The use of the poles is an interesting choice as there doesn't seem to be any mesh between them. It wouldn't take much for someone's cellphone or hamburger wrapper to end up in the water. Also, as much as I love the idea of a cafe overlooking an animal exhibit whenever I'm at a zoo, I don't think that Barbary Sheep would be high on the list of species to see while eating lunch.
True, if your phone goes through there, you're not getting it back. I'm not sure if they plan to keep the Barbary Sheep in there, but they have been at the zoo for a long time so it's nice to see them get to be the stars of the show