Best UK Koala Bear enclosure

Best UK Koala Bear enclosure?

  • Total voters
    49
  • Poll closed .
B

britishzoofan

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
This is just a bit of fun to judge the general consensus on the best enclosure for Koala Bears in the UK. I have added a few photos from the gallery to make it easier for members to compare the different exhibits. If anyone wants to make an argument for a particular enclosure, please feel free to do so. Also, I would encourage people to perhaps list the enclosures in order of what they determine to be the best.

Edinburgh

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Longleat

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Granted I haven’t seen Longleat’s in person, I would be interested to know if the pictures are an accurate representation because to me from those two photos the exhibit leaves a lot to be desired over Edinburgh’s

Edit: and yes, as above. Koalas are not bears! I knew there was something I meant to add to that!
 
Javan Rhino said:
Granted I haven’t seen Longleat’s in person, I would be interested to know if the pictures are an accurate representation because to me from those two photos the exhibit leaves a lot to be desired over Edinburgh’s

Edit: and yes, as above. Koalas are not bears! I knew there was something I meant to add to that!
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There is a second,arid outdoor area.They share the outdoor area and one side of the indoor area with Long-nosed Potoroos.The exhibit is also quite a bit larger than the photo makes it seem.

I have never seen Edinburgh’s,but if that is all that is provided for them,I am certainly voting for Longleat.
 
Edinburgh also has an outdoor area, not sure how often it's used however.
 
Edinburgh has 4 separate indoor enclosures, one for the females and 3 for the males, they also have off show indoor accommodation and access to an outside enclosure when the weather permits. The picture shown of Edinburgh is the female enclosure, currently home to breeding female Alinga and her 2 daughters, both born in Edinburgh.
 
animal_expert01 said:
From the pictures, nothing about Edinburgh’s exhibit looks anything like somewhere a koala would live in the wild.

So neither are “natural” when regarding the koalas natural habitat.
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As @animal_expert01 has already stated none are truly natural and both should be improved,but I am voting for Longleat for the following reasons:

.Longleat has a small private area that the Koalas are sometimes allowed in
.Longleat allows the Koalas access to all of their very large enclosure except the private area all day except at night and in particularly ‘bad’ weather
.Longleat has an interesting mix with Long-nosed Potoroo but if the Koalas want to get away from the other marsupials,half of the exhibit is only accessible
.There are two large outdoor enclosure,one of which has a pleasant stream running through it

This is just personal experience but I really enjoyed standing in the centre of the Koala House at Longleat and slowly realising that the Koalas(the first I have ever seen)were everywhere around me.

Both are rather unnatural but still great in their own right.It will again come down to what the voter’s opinion.
 
animal_expert01 said:
From the pictures, nothing about Edinburgh’s exhibit looks anything like somewhere a koala would live in the wild.

So neither are “natural” when regarding the koalas natural habitat.
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Of course, the natural environment of koalas is different, I just wanted to say that there are plants that make the enclosure more natural. I think Longleat should add vegetation.
 
It should be mentioned that Longleat have the main indoor area that can be seen above for their original male and their three females. The male they got from Japan has an offshow indoors by the giant otters. As for outdoors, the one pictured is for the Australian male. The females have their own outdoors (shared with potoroos), and then the male from Japan also has his own outdoors which is onshow, by the entrance to the koala courtyard from the giant otters.

Having been to both, I’m going with Edinburgh. Both are decent facilities for koalas, but Edinburgh have (shockingly, given their reputation with the OTHER mammalian obligate folivore they keep) had an amazing breeding record with the species. I know it’s still early days for Longleat, but if Edinburgh have had so many joeys they must be doing something right.

EDIT: it should also be mentioned the Edinburgh photo shows only the female’s enclosure. If anyone could supply photos of the male ones too that would probably help some people. The Longleat photos show a decent overview, as the outdoors for the Japanese male and the females are more or less the same style of enclosure as the Australian male’s.
 
britishzoofan said:
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Just seems too small.Longleat is massive,far bigger than the photos make it seem.It may be the same case with Edinburgh but this looks horrendously small and simple.

ShonenJake13 said:
It should be mentioned that Longleat have the main indoor area that can be seen above for their original male and their three females. The male they got from Japan has an offshow indoors by the giant otters. As for outdoors, the one pictured is for the Australian male. The females have their own outdoors (shared with potoroos), and then the male from Japan also has his own outdoors which is onshow, by the entrance to the koala courtyard from the giant otters.

Having been to both, I’m going with Edinburgh. Both are decent facilities for koalas, but Edinburgh have (shockingly, given their reputation with the OTHER mammalian obligate folivore they keep) had an amazing breeding record with the species. I know it’s still early days for Longleat, but if Edinburgh have had so many joeys they must be doing something right.

EDIT: it should also be mentioned the Edinburgh photo shows only the female’s enclosure. If anyone could supply photos of the male ones too that would probably help some people. The Longleat photos show a decent overview, as the outdoors for the Japanese male and the females are more or less the same style of enclosure as the Australian male’s.
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Though the breeding record at Edinburgh is impressive and they certainly are doing something right,Longleat’s main intention is Research.Breeding the species is a sort of ‘Second Task’ for Longleat.
 
Granted I haven't seen Edinburgh's exhibit but Longleat's Koala complex is breathtaking (and I don't use that word likely). Like many of these polls I don't think the photo does the exhibit justice. Longleat's viewing of the koalas is also brilliant and by looking at the photos of the Edinburgh exhibit they are behind glass. Is this the case for all parts of the exhibit?
 
The_melford_manatee said:
Just seems too small.Longleat is massive,far bigger than the photos make it seem.It may be the same case with Edinburgh but this looks horrendously small and simple.

Research or not,

Though the breeding record at Edinburgh is impressive and they certainly are doing something right,Longleat’s main intention is Research.Breeding the species is a sort of ‘Second Task’ for Longleat.
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You do realise that your ‘too small’ argument is invalid as not only are Edinburgh’s koalas a subspecies that is half the size of Longleat’s subspecies, but koalas are also ridiculously inactive?
I’m not surprised Longleat aren’t planning on making breeding a priority as they had to go directly to Australia to get koalas and ended up with a subspecies that isn’t being pushed in Europe...and even then, the fact they wanted to mix their koalas with another species would have meant that the northern koala international studbook (run by San Diego) said no in the first place.

zoosafari123 said:
Granted I haven't seen Edinburgh's exhibit but Longleat's Koala complex is breathtaking (and I don't use that word likely). Like many of these polls I don't think the photo does the exhibit justice. Longleat's viewing of the koalas is also brilliant and by looking at the photos of the Edinburgh exhibit they are behind glass. Is this the case for all parts of the exhibit?
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Yeah, this is the case for all of Edinburgh’s indoors...and more or less every other zoo in Europe too...

I will say having visited Longleat’s in both warm and cold weather, two words struck me with the indoors: wind tunnel...
 
The_melford_manatee said:
Just seems too small.Longleat is massive,far bigger than the photos make it seem.It may be the same case with Edinburgh but this looks horrendously small and simple.
.
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...yes, they're going to struggle to sweep majestically across the savannah in an enclosure like that...

What is it that you expect them to be doing in all of the space that they apparently don't have in Edinburgh?
 
sooty mangabey said:
...yes, they're going to struggle to sweep majestically across the savannah in an enclosure like that...

What is it that you expect them to be doing in all of the space that they apparently don't have in Edinburgh?
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To add to that, if you look at the floor space for the females, it’s a similar size to Edinburgh’s female facility.....the Australian male has a lot more space granted but even then I’d say his indoors is about the same in floor space as Edinburgh’s male facilities combined.
 
I also haven't seen Edinburgh's Queensland Koalas so can't really comment, however I went to Longleat last summer and thought the Southern Koala indoor enclosure was quite stunning. I loved the fact that they were so close, and the viewing was without glass. The outside enclosure seemed fine also. Up a tree, in the rain, Maizie was happily tucking into her eucalyptus leaves, she had a choice to retire to the indoor enclosure, but preferred to stay outside. I could have stayed and watched for hours.
 
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