and fake concrete banks with vegetation overhead. The tiger enclosure also looks like a giant sand pit with the added bonus of a few plants stuck in and slightly more realistic concrete barriers. Campo Gorilla Reserve is disappointing in part because it was originally designed to have lots of large towering trees with canopies overhanging the majority of the exhibit. They do have a couple of large trees in the completed exhibit, but for the most part it looks quite exposed to me. There is also a conspicuous lack of climbing structures.
In the design for the exhibit it shows tall trees, but when they built the exhibit they used young trees, so it will take a years for them to grow big enough to provide shade. As for climbing structures, I was talking to the enrichment department and they said the zoo does not allow them because the city of Los Angeles is scared that the zookeepers could get hurt trying to climb the structures to clean them up. I know that's dumb, but the city of LA is the reason this zoo can't do many things.
Melbourne zoo staff have to wear harnesses ad-joiing ladders on it's 2 or 3 story climbing structures- for orangs
Can we get back on topic of Los Angeles Zoo? I would really like to know from our US zoo followers what the future outlook is for the great apes and elephants. I hear rumours of more eles coming to LA. But where will they come from with a huge aged population within SSP zoos? The great apes: can you tell us about breeding success in them at LA Zoo? In what way are the exhibits functional for that purpose?
I can only join jelle with asking another question: does anyone know whether the Golden Snub Nosed Monkey exhibit is finished?
@jelle: Well, I heard the zoo is planning to get the elephants from Asia, but I'm not sure how. About the breeding success for the great apes in the new exhibits is: -Red Ape Rainforest: the zoo had a baby orangutan born in 2005 and in Feb they witnessed another female mating for the first time with the zoos male orangutan, so here at the zoo they're keeping their fingers crossed. -Chimpanzees of Mahale Mountain: the zoo is not allowed to breed yet because the troop is to big, but the zoo has used the troop's females as surrogate mothers to orphan chimps. The zoo has helped three orphan chimps so far and the three were able to stay in the troop. -Campo Gorilla Reserve: the zoo has a three year old baby that was born while the exhibit was being built. The other female cannot breed because the silverback sees her as his mother (she was his surrogate mother). Right now the zoo is looking for another breeding female. @Sun Wukong: The Golden Monkey Exhibit is indeed finished, but the problem is that the zoo is having problems with getting the monkeys. I heard that they did have an agreement with china, but something happened so now the zoo is stuck with an empty exhibit.
@mstickmanp: Thanks for the response. So the LA Zoo is stuck with an empty exhibit worth ~7.5 million US$-now that's just great... Well, the other way round wouldn't be much better.
