{"id":323225,"date":"2026-05-19T18:40:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T18:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/323225\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T18:40:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T18:40:21","slug":"chaffee-zoo-responds-to-questions-about-planned-aviary-closure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/323225\/","title":{"rendered":"Chaffee Zoo responds to questions about planned aviary closure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 The Fresno Chaffee Zoo announced it will be <a href=\"https:\/\/kmph.com\/news\/local\/fresno-chaffee-zoo-closing-38-year-old-tropical-rainforest-aviary-rhoding-park-animals-exhibit-reopen-guests-birds-institutions-natural-nature-open-air-walk-celebration\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">closing its Tropical Rainforest Aviary<\/a> after 38 years.<\/p>\n<p>The aviary opened on May 14th, 1988.<\/p>\n<p>The decision to close the exhibit is due to it not meeting the zoo\u2019s standards for the welfare and safety of the birds.<\/p>\n<p>The closure is effective July 5th.<\/p>\n<p>It will reopen at a later date, but there won&#8217;t be any animals included in the experience.<\/p>\n<p><p>Fresno Chaffee Zoo closing Tropical Rainforest Aviary after 38 years<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>FOX26 News reached out to the zoo to find out why Measure Z funds were not used to update it, instead of closing it.<\/p>\n<p>Measure Z has generated approximately $171 million for capital improvement projects at the Fresno Chaffee Zoo. Could you share how projects are prioritized, and why the tropical rainforest aviary was not considered for  improvements?<\/p>\n<p>The Fresno Chaffee Zoo responded with the following:<\/p>\n<p>As part of our long-term master plan, every area of the zoo was carefully evaluated, and a phased schedule was developed to address priorities over the next fifteen years. Through that evaluation, it was determined that a new front entrance and new, immersive exhibit experiences in the zoo met a greater need. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 The Fresno Chaffee Zoo announced it will be closing its Tropical Rainforest Aviary after&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-323225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}