I have very limited experience of North American zoos as I have only been to Los Angeles Zoo, San Diego Zoo and San Diego Wild Animal Park, but I found that the gorilla enclosures were quite different to those I have seen in the U.K. In comparison to Howletts in particular, the big differences were that the enclosures at L.A. and SDWP are dry moated and the enclosure at SDZ is enclosed with glass viewing windows, but they do not have any climbing structures, ropes, swings etc. Also, they all had grass rather than straw, so there was no chance of real foraging.
I agree that the metal cages of Howletts are not naturalistic but that they do provide a lot of enrichment and make for some very happy gorillas! I believe the Palace of the Apes at PL, on the other hand, provides enrichment indoors and outdoors, is aesthetically pleasing and also includes private indoor dens. This is, personally, my favourite gorilla enclosure in the U.K.
I believe the Palace of the Apes at PL, on the other hand, provides enrichment indoors and outdoors, is aesthetically pleasing and also includes private indoor dens. This is, personally, my favourite gorilla enclosure in the U.K.
Palace of the Apes has a very large covered area plus a large semi-natural outdoor enclosure. In that respect its the best of the PL enclosures as the others have much smaller indoor/covered areas in comparison to the large 'open' areas as seen in this photo. But none of these enclosures has lush foliage or any attempt at a 'realistic' forest feel as is seen in many of the more conventional zoo exhibits,both in Europe and America- probably because they feel its an unnecessary expense as its done largely for visitors' benefit. But the downside of this may be that the Port Lympne gorillas only rarely enter the outside areas- mainly when they are lured out by the twice daily scatter feeds- as in the photo.
The equipment tends to be far more used by the young Gorillas than the adults- I've not often seen adults of either sex use the slides but they do sometimes.
