Brookfield Zoo Chicago announces $66 million Tropical Forests for primates as part of major redesign

A gorilla eats leaves inside its current habitat at the Brookfield Zoo on Feb. 22. 2024. The expanded Tropical Forests habitat is set to open in April 2025. Sure, it’s not as snappy as “connect, care, conserve,” the new tagline for the entity formerly known as the Brookfield Zoo, now to be renamed Brookfield Zoo Chicago. But that ethos, broadly speaking, drives a major renovation project for the rebranded suburban attraction, announced March 1 and timed to its centennial in 2034.

Today, like all zoos, Brookfield balances its dual role as tourism magnet and conservation advocate. The Chicago Zoological Society spearheads wildlife research as far away as Peru — it’s also one of the partner organizations for a penguin conservation site in Punta San Juan — and reintroduces zoo-bred animals to their natural habitats.

“When opened in the 1980s, it was one-of-a-kind and the first in the nation as far as this idea of a really immersive experience for guests. But one of the biggest challenges we’ve had with that building is that we don’t have outside access for those animals,” Adkesson says. Brookfield Zoo CEO Mike Adkesson shows the construction of the $66 million Tropical Forests habitat on Feb. 22, 2024. The new outdoor spaces will be lush with flora that can grow year-round in Chicago’s climate and will have trees, swings, and pole vaults for the apes to play with. Their primary rest area will also be migrated over to fresh lodgings in the new Tropical Forests building.

Renderings of the upcoming Tropical Forests exhibit and campus at Brookfield Zoo, projected to open to the public in 2025. - Original Credit:

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