Well written Sooty! I've been following this thread with interest, and I admit that it is something that author Allen Nyhuis and I have often debated. My personal love is for lush, grassy, green exhibits with loads of hiding places and a naturalistic appearance that hopefully mimics the actual environment of the animal. It seems that most of the major North American zoos that I visit have been heading in that direction for the past couple of decades. However, many zoo habitats that incorporate that realism into the design of the exhibit make it extremely difficult to actually spot the occupant. The key is to have lots of animals in lush, natural-looking enclosures, and therefore one would hope that at least one or two animals would be visible and active at all times.
The perfect example of this is the brilliant, 3-acre chimpanzee exhibit at the Kansas City Zoo, which I adore. However, having a massive forest means that the chimps have tons of hiding opportunities and some visitors might never see them. Thankfully the zoo has about 20 of the apes, and on my visit I saw 12 of them interacting with each other and the visit became spectacular. Even if a few of the chimps were moving around then that would at least satisfy the demands of most zoo patrons.
