Having visited Islands again yesterday I can add one point, which I wasn't sure about before. The glazed area on the right is part of the Monsoon Forest (I think it's the entrance, but I may be wrong). It provides an unobstructed view of this enclosure, which will be rather like the viewing windows in RotRA, where the Sumatran orangs can often be seen swinging on straps and where a couple of swaypoles have been installed to let the orangs get the hang of them, although I haven't seen them being used yet.
The glass window in the pic will covered in a roof and themed up to look like a research station, with related interpretation etc. it isn't the entrance to Monsoon Forest. This is situated approx 50 yards to the right and will be built into the rock face of the outer walls.
I saw the younger orangs use the sway poles on my last visit.
I do agree with Drew about the preferability of black mesh for viewing, and indeed on the other side of the Monsoon Forest there is an exhibit with black mesh which I believe will be an aviary for rhinoceros hornbills. However there are other considerations; the mesh must be strong enough to allow an adult pair of orangs to hang from it together without significant flexing, it must be weatherproof, it must be available in an appropriate mesh size and sheet size and it must be fixed to the framework so securely that it frustrates the orang's notorious combination of strength, persistence and ingenuity.
Alan- The mesh you saw is likely a coil mesh and a completely different animal. The mesh I am referring to is a handwoven 1/8" dia. stainless steel cable with a black oxide finish that is used extensively world wide. it is sometimes referred to as Carlos Mesh. It is used to contain orangutans, big cats, bears, and all sorts of megafauna. I am not sure if the black oxide finish is as widely used over there but it is used quite often here in the US.
Very interesting, thank you. I cannot claim to be an expert on mesh, but I do know about the advantages of the black finish. I presume that the architects considered this, but they must have chosen not to use it for some reason.
