Milwaukee County Zoo Milwaukee County Zoo News 2019

Here's an official announcement about the prehensile-tailed porcupine.
Prehensile-Tailed Porcupine Joins Small Mammals | Milwaukee County Zoo

 

Hippo exhibit update
Security Check Required

 

Kiki the red panda cub makes her public debut tomorrow!

Milwaukee County Zoo’s newest red panda cub makes her debut Friday, Sept. 20

 

Hey guys I haven’t been on here in a while and just read all the posts.... thanks for all the info and does anyone else have more info on future zoo plans?

 

What specifically are you looking for?

 

Nothing in particular just curious if I missed anything

 

Adventure Africa: Elephants - phase I finished and open.
AA: Hippos phase II under reconstruction.
AA: Rhinos phase III after hippos.

 

After hippos and rhinos, it looks like the focus will be on the main entrance of the zoo, followed by Alaska Gold Coast.

 

Belle the African Elephant is coming from the riverbanks zoo

 

Official annoucement of Belle:

The Zoo Prepares to Welcome a New Elephant to Adventure Africa Exhibit | Milwaukee County Zoo

7 Rhinoceros Vipers were born in June:

Rhinoceros Viper Snakelets: A First at the Zoo | Milwaukee County Zoo

 

Here's another article and a more behind the scenes look at the new baby Rhinoceros Vipers: Baby rhinoceros vipers slither their way into the hearts of Milwaukee County zookeepers

 

As construction is well underway for phase 2 of adventure Africa. It’s that time to be looking ahead to phase 3, rhinos. The zoo is projecting that the construction for the rhinos will be $10 million and will be taking over the elephants old home. The proposal didn’t say anything about the river hog space or where the rhinos currently are, those areas are assumed to be included at the moment but won’t know till plans are released. Also construction on phase 3 won’t start till 2022 as they are currently predicting. So it appears that there will be a year of construction silence after the hippo exhibit is finished.

 

I guess that makes sense. A year off will also give them more time to raise more money for the rhinos OR future projects. Plus I'm not sure how much a zoo that's constantly under construction is appreciated to families and kids outside of our group of zoo nerds here

 

Is there any indication of whether the upcoming phases of Adventure Africa will maintain the consistent "feel" and design elements that Milwaukee's exhibits had for so long, with semi-abstract rockwork, open views, stone veneer buildings, etc.? From photos it looks like phase I abandoned that for a more industrial look.

 

As of now the smaller elephant yard has a mock rock wall - the remains of an old bear grotto - as a barrier. The elephant exhibit is a very open area so I suppose that may be included in this category. Otherwise, not much else of what you mention is really present. In my opinion this is a welcome change as the stone buildings and horrific looking fake rock continuing to be a part of future exhibits is not a thought I relish. Even the examples of that in the newest phase such as the rock barrier and hoof stock barn are arguably the least appealing parts of the complex. It does seem like the abstract rock will in fact be a barrier for the back end of the upcoming hippo exhibit however, a decision I am completely against and that isn't my only issue with the future hippo complex.

 

Omaha Zoo has been under constant construction and there are tons of kids and families roaming that place.

 

I'd guess the zoo's primary concern is cost savings, since it would be expensive to demolish the existing rock walls only to replace them with some other type of containment. My personal preference is for totally natural exhibits with hidden barriers, but if that isn't possible I don't mind the zoo maintaining original design elements, which are almost old enough to be considered historic.

 

It very possibly could be a matter of cost, but I still disagree with the use of these old structures in new exhibits. Sure they will work at the moment, but considering that they all already date back to many decades ago and are already outdated, how will they look another 50 years for now? If the zoo keeps these in upcoming exhibits they will only become worse and even more outdated overtime. That is a common theme with some of the zoos recent exhibits, they are perfectly good -sometimes great - but have elements they make the areas feel like a refresh of something old rather than something brand new.

While we are on the topic of old school zoo design - not news, just a couple of neat details - I recently received a zoo guidebook dating back to 1973. It was a lovely little read and I was shocked to see how the zoo was arranged back then. For anyone interested, here are some of the highlights.

Africa, Asia South America Groupings:

• Africa still has elements from then still standing today. White rhinos were originally present were the red river hogs are now, between the old elephant and hippo yards. Secretary birds, springbok and hartebeest were present in the African hoofstock yards.
• The Asian section was much different. Asian elephants in the current large black rhino yard, with Indian rhinos in the current smaller black rhino yard. The existing camel yard contained axis deer, blackbuck, demoiselle crane and sarus cranes.
• South America sounded like it was absolutely packed with species at the time. The following are all listed. Tapirs, llamas, capybara, giant anteater, pacas, caves, agouti, flamingos, rheas, humboldt's penguins, king vultures, red-footed tortoises and a small section with clipped macaws on a display of sticks. So many species all in the same exhibit, absolutely incredible!

North America:

• The modern day caribou and elk paddocks are grassy and well planted, but they were once essentially just large patches of dirt and bison were in the existing caribou paddock.
• Stellers sea lions were in the now harbor seal exhibit and visitors could purchase fish to throw to the animals from a distance.
• Wolverines were at some point present in this area.

Primates:

• The old primate building was about half the size the current pair of primate complexes, but the collection will make any primate enthusiast start drooling. Species of interest include, lar gibbons, proboscis monkeys, barbary apes, lion-tailed macaque, black macaque, patas monkey, crested mangabey, scatter's guenon, syke's guenon, geladas and red uakaris. All of these alongside the present day assortment of gorillas, orangutans, colobus monkeys, mandrills, siamangs and spider monkeys.
• The monkey island now home to about a dozen Japanese macaques, was originally home to roughly 125 rhesus monkeys.

Reptile and Aquatic Center:

• During this time - and they could be fit into this building is beyond me - there were at least two amazon river dolphins in a 51,000 gallon tank.

Small Mammal House:

• The exhibit that currently holds a two-toed sloth and an agouti, formerly river otters, once held harbor seals. Horrifically small but a fantastic blast from the bast for zoo history buffs. Other former residents of the day room included caracles, squirrel monkeys, black-backed jackels, bat-eared foxes, fishers, jaguarundis and even a grison.
• The collection in the nocturnal room is even more impressive with palm civets, bearcats, hog badgers, pale fox, giant pangolins, ferret badgers and bush-tailed galagos. Its astonishing how such an immense collection was able to fit into such small exhibits.

Deer Park:

• This was an exhibit that existed on the site of the current west entrance and otter exhibit. It was essentially a large walkthrough exhibit where guests could buy food for over 100 fallow deer. I am unsure when this area closed down, but it looks like quite a spectacle.

The zoos collection at this time seems to be unmatched to just about any other American zoo out there. Of course, the exhibits at this time were even less appealing than the ones we have today and many of the rarer species had to be phased out. Alas it was a real surprise to see some animals on the list, and perhaps some will will return some day.

 

to my knowledge wolverine was in an exhibit near the brown bears. It held some bird after that and then sat empty for along time.

 

What species could conceivably / should come back. I want camels but I think that a mixed exhibit with blackbuck would be better for the predictor/pray style