It’s because of what I said before. There are two very clear different designs of gorilla enclosure in the UK. One, the gorillarium, looks ugly to many given the cage-style design, but is incredibly functional, giving the gorillas the cover they desire and deep bedding on the floor to spend hours and hours outdoors, even in winter. The gorillariums also take into account the often forgotten fact that gorillas do, actually, like to climb!!
The other, the ‘island’, is more natural, looks pleasing to the eye, and provides gorillas with plenty of green space and, in some cases, undergrowth...but are rarely if ever used because of the lack of shelter! Look at Apenheul in the Netherlands. Their gorilla enclosure is a huge (3.5 acre) green space, but with plenty of trees. As a result, the gorillas often go outside as they don’t feel too exposed. (The same goes for Dublin, though I’ve never visited)
I wager that some of the above voters have either not visited some of the zoos (and so are using the photos you shared as the basis for their vote) or visit the zoos *so much* that they are voting based on favouritism (Jedd Cullinan for example, has voted Other, and knowing how much he loves Longleat I can only guess that’s who he’s voting for). Jersey and Paignton both look the most appealing in said photos, which is likely why at least a couple of people are voting for them.
If you don’t want the vote to be as close...then it might be a good idea to not include Howletts, Chessington or Port Lympne in the vote. The fact is their husbandry and enclosure design is *so different* from any other zoo in the UK, that it almost feels odd to include them on a list of largely island/garden style enclosures.
For the record, I said it up thread but I’ll say it again, out of the top two natural-style contenders, Paignton is the obvious win. The enclosure has always been for bachelor gorillas, and despite their having to separate one of the four males now, the indoors is darkened (which gorillas like, given they live in dense forests in the wild), the enclosure is spacious enough for the lads they have/have had, and the island is natural looking with a TON of undergrowth. Jersey’s outdoors is nice and big for the small family group that they have, but the indoors is tiny. It doesn’t matter if they looked like they were cramped or if they didn’t, the enclosure is poorer for it. If the indoors was bigger at Jersey, they could accommodate a much larger family group (with up to five breeding females, akin to Apenheul, Howletts or Port Lympne!). If they overhauled the indoors, Jersey would win for me. But based on functionality alone, the obvious winner of the ‘natural style’ enclosures is Paignton.
