It is amazing that Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg, Manitoba, currently has ELEVEN Polar Bears in its Journey to Churchill complex. If only Canadian zoos could send bears to the USA!
I know, it's crazy! I guess the current law we have which prohibits the U.S. from getting wild bears also prohibits Americans to hunt or import any part of a bear into the country. If they could tweak the law, which I heard Americans in the zoo community are trying to do, it could help. But the way the American government currently looks at environmental concerns, they would probably only approve the change if it allowed the bears to be hunted.
Yes. I am sure it was put in there to try to reassure visitors they MAY bring them back in the future. It's possible one of the Columbus Zoo polar bear cubs could go there, but with new exhibits being built recently, I don't think that one exhibit 20+ years old would be a top priority.
Female snow leopard Timila arrived from Metro Richmond Zoo. New snow leopard arrives at Seneca Park Zoo
I am trying to figure out the barriers for the exhibits. It looks like the red pandas might just have high walls and an open air exhibit. The snow leopard exhibit looks meshed in, but it looks like there are viewing windows in the front for visitors to see them. I hope to see more photos of the exhibits soon. EDIT: Okay, the video just posted gives me a better indication.
Here is the current map on the website. https://senecaparkzoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/50660-SPZ_New-Zoo-Map-v3.pdf?x82903 Here is video from the County Executive at the opening. Thought maybe this may help.
There is a video at this link too. You won't see anything cuter all day: Red Pandas join Seneca Park Zoo
I am excited for this expansion. The giraffe exhibit looks amazing, as the zoo has preserved most of the existing trees. It looks rather similar to the Bronx zoo's giraffe yard. The rhino yard though looks pretty small and disappointing. It appears a lot of that side of the house is simply devoted to a parking area for vehicles, instead of a large exhibit. This will definitely be a great addition to the zoo overall, I just wish they had sent away the rhino's and expanded their elephant exhibit, because it is already one of the smaller remaining elephant exhibits.
Their Elephant Exhibit is not really that small, is it huge? no, not by any means but many zoos have smaller exhibits than this one. It even has a pool which is also less common. Just go down the road to Buffalo, their exhibit is truly small even for 2 elephants.
All 3 yards combined are .56 acres for 4 elephants, Buffalos exhibit is .44 acres for 2. The barn is pretty big as it is the exact same size as the rosamond gifford zoo's, while Buffalos is horridly small. When the zoo split the exhibit yard it definitely reduced the quality of this exhibit. Instead I wish they would have created an additional yard to the North in the area where white rhino's will be going. The could have fit a .75 acre yard with the current giraffe barn placement, and if they had planned to expand the elephants from the start could have had it could have been 1 acre or 1.25 acre, while still adding giraffes. But now the zoo is stuck with what they have, although long term with rising standards I imagine its gonna be either rhinos or elephants who go. If we contrast it to Buffalo, yes the exhibit is better, larger and more enriching. But the standard should not be set that low, zoos should excel to have exhibits more like the Rosamond Gifford Zoo's exhibit which I loved when I visited years ago (only issue was concrete floors in barn and lack of a pool. The later has now been fixed). Most zoochatters expect Buffalo to phase out elephants though, yet for a zoo with longterm plans I stand by my assessment that the exhibit is small. Also size is not the only thing and from what I have seen SPZ has a great enrichment program for the elephants and I appluad them on trying to build a larger-more natural herd. I just feel their options have now been limited for a longterm elephant exhibit.
I did not know the exact size, even though it is still small it still looks much nicer than most. I wish more zoos had realistic exhibits for their elephants. The zoo doesn't have much space to begin with but they most certainly aren't going to remove a popular animal like Rhinos just to expand the elephant yard more. They only have so many species as it is now with the Main Building soon to be demolished.
Yes the elephant exhibit is very nice looking but its still not a great longterm solution for having elephants at the zoo. It is likely in the 10 smallest exhibits at this point as many of zoos who previously had smaller exhibits closed them down. Yes its not a breeding herd, so it does not have to reach that high standard. The new rhino exhibit is going to be one of the smaller rhino exhibits as well, and likely can never hold more than 2 non-breeding rhinos in my opinion (The giraffe exhibit is going to be pretty big, so it does not have the same issues as the elephants and rhinos). This zoo is 20 acres, and it holds lions, tigers, snow leopards, rhino, elephant, bears (although is that exhibit currently vacant), sea lion, and soon gorilla, orangutan, giraffes and zebra. So thats a lot of the popular ABC species for the site. Most of them are kept in adequate to good exhibits, so I don't believe the loss of rhinos would have any impact. Rhinos are much less popular than giraffes or elephants anyways. Personally I never liked how much the zoos master plan focused on warm-weather species. Yes adding giraffes and gorilla will be good for visitor numbers, but given the climate of the region a collection more focused on cold-weather species like Rosamond Gifford would be better.
