Page 70 - Brookfield Zoo Chicago Annual_Report_2024

LOOKING AHEAD

James & Elizabeth Bramsen
Tropical Forests
Opens This Summer!
In the summer of 2025, the a deeper understanding of wildlife
125,000 square-foot, $66 million conservation and environmental
James & Elizabeth Bramsen Tropical stewardship. The new space will
Forests will open, welcoming guests also support the King Conservation
to observe primates in four new Leadership Academy.
outdoor habitats that emulate the
Bramsen Tropical Forests
natural homes of gorillas, orang-
will provide new habitats for:
utans, and monkeys. Its completion
will conclude the first phase of our
• Two groups of western lowland
transformative Next Century Plan. gorillas, including the existing
family group of five females
As one of the largest outdoor spaces
for primates in any accredited U.S. and a dominant male, and
a new bachelor group.
zoo, Bramsen Tropical Forests
is designed to encourage animals • Five Bornean orangutans
of Africa, Asia, and South America separated into two groups,
to express their natural behaviors each with one male.
while granting guests unparalleled
• North white-cheeked gibbons.
glimpses into their world. With
unique, hand-selected features • South American monkeys,
from Brookfield Zoo Chicago’s including tufted capuchins and
animal care, welfare, and health black-handed spider monkeys,
experts, Bramsen Tropical Forests five of them rescued from animal
represents a leap forward in habitat traffickers by the U.S. Fish and
design and conservation. Wildlife Service.
Bramsen Tropical Forests will also
include the Gorilla Conservation
Center with indoor gorilla habitats
that provide guests with up-close
views of a gorilla group. On the
second floor of the building will
be state-of-the-art learning
spaces for the Zoo’s impactful
educational programs that foster