I have just gotten a confirmation from Reid Park Zoological Society that they have the needed number of signatures and the tax proposal will definitely be on the November 2017 ballot. This is a very small city election which only features a primary election for city council delegates and two ballot initiatives (assuming the other one gathers enough signatures). One is the zoo tax for one tenth of a percent and another is an early childhood education tax for one half of one percent. Fingers crossed for a good result in November, as passing this tax would completely transform our beautiful small zoo.
Are crocodiles still part of the hippo complex plan or did they get edited out due to budget issues? My knowledge of the project may be several iterations out of date.
Honestly I don't even remember if crocodiles ever were part of the plan. Maybe you are thinking of Arizona Sonora Desert Museum or maybe they were part of this plan and I just don't remember. I do remember they might expand it to the current spot-necked otter exhibit and modify that for underwater viewing. Everything hinges on the November vote and I imagine we will get full exhibit details if and when it passes.
Here is a nice news video on the upcoming animal health center. The zoo director says it should be operational by January 2018. Zoo 4 You: New animal health center
Today I got the short quarterly newsletter which states the passage of the tax initiative will bring hippos and crocodiles to the zoo. (Of course the accompanying photo is an American alligator, not a crocodile). This is interesting because the artist rendering I linked in this thread Sign to vote for zoo tax | ZooChat makes no mention of crocodiles.
@AD, I do hope the "alligator" is just a PR stunt ..., and that when the crocs arrive they will be either be Niles, West-Africans (C. suchus) or African slender-snouteds!
This version of the zoo's masterplan mentions otters and crocodiles as well as the pigmy hippos: https://webcms.pima.gov/UserFiles/Servers/Server_6/File/Government/Bonds/2015 Bond Election/Prop 427/Reid Park Zoo African Expansion April 2015.pdf This article from earlier this year also mentions crocodiles and includes the actual 2014 master plan for the central area, on the first page of which is a map which has the crocodiles labelled: Reid Park Zoo initiatives hoping for spot on November ballot Looking at the map on the link on the photo you linked to, where it says "underwater viewing" for the pigmy hippos is also where the underwater viewing is for the otters and crocodiles (as of that plan), the enclosures are just not shown.
I don't think our small zoo has room for Nile crocodiles (or common hippos, which is why they are going with pygmy hippos I assume). My guess would be dwarf crocodiles.
Reid Park Zoo is consistently worth going back and visiting as there are always new attractions to enhance an already stellar zoological facility. Just in the last year the gibbons received an upgraded habitat, plus there have been new exhibits for poison dart frogs and meerkats. Up next is an Animal Health Center (which opens in a few months) and of course the November 7th election will determine much of the zoo's future. I can pass on the news that 2018 is going to be a very exciting time for Reid Park, with brand-new additions, but I need to keep specifics private on this site. However, here is something that I have received from a reliable source: "We are going to open a major exhibit for American Alligators this spring. The exhibit will be complete within the next month but we don't want to bring an alligator here in the middle of winter. The exhibit was funded by one anonymous donor who contributed a major gift to the zoo. It's a complete remodel of the area that formerly housed cranes with a huge new pool that can be temperature controlled, filtered, a waterfall, electrical upgrades to the whole area of the zoo, new retaining walls to replace the crumbling telephone pole walls, new rock work, new safety barriers, artificial cypress trees and stumps, and a huge alligator sculpture for kids to sit on and take photos of."
My hope is that they are slender-snouted crocs. The SSP has been doing a lot of work with Abidjan Zoo and there are tentative plans to import founders from them in the near future. Additionally, they are critically endangered and live in the same region as pygmy hippos.
Tonight is (or was) the zoo's annual fundraiser. They just posted a clip from the stage on Facebook announcing a temporary new visitor. From November 2017 through March 2018 the zoo will have a loan of red pandas. No idea how many (I would guess one or two) and no idea where they will go. (edit - when the director announced the loan he also made a point of saying they have never been exhibited in Arizona)
Here is a very brief news clip of the red panda announcement: Reid Park Zoo getting Red Pandas And here is a very brief article that confirms there will be two red pandas: Red pandas coming to the Reid Park Zoo in November
The article also states the pandas will be going to a new exhibit in Utah after their stay at Reid Park. No specific zoo is mentioned, but I assume Hogle Zoo?
@Arizona Docent It appears according to the map that the Ruffed Lemurs moved into the Gibbon exhibit near the Tigers, and the Gibbons moved back to their old exhibit. Is this because they have geriatric Gibbons?
Well today is election day (zoo tax) and it is 8:20pm, polls closed at 7pm. However Tucson city elections are conducted via mail-in ballot, there were no at large polling places like a major national election. The central office is open for walk-in registered voters who failed to mail in their ballot, but I imagine no more than a handful of people did this. So how did the zoo fare? According to the city website with "100 percent of precincts reporting"... Prop 202 Zoo Tax Charter Authorization: 52% yes, 48% no Prop 203 Zoo Tax: 50% yes, 50% no However, the physical count shows the 50/50 split is not exact with slightly more no votes (36,216 no versus 35,866 yes). Since both propositions must be passed for it to take effect, I am fearful it was very narrowly defeated. Since the two propositions went hand-in-hand, I want to know why a small percentage of voters said yes on one and no on the other. (For that matter I wonder why it was split into two propositions, but I am sure there is a technical legal reason why). I will look for an official announcement tomorrow, maybe with the 50/50 there is a workaround? I hope so, but I am fearful that we just barely missed it.
Here is a local news spot from the zoo last night after the election results were known: ELECTION RESULTS: Proposition 202, 203 (At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I am still baffled as to why it was split into two different propositions).
Apparently it is against the city code to create the special tax so that needs to be amended, and then the tax itself needs to be approved. To do it in one proposition might have meant amending the city code to create this specific one-time tax and that may not be possible or desirable.
