Its not bad, but is dosn't plays a role. The gorilal scan use it just for a few month a year, the whoel winter, they are in small, sterile indoor holdings. They have a tiny indoore xhibit with a lot of articical rocks, ungly and small, but it is very ahrd to switch the groups in this indoor holding, they can do it just one time in the winter....Sorry, but I know much better gorilla holdings in other zoos.Its more important to have big, natural indoor exhibits for such species in climate zones with a long an cold winter.
A few months a year? They could easily use it April-October so 7 months out of the year. I am not one to judge an exhibit based on the climate they are in or by their holding.
I do. Me was told, the animals are out from Mid April to the Beginning of october, so 6 month, depending on the wheather, and don't forget, where the animals are in the winter...
I totally sympathise with Zebraduiker´s views here.
The outdoor enclosure is obviously mindblowingly brilliant but if the indoor quarters are bad, and the animals get to spend half the year in them, it DOES take away a lot of the glory of this gorilla exhibit at Bronx.
Come to think of it - and I have not checked it out - but does anybody know if there are pictures of the indoor quarters in the gallery? (There are almost 800 pictures from Bronx so I will not look through the whole gallery right now...)
I have a pic of the little indoor exhibit, bit it was so hard to take a shot of it, so its not very good. I have to findi and post it then.
I have to sy, the quality of the Bronx-Zoo isn't that good, what a lot of people belive. The childrns Zoo for example is toatlly outdated and is one of the worst things I've seen in an Us-Zoo !
Second the jungle World, it could be a really good reptile or birdhouse, but not for big mammals like the tapir, tree kangarors, the primates or, of course, the leopards in their tiny, and boring "holes", I can't call this"enclosures", Sorry.
Congo, nice exhibits for the summer, but the aniamls are for seven months indoors, for seven months without access to any outdoor yard !
A great exhibit for indian rhinos, no question, but they have 7, and they can use it just for one animal at the same time ! The same for okapis, theyy have 5, and use the little exhibit, which is nice LOOKING, but animals don'tc are about NICE LOOKING exhibits, but they can use the yard just for one animal.
So the Bronx-Zoo can't be one of the best zoos in the USA. And for New York, the Queens Zoo is much better ! But unfortunately probably to boring for zoofreaks, no rare animals, justa few species and only american species, so no brilliant COLLECTION from the point of few of a lot of so called "Zoofriends"
Its not bad, but is dosn't plays a role. The gorilal scan use it just for a few month a year, the whoel winter, they are in small, sterile indoor holdings. They have a tiny indoore xhibit with a lot of articical rocks, ungly and small, but it is very ahrd to switch the groups in this indoor holding, they can do it just one time in the winter....Sorry, but I know much better gorilla holdings in other zoos.Its more important to have big, natural indoor exhibits for such species in climate zones with a long an cold winter.
The small indoor area the visitor can see is a fraction of their indoor day rooms. Those are off-exhibit and very spacious...both wide and deep and tall. The gorillas can be together, or come and go through the public viewing...or be off view. There is a similarly spacious indoor complex for each troop of gorillas.
Perhaps the Zoolex exhibit description gives dimensions.
I've heard from many people that the indoor dayrooms for the gorillas at the Bronx Zoo are amongst the best ever created in North America. The outdoor yards are the #1 gorilla habitat anyone could ever hope to see, and it's widely regarded that the Congo Gorilla Forest complex is amongst the best zoo exhibits ever built. "Zebraduiker" has been to a mountain of zoos, but just because he is underwhelmed with the Bronx Zoo doesn't mean that it is not regarded as either the best or second best zoo in the entire western hemisphere. Each to their own opinion, but only San Diego, Omaha and perhaps Columbus are really given a chance to be true competitors by many hardcore zoo fans within the United States. Just look at this photo, and I visited in 2008 and found the gorilla compex to be simply outstanding.
Yes... but I am still interested in Zebraduiker´s arguments. The outdoor enclosure is "obviously mindblowingly brilliant" as I put it in a post above; it is just that I haven´t seen any photos of the indoor dayrooms for the gorillas. I would be very interested in that. The point that the outdoor enclosure is only available for about half of the year is a good point!
The Zoolex presentation doesn´t shead much light, there is only a basic architectural drawing of the general layout of the building.
And to broaden the debate even a bit further, I would be very interested in comments on this statement from Zooduiker:
"A great exhibit for indian rhinos, no question, but they have 7, and they can use it just for one animal at the same time ! The same for okapis, theyy have 5, and use the little exhibit, which is nice LOOKING, but animals don'tc are about NICE LOOKING exhibits, but they can use the yard just for one animal."
