# Brookfield Zoo



## Tom (Jul 2, 2013)

Went to the Zoo yesterday. Overall it was pretty nice. The giant indoor primate hall was pretty cool. The African wild dogs were amazing to watch. The baboons just laid around hiding all day. Okapi and red river hogs were active. It was a pretty good trip overall.

But this is a tortoise forum. And the tortoises were pretty sad. All had tall sided, inappropriate water bowls. None had any food. I'm guessing they subscribe to the whole feed them light so they don't pyramid theory. (It isn't working.) So sad that a respected institution such as this, is so far behind the curve. I have a friend on this inside, so I will be trying to talk to them, but its not likely I will get very far.

Some pics:

Started out the day with this confusing bit... Here is the placard outside the enclosure:






Here is the animal IN this enclosure:




Say what now...?


On to the Galops:

















Radiata:









Redfoots:









Texas Tortoises:













Spotted turtles:

















And last, but not least, the lone Egyptian:








... He never moved from that spot.


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## Yvonne G (Jul 2, 2013)

Well, they have a nice selection, but they sure are bumpy.


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## Neal (Jul 2, 2013)

I'm curious about what that "Pet Trade Off" sign says. 

I'd be willing to bet that the average captive tortoise is in much better conditions than these ones at the zoo. Not to mention all the positive conservation efforts made by people who keep them in captivity.


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## ColinF87 (Jul 2, 2013)

I visited Edinburgh Zoo a few months ago and they had a similar set-up (although a much smaller selection). Four tortoises - I think they were russians - in a vivarium waaaay too small with one water bowl between them, one hide and hardly any food. They looked fairly healthy (no pyramiding, etc) and were moving around, but they were having to climb over each other to get anywhere. The sad thing is, in the very next room they had a big pen in the corner which would have been ideal for them if they kitted it out properly.

By contrast, there's a safari park not too far from me which has done it properly. They have one sulcata by itself in a large enclosure with a decent sized indoor area as well. I was there last month and it looked so happy, but that might have been down to the HUGE dandelion it had found...


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## peasinapod (Jul 2, 2013)

The Zoo ZÃ¼rich has a pretty nice setup for Galapagos tortoises. They built a huge "Masoala" hall. It is basically a hall with a built in forest with some paths and animals roaming around freely. Most of the space is not accessible to visitors so that the animal shave lots of space to retreat. Here's a link where you can see some impressions. There are even some pictures of the tortoises. If you google "Masoala Halle ZÃ¼rich" you can find a lot more pictures.

http://www.20min.ch/diashow/diashow.tmpl?showid=5343


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## wellington (Jul 2, 2013)

I haven't been to that zoo since they got the tortoises, the Galops anyway. The couple torts at the Lincoln park zoo have even smaller enclosures, but I think they only have box turtles, now that I think of it, still too small of enclosures. It is sad that the tortoises in a zoo look the worse, usually.


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## EKLC (Jul 2, 2013)

That's a shame to see. How can people paid to keep these animals mess it up worse than the average uninformed tortoise owner? All it takes is one stubborn head keeper I guess.


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## Tom (Jul 2, 2013)

With the exception of the Galapagos, all these other tortoises are older than 5 years. People simply didn't know about raising them with the sort of humidity that we here on this forum practice. This zoo is simply following the same practices that everyone else, including myself, was following just a few years ago.

This sort of change takes time. Large institutions are generally going to be the last to change. Other people who are less "encumbered" have to lead the way.


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## theelectraco (Jul 2, 2013)

That looks more like a glorified pet store rather than a zoo. A lot of members here have larger indoor enclosures then the ones shown.


0.1.0 Dachshund
0.0.1 Redfoot
1.0.0 Greek


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## Leopard Tortoise Lover 16199 (Jul 2, 2013)

You would think zoos would make the effort to take the best possible care of their animals considering that a regular tortoise owner could take better care and attention.


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## mctlong (Jul 2, 2013)

On the upside, they don't appear to be mixing species, at least that I can see from the pics.

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using TortForum mobile app


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## Tom (Jul 2, 2013)

The Texas torts were living with some chuckwallas, but every other enclosure had just one species. The over all health of most of the tortoises seemed okay. The egyptian and the Texas torts, never moved though. I checked on them when we got there, mid day and again just before we left. The Radiata and Galops were active and behaved normally. One of the redfoots was on the move at the end of the day. The spotted turtles are kept as a pair, and the poor female spent the day trying to get away from him, while he spent the day following and harassing her.


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## Kameo37 (Jul 2, 2013)

This is the burden of doing so much research about any particular species that your brain hurts. Everywhere you go, you see problems. Not that anyone is the definitive expert on any animal..
we learn new things all the time. It is hard not to cringe, though, when you see/hear about a beardie on sand, or a tortoise on a lettuce only diet, or a ball python on an unregulated heat mat. When you do your research, you obviously care about the creature. Not everybody does the research. 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using TortForum mobile app


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## mike taylor (Jul 2, 2013)

Yep,all the torts at the Lufkin zoo was pyramided to . The sulcatas had a big space to walk and be a tortoise but no pool but they had a mister that made a mud puddle. But most where rescues and all had food and some sort of water.

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## oscar (Jul 2, 2013)

Brookfield Zoo use to have a large reptile house and was pretty impressive.
They have since did away with it and was told that they were going to put
reptiles in the exhibit area were they came from, for instance pancake, leopard, sulcatas in the area were african animals were on display. I always enjoyed just seeing all there reptiles in the one building.
In the 60s we would go to the children's section of the zoo and ride the giant tortoises, they would have a pole with string and an apple attached
to the end of the string the workers would hold the apple out in front of the tortoises and keep moving it just enough so the tortoises could not get the apple and thus walk so you could get your ride.


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## Tom (Jul 2, 2013)

Now you have to pay extra to go in the kiddie area, as well as a whole bunch of other areas too. I wanted to see the animals in the kiddie area, but since I didn't have my kiddie with me, it seemed a little weird.


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## zman7590 (Jul 2, 2013)

an owner can take care of each animal better then a zoo...they have ALOT of animals....sad but true with every zoo....they dont give special attention to each animal


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## wellington (Jul 2, 2013)

Tom said:


> Now you have to pay extra to go in the kiddie area, as well as a whole bunch of other areas too. I wanted to see the animals in the kiddie area, but since I didn't have my kiddie with me, it seemed a little weird.



LMAO, you might have gotten arrested


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## Tom (Jul 2, 2013)

wellington said:


> Tom said:
> 
> 
> > Now you have to pay extra to go in the kiddie area, as well as a whole bunch of other areas too. I wanted to see the animals in the kiddie area, but since I didn't have my kiddie with me, it seemed a little weird.
> ...



Don't laugh. I would have been calling YOU to come bail me out! 


"Seriously officer. I just wanted to see the tortoises in the kiddie area..." "No really. I'm not joking..."


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## wellington (Jul 2, 2013)

Now I would have a ball posting that thread I would have to put a link in my signature to your mug shot


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## tortadise (Jul 2, 2013)

I do not like the galops, and specifically the texas tortoise set up. All in all they all need some work. But the areas Texas torts are found are not desert at all. It can get pretty arid yes. But man. I work with a lot of zoos. really just take their unwanted animals. They have good keepers, but they are limited to authority from curators, husbandry directors, and directors that have collegiate degrees and very limited applied experience in tortoises or any animals kept at zoos. Sad photos Tom. It is unfortunate, but this is rather popular at zoological facilities.


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## RosieRedfoot (Jul 2, 2013)

Thankful the zoo near me has better setups for their galaps and radiateds and Burmese... They don't have redfoots here which is odd but probably due to space. All the torts here live outside in large pens with heated sheds divided per species. Only the yearling galaps are inside and as they get bigger they keep dividing them up into smaller groups to prevent crowding. 

I like seeing the giant galaps here in the mud wallow they created for them to help them stay cool on hot days.


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