What an extraordinary photo! With the green backdrop and red hammock and hay/straw beneath the shelter one would think that the very last place to find a gorilla here would be on top of the structure. Is the shelter made out of wood or metal? It is tricky to tell even from zooming in, but I wonder if it is a nice warm environment for the apes on the surface...plus the view must be somewhat impressive.
What an extraordinary photo! With the green backdrop and red hammock and hay/straw beneath the shelter one would think that the very last place to find a gorilla here would be on top of the structure. Is the shelter made out of wood or metal? It is tricky to tell even from zooming in, but I wonder if it is a nice warm environment for the apes on the surface...plus the view must be somewhat impressive.
Kahillis is up there because I am on the roof of the interior section of the gorilla enclosure... the shelter she is stood upon is free-standing, heated and deep-littered, to give them exterior cover if they want it. It's also more or less private for them. It's made of poly-coated metal sheets on massive timber frame, and very sturdily constructed.
I was up there pulling cables through, and took the image with my iPhone! She was curious as to what I was up to, and climbed up to take a better look!
When it first opened it was just an extensive open grassy area with some low hillocks or mounds. But over the years they have landscaped it, planting more vegetation which has nowadays become well established, plus more dead trees etc, and now this shelter too. It is pretty ideal.
Ideal... well, perhaps from a husbandry perspective. From the point of view of visitor experience, perhaps not.From an energy efficiency (and thus sustainability) point of view, it badly needs upgrading - at least the interior portion. We think there is a better way to satisfy all these needs.
We have been given some incredible plans to expand the enclosure, developed free of charge by a local architects firm.
It makes use of our existing interior dens and the building, but places a viewing 'hide' platform safely on the roof, for functions and such. It would segregate the whole area beyond Jambo's statue off as a seperate 'African' portion, and add another sunken grassy area with tree cover.
It would allow for two separate groups to be housed comfortably... and most excitingly, it would make use of wooden clad upcycled shipping containers set into the earth as 'ground level' hides too.
The idea of a discreet African area is exciting. Red River Hogs are already nearby. Is there any chance of integrating some of Durrell's African birds into the new area? It could be enhanced by the sight and sound of Crowned Cranes, Red-crested Touracos, Robin-chats & Hammerkops. In fact an African walk-through aviary would fit nicely -- there are several African duck species on hand as well -- and would complement the existing Madagascar & Asian walk-throughs.
The idea of a discreet African area is exciting. Red River Hogs are already nearby. Is there any chance of integrating some of Durrell's African birds into the new area? It could be enhanced by the sight and sound of Crowned Cranes, Red-crested Touracos, Robin-chats & Hammerkops. In fact an African walk-through aviary would fit nicely -- there are several African duck species on hand as well -- and would complement the existing Madagascar & Asian walk-throughs.
It's all dependent on fund-raising potential, as we've only had the plans donated so far... but I agree that something like that would be just fantastic. Of course, our Hammerkops are in the Malagasy 'Kirindy' aviary already, but the touracos aren't noticed as much as we'd like, and the crowned cranes are practically lost in the valley at this time of year... what you are suggesting would be great for them!
Ideal... well, perhaps from a husbandry perspective. From the point of view of visitor experience, perhaps not.From an energy efficiency (and thus sustainability) point of view, it badly needs upgrading - at least the interior portion. We think there is a better way to satisfy all these needs.
Yes, I was thinking from the Gorillas' point of view mainly, and only referring to the outdoor enclosure. I think the indoors has needed an upgrade for some time now- IMO it needs enlarging too-especially if the group starts to expand at all. Although Jersey bred a lot of Gorillas in the Jambo era, the group has never comprised more than half a dozen animals-at the most and the existing house isn't really big enough for more.
From the public perspective, looking down on the animals(outdoors) if they are anywhere around the edge of the enclosure, isn't ideal either, so the new plans sound interesting and would no doubt overcome that problem. The idea of having two groups(potentially) I know has been talked about for some years now (it would have been useful with Ya Kwanza) but maybe that will materialise too- allowing Jersey to keep homebred females and/or breed more Gorillas!
These plans all sound very interesting, lets hope for fruition in due course.
