Howletts Wild Animal Park John Aspinall + Naturalistic Exhibits

[snowleopard]

Two comments that address a few questions that people posed:

1- The Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle was indeed the FIRST zoo ever to open a naturalistic gorilla exhibit. I'm not referring to small patches of grass in British zoos, but an actual, purpose-built exhibit. Books such as David Hancock's "A Different Nature", "Zoo: A History of Zoological Gardens in the West" and numerous others (that is just in my personal collection) declare Seattle to have the first of its kind in terms of gorillas. August, 1979, was when it opened to the public, and for those of you who have seen photos of the zoo in the gallery you'll see that almost the entire 65 acres (92 including off-exhibit areas) is green, lush and naturalistic.

2- Breeding record for Congo Gorilla Forest, which opened in 1999, is 14 baby gorillas in 10 years...plus 4 okapis, 23 red river hogs and 11 Wolf's guenons. This brilliant rainforest exhibit, arguably the greatest zoo habitat on the planet, has also raised almost $11 million and counting for conservation in central Africa. There have been 18 national parks that have been directly created with the money raised.

 

[Pertinax]

The Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle was indeed the FIRST zoo ever to open a naturalistic gorilla exhibit. I'm not referring to small patches of grass in British zoos, but an actual, purpose-built exhibit.

you'll see that almost the entire 65 acres (92 including off-exhibit areas) is green, lush and naturalistic.

1. Originally you did say they were the first to 'ever give Gorillas grass'

2. Is this a misprint???

 

[Maguari]

2. Is this a misprint???

Confused me too there - but I think he means the whole zoo not just the gorilla area!

 

[Maguari]

1- The Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle was indeed the FIRST zoo ever to open a naturalistic gorilla exhibit.

As Pertinax points out, that's not what you claimed first time round!

I'm not referring to small patches of grass in British zoos, but an actual, purpose-built exhibit.

Just because an exhibit is not an all-singing, all-dancing rainforest does not mean it is not purpose-built. Or small. And if you say 'first gorillas kept on grass' that does not mean the same as 'first good grassed gorilla exhibit'.

Books such as David Hancock's "A Different Nature", "Zoo: A History of Zoological Gardens in the West" and numerous others (that is just in my personal collection) declare Seattle to have the first of its kind in terms of gorillas. August, 1979, was when it opened to the public, and for those of you who have seen photos of the zoo in the gallery you'll see that almost the entire 65 acres (92 including off-exhibit areas) is green, lush and naturalistic.

I do worry sometimes about how much time you spend reading those books - they seem to have entrenched themselves in your consciousness! Be careful - no book tells the full story (and even the best can have very strange errors).

 

[Pertinax]

Confused me too there - but I think he means the whole zoo not just the gorilla area!

Yes, it makes sense then.. Mind you, the Northwestern seaboard of the USA is in the 'Temperate rainforest' zone so they would have a headstart on zoos in some other areas- e.g. Arabia!!

Also, for the record, Woodland Park's Gorilla exhibit was actually purpose built for BEARS, not Gorillas. They are two old Bear Grottoes which were CONVERTED for the Gorillas and in the process the naturalistic exhibit came into being.

 

[snowleopard]

Sorry for the confusion, as I did say grass on this thread in reference to the two gorilla exhibits at the Woodland Park Zoo. I've said "naturalistic" so many times that I slipped up on this occasion, but indeed the zoo in Seattle is the first in the world to have a purpose-built, naturalistic gorilla exhibit. The 1976 long-range plan is legendary for the future creation of immersive, spacious, realisitic, naturalistic enclosures, which have become the norm at many zoos worldwide. The gorilla enclosures were indeed old bear grottoes that were revamped, gutted, overhauled and densely planted. Then everything was left untouched for an entire year before the gorillas were let loose. Interestingly enough the Woodland Park Zoo spent $1.5 million and changed an old grotto into an excellent African wild dog exhibit in 2001, and they have tentative plans to do the same with their sumatran tiger grotto in perhaps 2011. I can't stand it when zoos keep the same pits and ugly cement grottoes for literally a century without doing anything but tossing in the odd dead log or branch, and so it is fantastic to see some zoos being proactive with their outdated exhibits.

 

[Pertinax]

so it is fantastic to see some zoos being proactive with their outdated exhibits.

It can work very well, as in Seattle's case. I mentioned before that Taronga Park's exhibit was originally built for Giant Pandas, obviously a short term thing, so maybe they always planned to fill it with the Gorillas afterwards( they imported the complete 2nd group from Apenheul) Unfortuately its rather too small for a group of 9 or 10 Gorillas so looks very bare as a result. I think there may be plans to extend it- they badly need the extra space that would give and then maybe it could be also be made more naturalistic too.

Dublin Zoo are planning a new exhibit- to be based on Melbourne's- which is one of the best in my opinion- Criteria; the trees actually provide some overhead cover/shelter so I'm hoping Dublin's will be pretty good too.

Re your comment about old existing grotto style exhibits, they do often easily lend themselves to improvements-particularly woodchip flooring, extra logs and other climbing stuff, at a fraction of the cost of new builds.