ok can i just jump back to the gorillas for a second, in defence of taronga.....as someone who actually lives near Taronga, and Patrick this isnt aimed at you, and as someone who has spent a long time over many years viewing these animals-would it be ok for me to say the exhibit isnt so bad.
for starters, Taronga has naturally bred now several offspring, in a little over a decade. melbourne, in the breeding stakes, has taken nearly two decades to acheive only slightly more births. furthermore, taronga zoo has 'finished off' the Dutch born babies and re-exported well socialised, healthy adolescents to zoos back in Europe and Japan. to say the exhibit must stress the animals is a little far fetched in my opinion. it might not be as luxurious as Melbourne's exhibit, but i think that stems partly from the immersion feeling of the visitors themselves, including us forum members.. Taronga's exhibit is a little younger than Melbournes and still has some growing to do on both the animals and people's side of the moat to maximise the rainforest feeling.
there are many factors which contribute to an animals stress levels. on some visits I have seen the gorillas playing in the moat in front of packed viewing areas, at other times half a dozen visitors may be watching and all the animals are up the back or in the dens. i dont think the proximity to the visitors is an issue all the time. as the troops movements are, by and large, regulated by Kibabu, who is to say that A PARTICULAR VISITOR, quite far away, hasnt put him off? we would never know....or they might be too cold, hot, or hungry? why they hang around their dens so much is a mystery but i dont think it is because of any overriding inadequacies in design terms.
there are several stands of screening plants in the exhibit, as well as the cave at the western end of the exhibit, and in parts the exhibit is quite deep.
i am not sure why the animals like being in the dens so much.....its certainly the closest people can get to the animals and as far as im aware the glass is two way-so to assume the animals are in there because they are stressed by the public stares makes this assumption seem irrational, even by gorilla standards.
what i think makes the animals hang around the dens so much is the association they have with this area to both food and absolute security, as well as it being a constant climate (moreorless).
i think the animals could be conditioned to spend more time outside with an even greater ammount of scatter feeds and, yes, possibly more vegetation.
on the whole though i do not feel it is a bad exhibit. the mock rock wall is a compromise against the steeply sloping topography of the taronga site. Patrick quite rightly pointed out that it serves aestetic purposes, but I would prefer it to an obnoxious brick wall, steel fence or concrete wall.
now, back to elephants
