Certainly we don't have anything like that in the UK...
Just out of interest, are the large Butressed trees in the 'Congo Forest' real or models? How much of the vegetation in each exhibit is accessible to the animals-whether Okapis, Gorillas or others e.g. Red River Hog- do they have access to just limited areas around the plantings. This is NOT a criticisim- I'm just interested to know how the 'effect' is maintained.
Certainly we don't have anything like that in the UK...
Just out of interest, are the large Butressed trees in the 'Congo Forest' real or models? How much of the vegetation in each exhibit is accessible to the animals-whether Okapis, Gorillas or others e.g. Red River Hog- do they have access to just limited areas around the plantings. This is NOT a criticisim- I'm just interested to know how the 'effect' is maintained.
Wow, have I been so touchy that you and @taun have to apologize in advance? I regret that
The buttress trees are artificial. The other big trees are real and were on site before work started (remaining from the original 1890s development of the small animal house there). Two big trees in the gorilla exhibits were moved a dozen meters or more to save them from demolition for the building. In all exhibits only the perimeter is hot-wired to keep animals out. Only places where we needed plants to survive in order to hide fences, etc. The okapi exhibit was denser and more lush when it opened. Mandrill and gorilla held up better. So the animals have use of the entire exhibit.
I think you`d like the largest of the 3 okapi enclosures in Leipzig - it`s in the forest part of the zoo, just fenced for the okapi. Some large trees, some smaller trees, and lots of shrubs. When I visited last year, the okapi was just about 10-15 meters away from me but totally invisible at first. They cleared the area close to the visitor path a bit this year but it is still a dense forest with lots of cover for the animals. Apparently, the young male they have (Kimdu) is VERY selective about what he`s eating, and most of the plants/trees/shrub in there are not on his menu, thankfully. We`ll see what the male who just arrived from Stuttgart (Steve) will do with all the fantastic vegetation...
No , not you personally. Just in the debate that raged about Naturalistic versus Howletts Gorilla cages there was a fair amount of comment about how much of the CGF the animals could actually use etc... Thanks for explaining how it works. It is certainly the only exhibit I have seen which seeks to show Okapis or Gorillas on an actual scale relative to their natural environment i.e. tropical rainforest.
