Medical treatment for the abysmal accommodation? Foot problems have plagued captive elephants for decades. Wilhelma is famous for having a lot of great things about it, but the elephants, rhinos, tapirs, some of the big cats and primates, etc., have poor exhibits with concrete everywhere. Perhaps the zoo does well by the small creatures (fish, reptiles, amphibians) and is a bit hit-and-miss with the mammals? Is that a fair analysis of somewhere that I've yet to visit?
* I just read your mini-review in the main Stuttgart thread.
It is easy to to be hard on their elephant accomodation and while it had too much concrete for years, it is now mostly sand (inside and outside). You shouldn't forget that both remaining elephants are well in their fifties (56 and 57 years old), so medical problems are to be expected at any rate.
The exhibits you mention aren't poor because they have concrete everywhere, most of the ones you mention are poor because they are too small (though the single rhino has 1000 square metres of outdoor enclosure, so it isn't very small at all), but still have plenty of natural materials in most cases (except if you are a spider monkey or lutung...)
@lintworm And the exhibit isn't designed well. Whenever I think of the Wilhelma I remember my visit where one of the elephants died... They had no shade on a blistering hot day and one of the cows fell in the moat. This was not the first time that animals fell in the moat but the age of the elephant and the heat probably didn't help the situation.
