Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium Wildlife World Zoo - Safari expansion

Maricopa County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to allow the expansion of the Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium today. The vote will permit the park to expand its facilities to the 55 acres on its southern perimeter.
Home to the largest collection in the state of Arizona, Wildlife world zoo, will open a new exhibit in the autumn (fall), called Dragon world, to be home to monitor lizards, anacondas, and the state's first salt water crocodile.
Another aquarium slated to open in the spring will sport a 40,000 gallon Amazon River Monster display. The Amazon River System will be home to several South American fresh water giants such as a 3-4 foot arrowana, large arapaima, giant Amazon turtles, as well as black piranhas and freshwater stingrays. The zoo plans to have a giant payara, sometimes called the "vampire fish".
The new aquarium building will also feature a 20-foot diameter display for marine turtles.

Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium to expand - CBS5 - KPHO - Phoenix News, Weather and Sports

 

This is HUGE! I live in the same state and I cannot believe I had to learn about this from a ZooChat post from someone in the UK. Thank you for finding this.

The dragons area is news to me. Last I heard the amazon aquarium was the only development, scheduled to open November 2011. Now it looks as if it is pushed back to spring 2012 and the dragons will be fall 2011.

I am also glad to see mention at the end of the article that they have a director of conservation on staff, because I had a suspicion that they did not actively contribute to any conservation projects. Glad I am wrong. The only thing I still find odd about this zoo is that they are set up as a for profit corporation, instead of a non-profit like most zoos.

 

Here is another article:

Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium to begin work on new safari park - Arizona News from The Arizona Republic

 

Great expansion, but I am not too sure about the name change. One of my pet peeves is when zoos have names that are too long. At first they were Wildlife World Zoo, which is ok. Now they are Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium, which is getting a bit too much. But next they are going to expand it even further to Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium Safari Park??? Why don't they just drop all the descriptives and simply call it Wildlife World? Seems like that would cover all aspects in two simple words.

 

Another article with news about the many future exhibits on the horizon:

It is grow or die for Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium in West Valley

 

Here is a good article from earlier this year (2013). Glad to see that once the new areas are done, they will start improving the old areas (some of which are truly awful).
http://www.azcentral.com/community/...ldlife-world-zoo-will-see-wild-expansion.html

 

From the reviews here from snowleopard and others this whole place seems rather dodgy. What is your opinion of it, AZD?

 

I have decidedly mixed feelings. I do enjoy my visits there, mainly because I always get some good photos and my enjoyment of zoos is directly tied to the photo opportunities. There are some cages, however, that I look at and think how can this place allow substandard exhibits like this? I do think they are slowly (very slowly) improving. The new reptile complex Land Of The Dragons is quite nice - surprisingly good really. And the aquariums are more or less pretty good. The hoofstock fields are simple but are natural and large - better than many AZA zoos.

In conclusion, I guess there is enough for me to enjoy that I have learned to overlook the bad.

 

Only about a month until the fifteen acre safari expansion, and still no real news about it. There is this very brief animal list on their Facebook page:

This newest set of attractions will increase Wildlife World's developed area to more than 75 acres and will feature several brand new species including: greater kudu, baboons, rock hyrax, wildebeest, Watusi cattle, cheetahs and more. It will also have a new African lion habitat and a variety of African birds and other ungulates. Visitors will be able to walk around the safari park as well as take an optional tram ride through several animal exhibits.

 

This is the month it opens and still no real news. However, they just added a single image to their Facebook page which shows their logo with the new name: Wildlife World Zoo and Aquarium and Safari Park. This is the most ridiculously lengthy name for a facility I have ever seen in my life. I am looking forward to the new expansion, but renaming the place like this is a completely boneheaded idea.

 

Haha, that is an amazingly dumb name! Classic.

 

If you go on google maps you can see the construction.
http://goo.gl/maps/ytLtZ

 

The website now lists the official opening as Saturday, January 25, 2014.
Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium | News Releases
It also states the initial opening will only feature a new lion exhibit and african birds (in other words, all animals they already have). The new species will be added at an undisclosed later date. These species are listed as greater kudu, baboon (species unknown), rock hyrax, wildebeest, watusi cattle, cheetah.

 

Here is a preview from the local television news.
Wildlife World Zoo opens new 'Safari Park' | azfamily.com Phoenix

They state that Jack Hanna will be there briefly for Saturday's opening celebration. Earlier this week I saw a billboard that the next day (Sunday) he will be doing a show at a theatre here in Tucson. I assume Wildlife World is providing most of the animals for the show, as I have not heard anything at my local zoo about being there (but I could be wrong on this).

 

The zoo has updated its map to include the new african area.
Wildlife World Zoo & Aquarium and Safari Park | Zoo Map

 

Nice find!

 

Here is yet another article on the expansion. This is the first mention I have seen of a white lion. Since the zoo itself has never mentioned that I wonder if it is correct or a typo?
http://www.yourwestvalley.com/localnews/article_40ea49d8-852f-11e3-a13b-001a4bcf887a.html

 

The African safari expansion opened almost a year ago.

According to Facebook, they have now started construction on the America expansion. Opening is scheduled for "early 2016." It will apparently have four rides, details not given except one roller coaster. Considering there is currently only one roller coaster in all of Arizona (at a mini golf course and arcade), this will likely be popular. Not with ZooChatters of course, but with the general public.

 

Is it all a ride area or are they building some new American animal exhibits too?

 

Wildlife World will be up to at least 10 rides by then and the ever-increasing expansion plans of this zoo is somewhat surprising. However, with rows of metal primate cages and innumerable tiny metal aviaries one would have thought that upgrading the many outdated exhibits would have been a higher priority.