Popular Zoo Mammals and Their Best Exhibits

Neil chace said:
Today's post will be dedicated to one of my favorite small carnivores, the Ocelot! These small, spotted cats are native to both South and Central America, and also the Southwestern United States.

The criteria in this post are very similar to the other small cats featured:
  • Climbing Opportunities: Like most felid species, ocelots benefit from the ability to choose between various heights of their exhibit. Even more so than other small felids covered, they are adept climbers that will often live primarily arboreal lives. While the type of climbing structure may vary based on the type of habitat (i.e. I'd expect different climbing structures in one representing a tropical rainforest than one representing the Sonoran desert), it is still important to ensure the ocelots have adequate climbing opportunities in any style of exhibit, whether that be live trees, rockwork, artificial climbing structures, or a combination of all three.
  • Exhibit Size: Small carnivores have historically been kept in small exhibits, oftentimes of an inadequate size. While size of an exhibit is not everything, I did prioritize exhibits that are larger when other design factors are equivalent. Given their arboreality, the size component for ocelots factors in both ground space and exhibit height.
  • Hiding Opportunities: Ocelots can be shy animals, like many felids. Exhibits that provide opportunities for the ocelots to hide, while not necessarily ideal for the public, were prioritized since hiding opportunities do improve the welfare of animals involved.
The exhibits chosen for this post are:
  • The North Carolina Zoo has an excellent ocelot exhibit located outside of its Desert building. This excellent, spacious exhibit contains both plenty of rock work and multiple trees to create a very naturalistic, impressive home for this small cat:
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Photo By: @Pleistohorse
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Photo By: @Pleistohorse
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Photo By: @Moebelle
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Photo By: @Moebelle
  • Another excellent, desert-themed ocelot exhibit can be found at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, which exhibits their ocelots in a impressive exhibit filled with rock ledges, fallen logs, and other climbing opportunities. This exhibit does have an unusual layout due to the "Cat Canyon" theme, but this doesn't detract from the fact it is an excellent home for ocelots:
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Photo By: @Coelacanth18
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Photo By: @Arizona Docent
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Photo By: @snowleopard
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Photo By: @snowleopard
  • Moving to the Rainforests, Connecticut's Beardsley Zoo has an excellent ocelot exhibit inside their Rainforest Building. This exhibit is filled with climbing opportunities, and is a good example of how zoos can build indoor mammal exhibits correctly, as this exhibit still has numerous plants and natural substrate:
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Photo By: @Pleistohorse
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Photo By: @TinoPup
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Photo By: @Pleistohorse
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Photo By: @BeardsleyZooFan
  • For a zoo receiving its first mention in this thread, Pennsylvania's Elmwood Park Zoo exhibits ocelots in their excellent Trail of the Jaguar complex. This is a large exhibit, complete with plenty of climbing opportunities and other space for the ocelots to explore. One unique feature of this exhibit is that it is actually an indoor-outdoor exhibit, where the ocelots can move between the two through a transfer chute over visitor's heads:
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Photo By: @TinoPup
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Photo By: @TinoPup
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Photo By: @TinoPup
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Photo By: @TinoPup
  • A Rainforest-themed ocelot exhibit can be found at Florida's Palm Beach Zoo. While the very visually striking building makes this the least naturalistic habitat on the list, it nonetheless is a large habitat with numerous climbing structures for the ocelots:
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Photo By: @BeardsleyZooFan
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Elmwood's is also rotational. There's 4 exhibits for 3 (currently 2) cat species.
 
TinoPup said:
Elmwood's is also rotational. There's 4 exhibits for 3 (currently 2) cat species.
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That's awesome, I saw conflicting info on whether or not they actually rotated the cats, but knew it was designed with rotation in mind. I'm glad to see rotation actually happens. On my Philadelphia/Elmwood Park trip, the Trail of the Jaguar was easily my favorite exhibit at either of the zoos.
 
Neil chace said:
That's awesome, I saw conflicting info on whether or not they actually rotated the cats, but knew it was designed with rotation in mind. I'm glad to see rotation actually happens. On my Philadelphia/Elmwood Park trip, the Trail of the Jaguar was easily my favorite exhibit at either of the zoos.
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I've seen the ocelot in three of the 4, all except the big one at the end (that usually has the male jaguar). It's really underrated and imo one of the best small zoo exhibits in the country! I just wish they'd actually gotten jaguarundi :(
 
Today's post will be dedicated to an animal that is a particular favorite of mine (one of my many favorites), the Matschie's Tree Kangaroo! These unique, endangered marsupials are native to New Guinea, where multiple AZA zoos contribute to conservation initiatives through the TKCP (tree kangaroo conservation project).

The criteria for this post include:
  • Climbing Opportunities: As the name suggests, tree kangaroos live an almost completely arboreal lifestyle. Their best zoo exhibits hence replicate this, either through trees or other means, to create as many climbing opportunities for tree kangaroos as possible.
  • Plants: Tree kangaroos are a Rainforest species, so an ideal habitat needs to include live plants to replicate this natural environment. While not as essential as adequate space, this is still an important component to welfare and one necessary to having the "best" tree kangaroo exhibit.
  • Space: Small mammals historically have gotten the short end of the stick exhibit-wise, and to this day many tree kangaroo exhibits are still quite small. The five selected for this post, however, each has a very large area dedicated to their tree kangaroos, better allowing them to display natural behaviors and live an enriching life.
The five zoos selected for Matschie's Tree Kangaroos are:
  • Walkabout Australia at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park contains an excellent, lushly planted outdoor exhibit for tree kangaroos. This exhibit contains both live trees and man-made climbing structures, which all come together to create what might just be the best tree kangaroo exhibit in the country:
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Photo By: @Julio C Castro
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Photo By: @Julio C Castro
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Photo By: @DelacoursLangur
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Photo By: @Anteaterman
  • While the Kansas City Zoo may be best-known for its impressive Africa exhibit, that isn't to say they don't have excellent exhibits elsewhere in the zoo. One great example of this is their Matschie's Tree Kangaroo exhibit, which contains a number of excellent climbing opportunities for its macropod residents. While this exhibit may be long and narrow, it remains a large, impressive home for an often overlooked mammal. This exhibit is particularly unique in that it features a walk-through component as well:
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Photo By: @DesertTortoise
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Photo By: @KCZooFan
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Photo By: @KCZooFan
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Photo By: @KCZooFan
  • One last minute switch to this post was the inclusion of a facility that only recently started to house tree kangaroos again: Minnesota Zoo! Minnesota Zoo exhibits Matschie's Tree Kangaroos on their Tropics Trail, in an exhibit that until recently held Transcapian Urial and Red Panda. This exhibit provides a very large and impressive home now for a Matschie's Tree Kangaroo, and makes Minnesota the first zoo to receive ten mentions on this list. This exhibit is very tall, containing a number of great climbing opportunities to truly take advantage of the species' arboreal nature:
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Photo By: @Dhole dude
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Photo By: @Dhole dude
  • Not many zoos give expansive, outdoor habitats to Matschie's Tree Kangaroos, but one zoo that does is the Detroit Zoo. This exhibit contains very tall, mature trees to provide excellent climbing opportunities for the tree kangaroo residents, as well as some man-made structures to further enhance the exhibit. The tree kangaroo exhibit at Detroit Zoo might even be the largest exhibit for the species in any US Zoo:
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Photo By: @pachyderm pro
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Photo By: @Bisonblake
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Photo By: @Miss Gulch
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Photo By: @fkalltheway
  • The first exhibit one sees upon entering Bronx Zoo's Jungle World is home to Matschie's Tree Kangaroos, and while not the largest exhibit for the species, it remains an impressive home for tree kangaroos including a large climbing structure. The one flaw to this exhibit is that the climbing structure is more centered in one area, meaning they can't traverse the habitat arboreally like they can in some of the other habitats mentioned, however this is an impressive entrance to what many consider one of the country's best tropical rainforests:
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Photo By: @TinoPup
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Photo By: @TinoPup
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Photo By: @Milwaukee Man
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Photo By: @TheoV
 
First of all, I apologize for the inconsistency with recent posts. This is the first week of my college semester, so it's been a big schedule change for me and I'm working on a new routine that will work regular posts into this thread again. In the meantime, today's post will be dedicated to a very large mammal, the Hippopotamus! These large, semi-aquatic mammals are a species that few zoos do justice for in exhibit design, however there is a small number of excellent hippo exhibits that deserve credit.

The criteria used in this post are:
  • Social Structure: Hippos are herd animals, and yet despite this most zoos keeping two, at most three, hippos together. This goes directly contrary both to their wild social structure and also what the AZA recommends for hippo exhibits. For purposes of this thread, I mainly looked for zoos with at least four hippos, as this shows a willingness to go above what most other zoos have, despite few zoos reaching a more ideal number of 5-6 hippos (or more).
  • Pool Size: Way too often, a desire for large underwater viewing windows cuts greatly into how large a hippo's pool can, and should, be. These are large animals that spend significant amounts of time under water, and as such require very large pools in their exhibits.
  • Land Space: While hippos do spend sizeable time under water, they remain semi-aquatic animals, and also will spend large parts of the day (and night) grazing on land. As such, in addition to having a large pool, large land areas are incredibly important for a good hippo exhibit. While many would look at the ratio of water to land when discussing exhibits for hippos and other semiaquatic animals, I much prefer to look at both criteria separately, and will be looking for exhibits with adequate land and water areas, regardless of the ratio between the two.
  • Grass: Hippos are grazing animals. Too many hippo exhibits, as a result of an overfocus on having clear water, don't allow them the opportunity to have grassy areas, instead limiting them to rocky or sandy shorelines. An ideal hippo exhibit must contain grassy areas for them to display this natural behavior.
  • Underwater Viewing (NOT): While ideal for visitors, many zoos with underwater viewing for hippos focus too heavily on visitor amenities and end up with subpar hippo exhibits. While it is possible to make a great hippo exhibit with underwater viewing, the presence of underwater viewing was not a factor in deciding what zoos made this post.
While I fully acknowledge there aren't five great hippo exhibits in US zoos, these are the five hippo exhibits that stand above the rest:

  • By far the best hippo exhibit in the United States can be found at Disney's Animal Kingdom. A large herd of eleven hippos can be found at Disney's Animal Kingdom, which has an impressive hippo exhibit as part of its Kilimanjaro Safaris. This exhibit contains multiple very large pools as well as enough land space for the hippos to graze. A second hippo exhibit can be found on the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail, and while this one is smaller and lacks the impressive social structure of the Kilimanjaro Safaris exhibit, it does allow visitors to view hippos as long as they want. The biggest flaw with the Kilimanjaro Safaris exhibit is how limited the viewing time with the hippos is, and the first three photos used in this post were taken on the special "Wild Africa Trek" tour instead of from the Safari as a result:
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Photo By: @GraysonDP
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Photo By: @GraysonDP
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Photo By: @GraysonDP
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Photo By: @geomorph
  • It's rare for zoos to build modern hippo exhibits without investing in underwater viewing, however one zoo that did was the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, which built an impressive home for four hippos which completely lacks underwater viewing. This exhibit contains very large land areas, something very few zoos succeed in doing. Also included is a very large pool, and unique amongst US Zoos is a large, indoor hippo exhibit visible to visitors. Not many zoos display hippos in indoor exhibits, and Cheyenne Mountain has managed to build an excellent indoor-outdoor complex that allows hippos to be visible year-round:
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Photo By: @MGolka
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Photo By: @Echobeast
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Photo By: @Echobeast
  • The first exhibit with underwater viewing to reach this list is the Hippo Outpost at Dallas Zoo. This exhibit contains four hippos, and while it lacks the impressive grazing opportunities of Cheyenne Mountain or the impressive social structure of Disney, it remains an impressive home for hippos with large areas of both land and water. This exhibit unfortunately lacks a grassy area for grazing, but at least contains a large enough sandy beach for all the hippos to choose land or water areas:
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Photo By: @ZooNerd1234
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Photo By: @Ituri
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Photo By: @TinoPup
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Photo By: @d1am0ndback
  • Perhaps the best underwater viewing for hippos can be found at the Memphis Zoo. The Zambezi River Hippo Camp displays four hippos in a large exhibit containing a very large underwater viewing component. While this exhibit, like the Dallas exhibit, lacks grassy areas for grazing, it at least has a large, sandy shoreline area to provide plenty of opportunities for the hippos to leave the water. The pool is also very large and allows many great viewing opportunities:
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Photo By: @cubsmaster
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Photo By: @ChunkyMunky pengopus
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Photo By: @Coelacanth18
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  • While rare, some exhibits deserve to be ranked amongst the best for reasons other than animal welfare. One of those cases is a hippo exhibit that is so historically significant that it served as the basis/inspiration for almost every hippo exhibit to come after it. The exhibit opened in 1986, and was the first zoo ever to include an underwater viewing area in a hippo exhibit, something that has become so ubiquitous since. This exhibit, of course, is Toledo Zoo's Hippoquarium. While only home to two hippos and not as large as many of the other exhibits on the list, the sheer impact this exhibit had alone is enough to warrant its mention here. One great thing about this exhibit is that it does contain a grassy land area for grazing, something a lot of newer exhibits still unfortunately lack:
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Photo By: @Milwaukee Man
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Photo By: @CMZman
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Photo By: @jusko88
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Im not sure it deserves to make the list, but San Diego's hippo exhibit is absolutely gorgeous. Although I can understand not including it due to its lack of land area.
 
Toledo was not the first to have underwater viewing for hippos, that would be Sedgewick County Zoo.
 
Toledo’s hippoquarium is significant in that it was the first ever underwater viewing to feature crystal clear water which made it actually possible to get a good look at the hippos. The exhibit at Wichita is essentially the prototype for the underwater viewing we see today. A revolutionary concept at the time, although its impact on modern hippo enclosures has been unfortunate. There’s a reason the two best exhibits for the species in the US (DAK and Cheyenne Mountain) don’t include it.
 
pachyderm pro said:
Toledo’s hippoquarium is significant in that it was the first ever underwater viewing to feature crystal clear water which made it actually possible to get a good look at the hippos. The exhibit at Wichita is essentially the prototype for the underwater viewing we see today. A revolutionary concept at the time, although its impact on modern hippo enclosures has been unfortunate. There’s a reason the two best exhibits for the species in the US (DAK and Cheyenne Mountain) don’t include it.
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I mean, DAK does have a smaller exhibit with underwater viewing on the Gorilla Falls trail linked to the Kilimanjaro Safaris habitats, and in Cheyenne Mountain's case, it was cut based on factors like water conservation as well as value-engineering.
 
pachyderm pro said:
A revolutionary concept at the time, although its impact on modern hippo enclosures has been unfortunate. There’s a reason the two best exhibits for the species in the US (DAK and Cheyenne Mountain) don’t include it.
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I feel like I am missing some context here. I am definitely not here to insist underwater viewing should be mandatory by any means, but I can't say I know of a specific reason to exclude it either. Is there a welfare compromise inherent that I'm not aware of?
 
JVM said:
I feel like I am missing some context here. I am definitely not here to insist underwater viewing should be mandatory by any means, but I can't say I know of a specific reason to exclude it either. Is there a welfare compromise inherent that I'm not aware of?
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There’s nothing inherently wrong with underwater viewing. It is, however, very expensive and tends to eat up a lot of the budget (and space, for all of the filters), resulting in a not uncommon situation of having a beautiful, crystal clear pool, and not a lot of land area (and the land area that IS available being concrete, so dirt and mud and sand are tracked into the pool)
 
I feel like the Disney's Animal Kingdom one should count as having underwater viewing because I believe they're the same hippos whether you see them on the safari or at the Gorilla Falls expedition trail. The safari circles the Gorilla Falls trail, so the hippo habitat is actually located between the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail and the river that runs through the savanna. I wouldn't call it a 'smaller exhibit,' just part of their exhibit viewable from Gorilla Falls.

I think giving the two different perspectives (underwater viewing from the trail vs. more above water and land viewing from the safari ride but only a quicker look at them) combines together to create a really unique and wonderful hippo-viewing experience. The hippos are actually my favorite attraction at Disney's Animal Kingdom. The gorilla exhibit is amazing, too, but I've seen other great gorilla exhibits.
 
Neil chace said:
Today's post will be dedicated to an animal that is a particular favorite of mine (one of my many favorites), the Matschie's Tree Kangaroo! These unique, endangered marsupials are native to New Guinea, where multiple AZA zoos contribute to conservation initiatives through the TKCP (tree kangaroo conservation project).

The criteria for this post include:
  • Climbing Opportunities: As the name suggests, tree kangaroos live an almost completely arboreal lifestyle. Their best zoo exhibits hence replicate this, either through trees or other means, to create as many climbing opportunities for tree kangaroos as possible.
  • Plants: Tree kangaroos are a Rainforest species, so an ideal habitat needs to include live plants to replicate this natural environment. While not as essential as adequate space, this is still an important component to welfare and one necessary to having the "best" tree kangaroo exhibit.
  • Space: Small mammals historically have gotten the short end of the stick exhibit-wise, and to this day many tree kangaroo exhibits are still quite small. The five selected for this post, however, each has a very large area dedicated to their tree kangaroos, better allowing them to display natural behaviors and live an enriching life.
The five zoos selected for Matschie's Tree Kangaroos are:
  • Walkabout Australia at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park contains an excellent, lushly planted outdoor exhibit for tree kangaroos. This exhibit contains both live trees and man-made climbing structures, which all come together to create what might just be the best tree kangaroo exhibit in the country:
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Photo By: @Julio C Castro
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Photo By: @Julio C Castro
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Photo By: @DelacoursLangur
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Photo By: @Anteaterman
  • While the Kansas City Zoo may be best-known for its impressive Africa exhibit, that isn't to say they don't have excellent exhibits elsewhere in the zoo. One great example of this is their Matschie's Tree Kangaroo exhibit, which contains a number of excellent climbing opportunities for its macropod residents. While this exhibit may be long and narrow, it remains a large, impressive home for an often overlooked mammal. This exhibit is particularly unique in that it features a walk-through component as well:
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Photo By: @DesertTortoise
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Photo By: @KCZooFan
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Photo By: @KCZooFan
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Photo By: @KCZooFan
  • One last minute switch to this post was the inclusion of a facility that only recently started to house tree kangaroos again: Minnesota Zoo! Minnesota Zoo exhibits Matschie's Tree Kangaroos on their Tropics Trail, in an exhibit that until recently held Transcapian Urial and Red Panda. This exhibit provides a very large and impressive home now for a Matschie's Tree Kangaroo, and makes Minnesota the first zoo to receive ten mentions on this list. This exhibit is very tall, containing a number of great climbing opportunities to truly take advantage of the species' arboreal nature:
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Photo By: @Dhole dude
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Photo By: @Dhole dude
  • Not many zoos give expansive, outdoor habitats to Matschie's Tree Kangaroos, but one zoo that does is the Detroit Zoo. This exhibit contains very tall, mature trees to provide excellent climbing opportunities for the tree kangaroo residents, as well as some man-made structures to further enhance the exhibit. The tree kangaroo exhibit at Detroit Zoo might even be the largest exhibit for the species in any US Zoo:
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Photo By: @pachyderm pro
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Photo By: @Bisonblake
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Photo By: @Miss Gulch
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Photo By: @fkalltheway
  • The first exhibit one sees upon entering Bronx Zoo's Jungle World is home to Matschie's Tree Kangaroos, and while not the largest exhibit for the species, it remains an impressive home for tree kangaroos including a large climbing structure. The one flaw to this exhibit is that the climbing structure is more centered in one area, meaning they can't traverse the habitat arboreally like they can in some of the other habitats mentioned, however this is an impressive entrance to what many consider one of the country's best tropical rainforests:
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Photo By: @TinoPup
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Photo By: @TinoPup
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Photo By: @Milwaukee Man
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Photo By: @TheoV
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How common are Matschie’s Tree-kangaroos in the US? In Europe, there is only one holder, and they are off-display, so a list of the best enclosures would be impossible! :p

Really enjoying this thread, by the way, and it’s great to see some enclosures that aren’t often spoken of highlighted, and I hope to see some of them if I ever make it to North America.
 
Kalaw said:
How common are Matschie’s Tree-kangaroos in the US? In Europe, there is only one holder, and they are off-display, so a list of the best enclosures would be impossible! :p

Really enjoying this thread, by the way, and it’s great to see some enclosures that aren’t often spoken of highlighted, and I hope to see some of them if I ever make it to North America.
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According to the Matschie’s Tree Kangaroo SAFE program file, at least 16 AZA zoos in the states hold this species as of last year :)
 
JVM said:
I feel like I am missing some context here. I am definitely not here to insist underwater viewing should be mandatory by any means, but I can't say I know of a specific reason to exclude it either. Is there a welfare compromise inherent that I'm not aware of?
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Perhaps I should have been more clear. I think underwater viewing is great. It's an amazing experience for guests to see an enormous animal in crystal clear water and it's something I always enjoy. However, such an emphasis on underwater views has come at the cost of exhibit size, particularly in regards to useable land space. Hippos spent much of their time grazing, yet almost every modern hippo enclosure ignores this very important aspect of hippo behavior. Cheyenne Mountain did not include underwater viewing, instead opting for large land areas, proper separation spaces and spacious indoor housing in their exhibit. That is why it's the only modern hippo complex that can adequately house more than a few animals. I sincerely hope one day a zoo will finally construct a hippo exhibit with both underwater viewing and a spacious land area.
Kalaw said:
How common are Matschie’s Tree-kangaroos in the US? In Europe, there is only one holder, and they are off-display, so a list of the best enclosures would be impossible! :p
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I believe there are 18-19 holders and counting. It seems like popularity for the species has been increasing as of late with several new holders and the AZA also intends to source new founders from a ZAA facility to help boost the population further. Brookfield, Denver, and Woodland Park all have new exhibits opening in the coming years; it'll be exciting to see more zoos get on board with these wonderful animals.
 
Colin Tudge (“Last Animals at the Zoo”) said of polar bears, “They aren’t hairy seals, they’re BEARS” or something to that effect, when describing polar bear exhibits in zoos. Hippos, I feel like, we often treat like four-legged seals. Zoos get so caught up in the aquatic aspect and want that picture-perfect image of the hippo at the underwater window that they ignore the land aspect
 
Crystal clear water? When I visited Toledo it was impossible to see the hippos due to how dirty the water was. Did I just get unlucky, or has this exhibit declined through the years?
 
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