Interesting! I never knew that the elephants hated the train! That explains a lot. Any other fun monorail tidbits to share? I guess I've also never really had any complaints about the exhibit because I've always taken the first one out heh.
Asian elephants, Indian rhinos, Indo-Chinese tigers, gaur, Przewalski's wild horses, red pandas and a variety of deer and antelope. Chital, barasingha and others are in large paddocks in this 38 acre section of the Bronx Zoo. Sadly in the winter it is off limits to visitors, as can be the gorillas in the famous Congo Gorilla Forest. The zoo still has loads of pavilions containing all sorts of animals.
And I am sure winter is the best time to see the winter loving Snow Leopards playing in the snow in the #1 snow leopard habitat in the country.
On my last visit a few years ago, the species were as follows: Open paddock: Blackbuck, chital, barasingha Forest paddock 1: Formosan sika Forest paddock 2: Gaur, Eld's deer (Tigers, babirusa, elephants, Indian rhinos) End paddock: Sambar Then individual enclosures for tufted deer, Himalayan tahr, and red pandas. Since then, the collection has changed - hog deer and nilgai have been added (I presume they are in Wild Asia)
I believe Asian Wild Horses have replaced the Formosan Sikas in the second exhibit. A few years ago there were also babirusa in a small exhibit near the elephants--don't know if they are still there
Awesome thanks! I'm impressed the species mixes are even close to geographically accurate (at least within the same country, blackbuck and barasingha certainly don't live in the same part of India)
Yes, the last time I was on the ride in October the Wild Horses were on the monorail (instead of their old exhibit space by aquatic birds) and the formosan sika deer are now in that exhibit space back by the aquatic birds. Babirusa was there last summer (I think) but I can't remember this past year.
I just found this thread through the 10th Anniversary of CGF thread and found the discussion most interesting. As some of you may know my job is as a monorail tour guide, albeit not at the Bronx, but in Dallas. I would be interested to hear feedback on what you think makes a good tour experience. Maybe for that kind of a discussion this could go to a new thread.
The big things that make a good experience, to me, are personality and knowledge. There is a huge difference between someone enjoying giving the tour and someone who is just waiting until their next pay day. Also, sprinkle in a good info to your visitors. If you just go "And here is an elephant, they are endangered" no one is going to care. If you go "Here are our Asian Elephants. They are native to India, SE Asia, Sumatra, ........" and give good insight, people will enjoy it more.
I've only been twice(Last time Congo was still new and they were just breaking ground on Tiger Mountain), but yeah, each time they were really boring.
The main issue for a hardcore zoo fan like me is time. If I see elephants for 50 seconds, a rare species of deer for 20 seconds, some tigers for 35 seconds, red pandas for maybe 10 seconds (and I am most definitely not exaggerating these times) then Wild Asia becomes a waste of my time. However, I understand that I am not in the category of "average zoo visitor" and thus am much more demanding when it comes to the length of time within any animal establishment.
No I completely understand that point of view. Luckily all of our big ticket animals are not view from the monorail or at least can be viewed elsewhere. I would agree that elephants and tigers would make for a bad choice of animals for a monorail. With ours it's mostly hoofstock.
TIME is the # 1 reason why I would never rate Disney's "Kilimanjaro Safaris" ride as the best exhibit in the world. Is it spectacular? Undoubtedly. Is it an effective recreation of an African grassland experience? Definitely. However, when I see an okapi for 10 seconds, a family of mandrills for 5 seconds, elephants for maybe a minute, nile crocodiles for 20 seconds, bongo for less than 10 seconds, etc, that pales in comparison to sitting and staring at gorillas in the Bronx for as long as I wish. An 18-minute Disney ride does not make the cut for a hardcore zoo fan, unless one is content to hang on for pure joy and spend seconds seeing endangered animals. DAK's best exhibits are the Pangani Forest Trail and Asian section, and unfortunately that represents an hour or two of time. There aren't enough animals for a full day of walking, but if you are into rollercoasters, river rapids, Mickey Mouse and candy floss then an individual could stay there for a week!
I completely agree there. In my experience the ride needs to complement the other exhibits, but be the main focus. While we have some animals that are only visible from the train a good majority of the animals that people want to see and spend time watching are visible other ways (chimps, gorillas, okapi, and soon elephants, giraffes, and lions). But if you're like me and have a fascination with antelope, then the train ride isn't the best option. Unless you do what I did and just drive the darn thing.
That may be the biggest problem with Wild Asia. Not to say that I don't want to see the rare deer species and other hoofstock that are found only on Wild Asia but Bronx's big charismatic species can only be viewed for a few seconds. That also applies to DAK. Even the tiger sub species (Malayan) I rather see is on Wild Asia. Not only can the enclosure be seen for only few seconds but it is difficult to spot the tigers in the first place (this led to the construction of Tiger Mountain).
I am going to the Bronx zoo in august and just wanted to ask a few questions: 1) Is wild asia still in operation because I thought I had read somewhere that it was going to close?? ( I may have misread that) 2) What are the best exhibits to see at the Bronx?? 3) Could I get round the zoo in a whole day, taking into consideration how long I like to watch certain animals?? And any other tips you'd have.
