That's what it looks like.
Surely Chimps would appreciate this exhibit more? They don't require as many climbing structures and they'd use the woodchip to forage in. That being said, it would need to be bigger but do you see what I mean?
Why does water make up nearly 1/6th of the exhibit? Judging from the photos it's not acting as a barrier so therefore it's just an unwarranted hazard taking up valuable exhbit space.
This seems to be my solution for a lot of things lately, but wouldn't they have been better to cage this area over like the cage in ROTRA at Chester? It would let him use the whole space, they wouldn't be limited to where they put climbing poles, and it would allow him or any future Orangs to actually brachiate.
Edit: and the pond does seem completely pointless... had the architect actually heard of Orangutans when he designed this???
On this particular exhibit we are all in agreement that it is a disgraceful example of an "orangutan forest". Is there any possible way that the zoo can be notified as to the thoughts of many ZooChatters? I wonder what the general public thinks of the enclosure...
This seems to be my solution for a lot of things lately, but wouldn't they have been better to cage this area over like the cage in ROTRA at Chester? It would let him use the whole space, they wouldn't be limited to where they put climbing poles, and it would allow him or any future Orangs to actually brachiate.
Edit: and the pond does seem completely pointless... had the architect actually heard of Orangutans when he designed this???
It would be relatively inexpensive (I'd have thought) to cage over the top of this area, thus raising the height and width of the climbing area once ropes had been attached (as well as the cage itself providing additional climbing opportunity). I'd have also thought this could still be added even now.
The harshness of such a structure could easily be softened by encouraging fast growing climbers (Russian Vine for example) over the top ..... which would also provide an element of shade at the same time.
I really hope the powers-that-be at Colchester are reading all our views about this ....... from a commercial perspective alone it surely makes sense to have visitors feel that the best possible enclosure has been provided for each animal ?
Most probably think it's fine, and I doubt the zoo would listen to be honest. There probably wouldn't be much they could do to it either, but I guess someone could email them and give them some of our quotes.
