Don't elephants have a habit of destroying trees in zoo enclosures ? I seem to remember comments by the keepers at Western Plains Zoos that their elephants (African) would destroy anything in their enclosure - especially trees.
within reason. they can't destroy live trees that are hotwired. and certainly even without protection i doubt very much they would manage to do any significant damage to some of those monsterous trees i see in the photo. some seem far too solid and too tall for them to destroyed. they may indeed have some access anyway - its hard to tell if there is fencing there or not.
its seems like a somewhat oddly designed enclosure and somewhat barren as you said. i dare say - like many australia zoo exhibits, a bit on the tacky side. with a bit too much overkill.
clearly it is designed to be driven though judging from the gates and the road that runs through it.
i still am still somwhat in disbelief that steve irwin didn't absolutely leap at the chance to buy the mareeba/tipperary animals. he showed interes, but i am very curious as to why he let the chance slip through..it would have soooo seemed in their best interest and they most ceratinly could have afforded it.
with that one aquisition they would have had a virtual complete african safari (bar the giraffes which are never in short supply anyway) with animals like hippo that not even monarto zoo have.
essentially, australia zoo would have had nearly all the expected "A-listers" the other major zoos have (elephants, tigers, lions, bears, hippo, rhino, monkeys, zebra and giraffe..) and would have really just have needed a few gorillas and orangs to top it off.
always thought it was quite odd.. despite their world-wide branding they still actually have very few exotics....
