Unique zoo exhibits

[Jurek7]

What zoo exhibits you know which are unique in the world? I mean a way of exhibiting animals which is new and not found anywhere else. Just very beautiful and very advertised doesn't count.

One example:
Cochrane Polar Bear Habitat in Cananda has a swimming pool for visitors with view of swimming Polar Bears behind the glass.

Burgers Desert in Arnhem. The only Arizona desert recreated in huge tropical hall, with saguaro cactus, yoshua trees, bighorn sheep, peccaries, bobcats, birds, lizards etc.

 

[KCZooFan]

Burgers Desert in Arnhem. The only Arizona desert recreated in huge tropical hall, with saguaro cactus, yoshua trees, bighorn sheep, peccaries, bobcats, birds, lizards etc.

Not completely true. Omaha has a large Sonoran desert recreation in their Desert Dome, as well as African and Australian deserts. I've heard Burgers in better, but I can't comment since I've only seen one of them.

 

[BeardsleyZooFan]

Without a doubt, one of the best exhibits in the world is Congo Gorilla Forest at the Bronx Zoo. CGF has massive, natural exhibits for 2 troops of gorillas, along with red river hogs, okapis, mandrills, monkeys, and so much more.

 

[Maguari]

Without a doubt, one of the best exhibits in the world is Congo Gorilla Forest at the Bronx Zoo. CGF has massive, natural exhibits for 2 troops of gorillas, along with red river hogs, okapis, mandrills, monkeys, and so much more.

The thread is looking for unique exhibits in terms of specific features not found anywhere else, not just the biggest/best/most popular.

(does CGF has anything like that? It may have, for all I know - never having visited - but I'm not aware of anything particular)


One that springs to mind as a possibility is the underwater viewing window for elephants at Leipzig - I'm not aware of anywhere else that has that.

 

[Zooplantman]

Interesting question raised here.

In the zoo (and aquarium) community, "unique" doesn't last very long. Imitators are always ready to step forward. There was a time when the rotational exhibits (was Louisville Zoo first?) were unique. But no more.
Cochrane's swim with the bears and Leipzig's swimming elephants remain unique I believe.

Would we consider Georgia Aquarium's deep sea/whale shark tank and huge viewing window unique?

 

[reduakari]

Interesting question raised here.


Would we consider Georgia Aquarium's deep sea/whale shark tank and huge viewing window unique?

Okinawa Aquarium has exhibited whale sharks in an enormous tank with huge windows several years before Atlanta opened, so I'd say no.

Singapore's night zoo was a first, but has been imitated in several places since.

The new animal pathway system at Philadelphia is unique, as far as I know.

San Francisco's savanna-- visitors enter through tunnels to a "donut hole" viewing area surrounded by giraffes, zebras etc.--is unlike anything I've seen elsewhere.

National zoo's "O-line" is ugly but unique.

Werribee's biofiltered hippo exhibit is the best representation of a wild hippo habitat I've ever seen, and may be the only one that is operated in that manner.

Rotterdam's walk-through prairie dog exhibit uses techniques typically employed for walk-in lemur exhibits (electified bridges) but is the only place I know of using it for rodents!

 

[Arizona Docent]

Life On The Rocks at Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. Large realistic boulders are on hinges and swing open to reveal scorpions and spiders underneath (protected by glass).

Lion Tunnel at Houston Zoo. Fairly old now but still a classic.

Crowned Crane Flyover at Dallas Zoo. While many zoos have various forms of flying bird demonstrations, this is the only one I know of where a native African bird flies over an African savanna inhabited by giraffes and zebra and antelope.

Mixed Species Savanna at Caldwell Zoo. While this feature in itself is fairly common, they are the only one I know of that includes warthogs in the mix.

Museum Of Living Art at Fort Worth Zoo. Perhaps the first reptile house with a restaurant inside?

(Does anyone else see a trend in my post? Maybe I should just move to Texas. )

 

[Jurek7]

Singapore's night zoo was a first, but has been imitated in several places since.

O, can you give examples?

Lion tunnel - Thoiry in France apparently has much better glass tunnel through Tiger exhibit.

But keep them coming! Even if 2 or 3 zoos have the same design, it is still unique

I just remembered:

Orangutans at Singapore - large group let for a day on live trees above visitors' heads.

Monkeys in Apeldoorn - sheer number of walk-through primate areas: squirrel monkeys, lemurs, barbary macaques, sakis, marmosets.

Snakes in Randers - only walk-through exhibit with a number of snakes

I heard about two exhibits in Asian zoos, which I cannot trace to zoos:

1. Otters with a large water-filled glass box in visitors area, into which they swim in and out through glass pipes.

2. Lion exhibit around a glass-walled restaurant, so lions sit behind the barmans counter and watch people in the lavatory.

 

[Shorts]

How about a major exhibit the public can only see via a viewing window in the toilets (New England Aviary, Twycross)?

 

[DavidBrown]

I only know about this from searching around the photo albums on ZooChat, but the Boras Zoo in Sweden is the only African savanna exhibit that mixes elephants, giraffes, buffalo, antelopes, and rhinos. I know that Dallas is planning to do this, maybe , possibly, but is there any other zoo that does?

Has anybody actually seen the Boras Zoo exhibit and if so, what did you think of it?

@Maguari: Congo Gorilla Forest has several unique features: the visitor gets to chose where the conservation fee that they paid to see the gorillas goes (elephant, gorilla, mandrills, or okapi field conservation projects) via interactive displays. The exhibit also features a film theater showing a very interesting movie about the Congo ecosystem and when it is over the screen lifts up to reveal the main panorama of the gorilla exhibit. Also there are some interactive displays about forest elephants, including a life-size model of a forest elephant if I recall correctly (please correct me if that is wrong someone). Eventually it seems like the only presence that elephants will have at the Bronx Zoo is through the interactive displays and film in this exhibit, seeing as they are phasing out their live (Asian) elephant program.

 

[Jesszoo]

Monkey Village at Phoenix Zoo?

At the Phoenix Zoo we have Monkey Village which is one of only 4 exhibits of it's kind in the world and the only one in North America. It is a 10,000sf exhibit that you enter through a set of double doors and enter into the enclosure with free roaming Squirrel Monkeys. They are free roaming and able to go anywhere in the entire exhibit while the guests are restricted to a path through the middle. There are no cages or fences or barriers, the monkeys can and do cross the path right in front of you and jump through the trees above your head. It's a pretty cool exhibit and the guests are always tickled at how close they can get to the little buggers. There are currently 16 Squirrel Monkeys in the exhibit. I worked there today as a matter of fact and they were really active most of the day and ALL over the place! lol They kept me on my toes!

 

[Yero]

Actually, walk-through exhibits with squirrel monkeys are becoming pretty common in Europe - in the Netherlands (Apeldoorn (with two different groups), Gaiapark), Belgium (Pairi Daiza), France (Romagne), UK (London, Blackpool), and I probably missed quite a few.

Walk-through exhibits with snakes also existed in Doué-la-Fontaine (France) and apparently even in Antwerp Zoo (Belgium), but now they no longer exhibits snakes like that.

I find it hard to think of really unique zoo exhibits. As has been said, many things were once unique or original but have been copied often since. Perhaps Massoala Hall in Zurich springs to mind, as a largest walk through rain forest ecosystem-exhibit, dedicated to one single area (rather than combining different ecosystems/geographic areas, like in Burger's Zoo).

 

[Cat-Man]

I might go as far to say that kilimanjaro safari's is unique. However, I'm trying to think of some more, partiquarly the us attractions I've visited. The Tiger dome at busch gardens where you can pop your head up in a glass dome + get a close up view of the tigers, is that replicated anywhere else? Also, at Nausicaa, the french national sealife centre at bolounge-sur-mer (bolounge-on-sea) has a huge variety of unique exhibits. I Find this simply because It is based on mans relationship with the sea, and this has been hugely succesful. Nausicaa is an absoloutly amazing aquarium (aswell as a sealion exhibit which had a very educational display, despite being in french, they had large eelectronic bilboards which had the english on them) but back on topic, almost every exhibit I found at Nausicaa was very unique indeed. I must get back there, as it is only a 4 hour drive from me, despite being across the border, I recomend anyone who is looking for unique exhibits, to visit Nausicaa, the french national sealife centre (it is not owned by the sealife group thank heavens), especially if they're british, due to the fact its far superior to the British aquariums.

 

[Kwambeze]

Safari at Kolmården Wildlife Park

Safari opend in April 2011 and is a unique attraction. The kind of cable car can not be found anywhere in the world, it has serveral turns, goes from 28 meters to 2,5 meters and it takes 28 minutes. You travels over serveral animal enclosures including lion, bear and wolf, ibex and llama, african wilddog, the savanna with giraffe, zebras, watussi, antilopes, lechwe, deers and ostriches , the scandinavian forest with moose, deers, wisent and ducks.

It is a very , very interesting attraction wich the visitors love. 95% of the visitors have taked the ride. It costed 132 million SEK to build. The gondolas have no windows, but safety iron rods. In the fall, they put windows on some of the gondolas because it gets very cold.

Even San Diego Zoo is now interested in this type of attraction.

The pictures were taken before the ride was opend for public. That´s why it sometimes looks a bit messy (the lion photo for example)

 

[Maguari]

@Maguari: Congo Gorilla Forest has several unique features: the visitor gets to chose where the conservation fee that they paid to see the gorillas goes (elephant, gorilla, mandrills, or okapi field conservation projects) via interactive displays.

Chester also has donation boxes that allow you to choose the use of the money, as do London. The only difference at CGF is that the donation is compulsory.

http://www.zoochat.com/42/donation-machine-87787/

The exhibit also features a film theater showing a very interesting movie about the Congo ecosystem and when it is over the screen lifts up to reveal the main panorama of the gorilla exhibit. Also there are some interactive displays about forest elephants, including a life-size model of a forest elephant if I recall correctly (please correct me if that is wrong someone). Eventually it seems like the only presence that elephants will have at the Bronx Zoo is through the interactive displays and film in this exhibit, seeing as they are phasing out their live (Asian) elephant program.

None of that is really unique though - Chester's Wild Dogs and pretty much every SeaLife Centre I've ever been to spring to mind as other examples of conservation films in zoo exhibits.

Actually, walk-through exhibits with squirrel monkeys are becoming pretty common in Europe - in the Netherlands (Apeldoorn (with two different groups), Gaiapark), Belgium (Pairi Daiza), France (Romagne), UK (London, Blackpool), and I probably missed quite a few.

Indeed - also Leipzig (inside Gondwanaland) and Yorkshire Wildlife park spring to mind.

Walk-through exhibits with snakes also existed in Doué-la-Fontaine (France) and apparently even in Antwerp Zoo (Belgium), but now they no longer exhibits snakes like that.

Also Budapest when I was there in 2003: http://www.zoochat.com/451/bizarre-boa-walkthrough-budapest-08-09-a-191405/

Safari at Kolmården Wildlife Park

Good call!

 

[Cat-Man]

the otter in a box in a asian zoo is at Ueno Zoo, Tokyo, Japan

 

[DavidBrown]

None of that is really unique though - Chester's Wild Dogs and pretty much every SeaLife Centre I've ever been to spring to mind as other examples of conservation films in zoo exhibits.

As Zooplantman noted nothing stays unique in a zoo for very long, at least if it is a successful. What is unique about the film experience at the Congo Forest, at least in US exhibits, is the reveal of the exhibit when the screen moves away at the end of the film. The scale at which it is done in CGF, and its integration as part of the physical exhibit experience, seems unique (i.e., reveal of a giant forest panorama behind a movie theater sized screen). Perhaps this is done in other places also for other ecosystems?

 

[Maguari]

What is unique about the film experience at the Congo Forest, at least in US exhibits, is the reveal of the exhibit when the screen moves away at the end of the film. Perhaps this is done in other places also?

No, I've not seen that elsewhere. Does that mean you have to watch the film every time or is there any way of bypassing it?

 

[Brum]

Indeed - also Leipzig (inside Gondwanaland) and Yorkshire Wildlife park spring to mind.

Don't forget Dudleys Monkey Tails, home to squirrel, white faced saki and Goeldis monkeys all free roaming!

Singapore have taken it one step further with orangs at the zoo. Pretty sure they have a walk-through flying squirrel exhibit at the Night Safari which I've never heard of before!

 

[Kwambeze]

DavidBrown : the Boras Zoo savanna is wonderful , before they had rhinos but they now live with the cheetas.