After some weather-related delays, the Brandywine Zoo team is on schedule to open a new multi-species exhibit in early July.
Zoo director Brint Spencer said the new exhibit features indoor and outdoor spaces, giving visitors the opportunity to see the animals in any weather.
The final roster of inhabitants for the new exhibit is still up in the air, but current plans make room for golden lion tamarins, white-faced sakis, cotton-top tamarins, porcupines, Patagonian mara and red-footed tortoises.
“It gives the animals that are in the habitat different roommates, for lack of a better word, to interact with,” Spencer said. “So it provides natural enrichment for them to have multiple animals that they can interact with. We work with other zoos to try and come up with animals that have been housed together before successfully.”
Spencer added multi-species exhibits make better experiences for guests, too.
The new exhibit will also clear out another space in the zoo, allowing for the return of squirrel monkeys to Brandywine.
Moving the tamarins and sakis into the new space will also make room for the zoo to transition from a North American flight exhibit to an African flight exhibit.
“And the first species that we'll be bringing in for that are Abyssinian ground hornbills,” Spencer said. “And those are a three-foot-tall predatory hornbill. So that'll be, I think, an exciting exhibit for the guests to see, and an exciting exhibit for an exciting species for the keepers to work with.”
Spencer added zoo staff plan to welcome the hornbills, which will be the zoo’s first in its 121 years, as soon as paperwork and testing is complete around the end of May.
The hornbill will then need to be quarantined for 30 days to ensure animal health and safety.
