Watching the photos of several zoos in GB as well as seeing them personally I always wonder why they don't plant trees first when erecting the paddocks. All that, especially with relatively new zoos looks very depressing. Why don' they also alter the ground to create small hills, some scattered rocks would also help to break the boring look. Is this really too expensive to buy some trees and plant them (protected of course in the beginning) or to hire a bulldozer for couple of hours?
In Yorkshire's defence, this photo shows a tiny corner of the exhibit. Check some other photos and you'll find there is a good number of mature trees, a large pool and it is far from being a flat paddock,
I wasn't thinking about this particular exhibit but about my general impression from many photos of this zoo as well as some other (South lakes for example). No apparent efforts to hide sheds (that don't appear especially ornamental to me), long unbroken lines of fences (most of them new, will look worse in a couple of years) no planters between paths and fences. There seem to be trees but always outside of paddocks. Even desert or savannah animals like shade and they have none at all. With British climate trees grow much faster than here in mid or eastern Europe and in five years you may have really good results. The sooner it starts, the better the results will be. In the continent most zoos really care about the cover and plant lots of trees and bushes (even new, private zoos do it wioth the help of local nature conservation agencies). I'm sure that an action among visitors "plant a tree in Yorkshire WP" would be a great success.
I wasn't thinking about this particular exhibit but about my general impression from many photos of this zoo as well as some other (South lakes for example). No apparent efforts to hide sheds (that don't appear especially ornamental to me), long unbroken lines of fences (most of them new, will look worse in a couple of years) no planters between paths and fences. There seem to be trees but always outside of paddocks. Even desert or savannah animals like shade and they have none at all. With British climate trees grow much faster than here in mid or eastern Europe and in five years you may have really good results. The sooner it starts, the better the results will be. In the continent most zoos really care about the cover and plant lots of trees and bushes (even new, private zoos do it wioth the help of local nature conservation agencies). I'm sure that an action among visitors "plant a tree in Yorkshire WP" would be a great success.
The foliage/plantation on some of YWP's enclosures (Lion Country, Land of the Tigers etc) did take some time to grow. However as mentioned by Maguari the Leopard exhibit isn't very camouflaged (As of yet!) it is very recent. I think it would be a great exhibit for the Leopards in time.
