Is this the best tapir exhibit in an American zoo? In terms of size, scope, planting and something as simple as grass it is enormously impressive. Often tapir paddocks are basic mud-puddles at certain times of the year, or indoor pits like the one in the Lied Jungle at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo.
This is certainly one of the best tapir exhibits around,other good ones that come to mind would be Lowry Park in Tampa and Virginia Zoo.Louisville's Islands rotation and Detroit's tapir exhibits are also soild.Can anyone else think of some other nice ones?
I have seen Malayan tapirs and the other species in several zoos, and I was just thinking before I saw this photo that I don't remember ever seeing a really great tapir exhibit. This looks like a memorably great tapir exhibit.
California has fairly uninspired tapir exhibits. The LA Zoo's mountain tapir exhibits are smallish, dusty yards. The San Diego Zoo has an okay Malayan tapir exhibit in their Tiger River complex that has a nice large pond and a not-large yard. The Fresno Zoo has medium sized dusty yard for a pair of Malayan tapirs; it was originally an African rhino exhibit (picture of about half of the exhibit by snowleopard: http://www.zoochat.com/1128/malayan-tapir-exhibit-243498/).
Adelaide Zoo has one of the best tapir exhibits that I've ever seen. It isn't huge but has a gigantic fig tree in it and the Malayan tapirs share their home with a family of spectacled langurs. It is viewed from inside a south-east Asian walk-through aviary, a high boardwalk and over a moat at ground level.
Adelaide Zoo has one of the best tapir exhibits that I've ever seen. It isn't huge but has a gigantic fig tree in it and the Malayan tapirs share their home with a family of spectacled langurs. It is viewed from inside a south-east Asian walk-through aviary, a high boardwalk and over a moat at ground level.
forgive me for asking, but how does a big grassy paddock with a few trees make a "great" enclosure for a rainforest animal? It looks like it is big, yes; it looks pleasant to the viewing public, yes; but is it any better than putting an okapi in a field with a couple of trees and claiming that to be amazing? This just looks like a standard interchangeable paddock that the zoo could put anything with hooves into.
forgive me for asking, but how does a big grassy paddock with a few trees make a "great" enclosure for a rainforest animal? It looks like it is big, yes; it looks pleasant to the viewing public, yes; but is it any better than putting an okapi in a field with a couple of trees and claiming that to be amazing? This just looks like a standard interchangeable paddock that the zoo could put anything with hooves into.
@Chidonias: In many American zoos at least tapirs seem to get what seem like pretty dismal exhibits. There are several indoor rain forest exhibits where they get little more than a pond and a dirt and/or concrete box. Compared to those exhibits this seems a vast improvement, which is the context that I was calling it "great" in.
@Chlidonias: it occurs to me that you have seen Malayan tapirs in the wild...where do you think the best tapir exhibits are? You actually have some unique insight into this given that you have experience with actual tapir habitat unlike the rest of us opining here.
