New Orang utan house

this is the left hand side indoor enclosure now complete.
In the corner on the right just behind the main pole there is a slightly raised part which leads to there night time quarters.
There is also any extended area above this window.
You can only see the left hand indoor enclosure through the indoor viewing window.

Again I have decided to put a group of photographs on as thumbs this will again not take up the main part of the gallery with the same subject for half a page
I hope you enjoy the photographs

I think it's safe to say that's a massive improvement on what was there before.

Thanks Adrian!

Here are the rest of them

wow - this is realy great, i feel they have now made a real improvement on their inside quarters

This is a very positive step for this building, and the apes living in it.

The extra space will be wasted though unless they fill it with more opportunties for climbing and resting up high. I am sure they will do this over time, though.

I don't understand why Dudley have a second male orang before the outdoor enclosures are refurbished, unless the older, non-breeding, male would have been difficult to place. Ideally there would be a single male with two or more females breeding with him. However, this exact situation might be what the zoo is working towards.

Overall, this kind of development inspires me much more than expensive, marketed and themed new builds.

This refurbishment was completed by mainly the keepers & staff from the zoo, if I believe right only 10% of the work was completed by outside contractors.
I think a big well done and thank you should go out top all the Keepers & Staff at the zoo for making this a much better home for the Orang utans.

adrian1963 said:

Here are the rest of them

Click to expand...

It is interesting what they have done.

In the middle picture, the Orangutan is standing in the area which used to be the very wide public passageway. The slightly higher area is one of the old indoor cages(part of the Gorilla's cage) the service door at the back is the same, as is the higher inset and door leading to the outdoor cage. I think the 'night' cages are the other original indoor cages which are now walled off from public view, so most of the exhibit space is what was the old public corridor. It will have given the animals a vastly increased indoor area though.

It is a HUGE improvement on what they had before, and more credit still if they did most of this conversion themselves. My only comment is I'd like to see even more climbing equipment added, particularly things to swing on-ropes, 'bendy' poles or whatever.

Note the bare legs on this Orang- that's due to having too much contact with hard surfaces over time, thus abrading the hair.

johnstoni said:

I don't understand why Dudley have a second male orang before the outdoor enclosures are refurbished, unless the older, non-breeding, male would have been difficult to place. Ideally there would be a single male with two or more females breeding with him. However, this exact situation might be what the zoo is working towards.

Overall, this kind of development inspires me much more than expensive, marketed and themed new builds.

Click to expand...

I think you'll find they are stuck with the older non-breeding male and the younger 'Jorong' is on loan from Dublin as a breeder. Whether both will stay longterm I don't know. As you said, they only need one male, ideallykeeping 'Jorong and not Benjamin(the older one- he is a 'dud')

I hope they can do something with the outsides but do not expect too much- I think the horrible high walls will stay because the building might fall down without them. Its crying out to be ROOFED over outside- like a big cage- but I'll bet they do not do that- making it more visually attractive instead but losing out on climbing opportunities at the same time..