The Audubon Tennis Courts To Get a Makeover

 The Audubon Nature Institute and Tulane University will team up to renovate the Audubon Tennis Courts after coming up with a plan for close to two years. Another part of the deal is for Green Wave tennis teams to train and host their tournaments at the renovated courts. The Tulane tennis players will also move to the courts that are closer to the campus than City Park where they currently practice.

Tulane will pay for the renovations while Audubon will still operate and own the courts. There will be 12 new courts which include six hard courts and six clay courts. NCAA only allows college tournaments to be played on hard courts. There will also be new directional lights for night practices or matches, new restrooms, and new locker rooms.

“Partnering with Tulane would be beneficial for our avid tennis players as well as for Tulane tennis,” said Audubon Institute Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Kyle Burks. “We believe this type of agreement can serve as a model of how communities and universities can work together.”

“Our primary focus has always been to operate the Audubon tennis facility as a top-notch public amenity and the potential partnership with Tulane was developed with that as our top priority,” Burks said. “We believe this type of agreement can serve as a model of how communities and universities can work together.”

There are those that oppose the project. “This will reduce public access to clay courts,” said Sandy Rosenthal, a community activist, who plays on the Audubon courts five times a week. “It’s a loss to the community.”

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A New Look For Audubon Aquarium and Woldenberg Park

 The Audubon Aquarium is currently closed for at least six months but the good news is that it is getting a facelift along with Woldenberg Park. The $41 million renovation will be a great perk once it is finished.

The Aquarium has been renovated before, but this is the biggest renovation since 1990. The new attraction called the Audubon Aquarium and Insectarium links the aquarium to the Audubon Butterfly Garden and Insectarium. The Entergy Giant Screen Theater will be removed and replaced with the insectarium exhibits.

The renovation will add over 17,000 feet of exhibit space. The new entrance and lobby will be an enclosed 60-foot tall glass lobby. The glass pyramid will shoot out from the building facing the Mississippi River.

The Insectarium space will have a special event space on the first floor and the second floor will include the insectarium galleries and butterfly pavilion. The new butterfly exhibit will have lower ceilings so visitors can get a better look at the butterflies.

The aquarium will get upgrades including the Mississippi River Gallery, the Amazon Rainforest Gallery and the Top of the Gulf Experience. Woldenberg Park will also get $7 million in upgrades on the entrances, landscaping and electrical system.

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Audubon Nature Institute's Okapi Will Have A New Baby

 The New Orleans and San Diego zoo organizations have come together to breed endangered species. Asili, an okapi is one of these endangered species and she is now pregnant.

“It’s a very big deal” in the zoo world, according to Michelle Hatwood, General Curator at the Audubon Nature Institute’s Species Survival Center in Algiers.

“She’s doing great, she’s huge,” Hatwood said. “She’s already a big female, so now she’s got this big belly on her.”

The okapi, also known as the giant pandas of the hoofed-stock world, is an endangered species from Central Africa. Asili, who looks like a horse and zebra came together, lives on a 1,200-acre site along the Mississippi that Audubon leases from the U.S. Coast Guard.

The 1,200 acres are used by both Audubon and San Diego Wildlife Alliance to allow these endangered species to live and roam. So far, they have produced 52 mammals that were eight different species and 83 birds from six different species.

The main goal is to breed these animals for zoo populations but the bongo has been successfully re-established in the wild. The Bongo is a highly endangered species that lives in Central Africa. They are now trying to re-establish the whooping cranes which became extinct in Lousiana years ago. So far Audubon is slowly adding the bird back into the wildlife population around Lake Charles.

"If we don't step up, who is going to?" said Ron Forman, Audubon Nature Institute president and CEO. "This alliance is going to make a difference."

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