So this is the largest chimpanzee exhibit on the planet? It certainly isn't short of climbing opportunities for the great apes, and I like the idea of the "pods" for the indoor rooms.
This is a brilliant enclosure, they are very lucky animals. Being in construction (and a bit boring!) the initial thought that struck me was the volume of timber used and secondly how sustainably sourced the trees are, as it would be ironic to be conserving species within a zoo whilst aiding the depletion of natural habiat at the same time. I cant say i am aware of the type of tree it is sourced from, but it certainly looks like its from a tropical climate. It has very attractive characteristics and have seen it used at colchester to.
So does anyone know what it is/where it comes from?
They've come such a long way since the crappy Ape House they built for Gorillas and Orangutans in the 1980/90's period (see Guinea baboon photo below as that was one of the outdoor areas, though without all the equipment in it.)
If Edinburgh had money (I know that they don't have currently) I'd like to see them purpose build something for Sumatran Orangutans as they did this one for Chimps. So few zoos in UK keep the rarer Sumatran species(only Chester & Jersey) while Edinburgh were actually the first UK zoo historically, to breed an Orangutan,(sumatrans) though both their births were not successful. This was back in the 1930's.
