The exhibit wasn't all that bad. It contained four Bonobos total on the day of my visit, two females and their youngsters. One of the youngsters was older and more independent than the other. The exhibit certainly pales in comparison to the exhibits of other zoos which exhibit Bonobos, however. The other zoos that I have been to that display them, especially Cincinnati, which I recall the most, had very lushly planted habitats. This one, instead, was a mostly grassy field with a climbing structure (pictured elsewhere in the gallery) in the middle of it. There is an interesting feature, however. It is a moated exhibit, but the moat is not filled. Instead, there is a series of large terrace-like steps in one part of the exhibit that allow the apes to climb down and back up. This way, they can either choose to be on eye-level, above, or very far below those that are observing them. Unfortunately, it is still the weakest Bonobo habitat I have seen. The exhibit complex they are located in, World of Primates, is rather weak as a whole. The Eastern Colobus Monkey is confined indoors 100% of the time (something I wholeheartedly disagree with for primates and lemurs, with the exception of some exhibits like Bronx, large indoor rainforests such as the Lied Jungle at Henry Doorly Zoo, and aye-ayes all around due to them being nocturnal). The Sumatran Orangutan habitat and the White Cheeked Gibbons are by far the best habitats. Those for Mandrill, Bonobo, and Gorilla are sub par. The indoor Gorilla habitat is unfortunately just a mess, being around a very fake tree stump, and on compact dirt with no vegetation at all. The exhibit complex could turn out to be, in the future, an excellent lushly planted habitat for two or three species, however that is not in the zoo's master plan. The 2.5 acres could have been a few great habitats, but instead they took this modern appearing route. None of the exhibits are horrible (except indoor Gorilla and Eastern Colobus) but they could all use a lot of improvements. The Zoo, overall, is amazing, especially with the recent addition of the amazing Museum of Living Art. It is definitely worth visiting, along with the Dallas World Aquarium and Dallas Zoo, but not as a trip by themselves.
