I can't believe they're going to destroy this, it's fine for the animals and is a great sort of "centre piece" to the zoo. They'd be better off to update it with different public viewing and that in my opinion.
Agreed. There's so much potential in the existing structure, not to mention the historical value to a zoo with precious little of its physical history left.
I agree with you, It looks like a fine Baboon enclosure and so much could be done to it to make it better ,With better viewing and added climbing structures and more it could be a great enclosure.
Its a huge shame its going to be Destroyed this is one of the only major historical enclosure left and could be cherrished.
Yes. The press release announcing the new development stated: " The new exhibit will include a realistic rock-work backdrop with kopje-style hills, water features, different natural substrates, an unimpaired view of the animals and excellent off-show areas to make the management of the group for daily cleaning and veterinary purposes as easy as possible."
If I was one of the baboons, I'd be quite excited at the prospect of the move.
Me too. Sounds a big improvement in many ways on the existing enclosure. My only fear is whether they will make it large enough to accomodate the existing-size troop and seeing what they achieved with Monkey Heights, whether it will really be as good as it sounds.....
its actually not very 'historical' as it was only built in the 1960/70's period- it was modelled on much older historical 'rocks' at other zoos(like Monkey Hill at London)
Its not the most attractive of exhibits though it works very well for the baboons. When it was built they tried to replicate the 'layered' effect of different bands of rock as seen in natural rockwork formations in Ethiopia(or wherever) Somehow it didn't work right plus it was very brightly coloured in bands of pink, brown etc to start with- it looked like a children's birthday cake. Over the years it has weathered and toned down more and now looks a lot better but the sculpted 'drip' effect is still there as you noted.
Unfortunately there is a flower bed in front of the wall so you can't lean on the wall to watch the baboons at leisure- that's the worst feature for me.
