@Black Rhino. You're wrong, iIve meant ALL indoor holdings for the gorillas, not just that one which is visable to the public. The system to switch both groups is very complicate, so tehy can switch them for the indoro exhibit just one time in the winter ! Tehe indoor cages are not that big, as Zooplantman says and clinical sterile, so no natural trees or natural grounds in it.I know, this is tehw ay to keep gorilla sindoors in all Us-zoos, I had a long talk to a gorilla keeper and she said,she all likes the big natural indoor exhibits for apes in a lot of european zoos and wishes, she had them for her own apes.
Black Rhino is wrong also with the size of the okapi exhibit, it isn't not nearly that big as he says, I've seen it from both perpectives, from behind and from the vistors side and it is much smaller than Dallas, for example. So where is the problem to have outdoor exhibits for ALL Okapis ? Stuttgart zoo has 4 big and two smaller outdoor exhibits, so all of the six or seven okapis have daily access to an outdoor exhibit, even in winter time, when wheather allows. And to have only one outdoor exhibit for seven indian rhino is everything, but no good keeping of rhinos.
I'm stillw aiting for comments of my pictures of teh Bronx-Zoo Childrens Zoo. Whats your opinion of that ? Or isn't that important, becuase the animals there are mostly domestic animals and nobody cares about their interests ? Are domestic animals other animals with other feelings than "wild "animals ? If a german zoow ould keep his sheep, goats, ponies and donekys as the Bronx-Zoo is doing, he would have a lot of trouble with animal righteners and the LAW. The Childrens Zoo at the Bronx is one of the resaons why I say, the Bronx-Zoo isn't the ebst zoo in america and is just a good zoo, theer are much better zoos in teh Sattes than Bronx.
Comments to your pictures of The Bronx Zoo´s Children´s Zoo? See, this is where it would have been helpful if you did have labelled your pictures, Zebraduiker...
You have indeed mentioned The Children´s Zoo in a couple of your comments and now I think I get what you are referring to - the set of pictures of domesticated animals in small and barren concrete pens, such as this one?
@Zebraduiker: you have an excellent point in regards to the okapis and rhinos, as if the animals are kept for most of their lives in small areas (and then occasionally being rotated on exhibit) then I agree with you and think that is a sad set of circumstances. In your assessment of the children's zoo I have no real opinion other than the fact that the photos make it see as if that part of the zoo is weak. My biggest complaint about the Bronx Zoo is that the hours are not long enough to see everything properly, as a 7 hour day in comparison to San Diego's 12 hours (in the summer) is massive! When I visited the Bronx I skipped the children's zoo due to lack of time.
Can someone please tell me, why do people always have to criticize excellent exhibits? Is there any exhibit out there immune to criticism from all viewpoints?
That's EXACTLY the way I feel, BlackRhino, when people criticize Omaha's Lied Jungle or Desert Dome, or Disney's Kilamanjaro Safari, or even Fort Worth's Texas Wild! ALL of them, like Bronx's CGF are excellent exhibits.
The Childrens Zoo at the Bronx is one of the resaons why I say, the Bronx-Zoo isn't the ebst zoo in america and is just a good zoo, theer are much better zoos in teh Sattes than Bronx.
I agree that the Bronx Zoo is not the "best" in America, but it is far more than just a "good" zoo. Only San Diego and Omaha are even remotely close to being better. Columbus and Disney may be better someday, but not today. As for Bronx's Children's Zoo, it is one of the best in America! You showed one photo of a stinkin' cow pen! Not great, but it's a cow pen! There's not a lot you can do to make a farmyard exhibit "great".
That's EXACTLY the way I feel, BlackRhino, when people criticize Omaha's Lied Jungle or Desert Dome, or Disney's Kilamanjaro Safari, or even Fort Worth's Texas Wild! ALL of them, like Bronx's CGF are excellent exhibits.
Many great exhibits still have drawbacks - from my own experience - Chester's Realm of the Red Ape is excellent but the narrow visitor walkways can be a nightmare. Zurich's Masaola Rainforest is one of the best exhibits I have ever seen - but why put the two most unusual small mammals in the zoo into it where they're clearly never going to be seen? (Visitor-related examples rather than husbandry, I know, but I'm wokring from the top of my head!)
Nothing's ever perfect, and people are within their rights to draw attention to the faults. Not seen CGF for myself, so can't comment on specifics there, but being very, very good doesn't make you immune from criticism if there are still problems.
I agree that the Bronx Zoo is not the "best" in America, but it is far more than just a "good" zoo. Only San Diego and Omaha are even remotely close to being better. Columbus and Disney may be better someday, but not today. As for Bronx's Children's Zoo, it is one of the best in America! You showed one photo of a stinkin' cow pen! Not great, but it's a cow pen! There's not a lot you can do to make a farmyard exhibit "great".
There were about 20 photos of the childrens zoo and each one looked terrible. That definatly can't be the best childrens zoo in America and there is a lot that can be done to make a farmyard great.
OK, I don't want to sound insensitive here. I'm just saying that these farmyard pens don't look much different from the way most domesticated animals are kept on most of the farms I've been to. These kind of animals don't have any real "natural" environment.
I've gone and looked at all of the pictures that ZD has posted here, specifically of the Children's Zoo. These small pens for cows, donkeys, sheep, llamas, goats, and other critters are meant for one main thing -- to get the animals up close with the children walking through. They are very effective at that. While this section of the otherwise excellent Children's Zoo is nothing to write home about, it's not "bad". It's not like the animals are shackled, whipped, and starved here. I imagine each animal only spends a few hours in these blacktop pens (with hay to rest on), and then spends the rest of his life in a larger grassy pasture.
I stand by our belief that this is one of America's Top 10 children's zoos. Within its 3 acres, kids can sit in a heron's nest, pop up in a prairie dog burrow, scoot through an otter log, play on a spider web, hop like a wallaby, climb up a porcupine tree, crawl into a turtle shell, and listen like a big-eared fennec fox -- all within close view of the animals they are emulating. It's a terrific place for children to learn about the wide variety of animals in the world.
When the Bronx Zoo renovated the Children's Zoo in the 1970s it was, as are so many things done there, state-of-the-art, setting a new standard that many have since copied.
But that was 30 years ago.
Their more recent effort at a children's zoo can be seen at the Central Park Zoo.
Anyhuis, is not just teh cow pen, ist the whoelö childrens zoo,w hich is adesaster for the animals, belive me that, I have a lot of animals at hom,e, whcih ahve much better exhibits than these ones at teh Bronx Chidlörens Zoo. And a coow or all other animals are animals with feeling, too, and just a"cow", your'r enot really afreind of animals,aren't you, becuase you making diffrences between domestic animals and the precious exotic animals.
I don't know, hoiw old are you, but I know, there are to many childrens and teenagers here at zoochat, which knwoking nothing about animals or zoological gardens.
Blackrhino, you ask, why so amny"excelelnt"exhibits are critized here? Becuase this is an forum, where opeple can exchange their opinions, and second, maybe becuas ethese exhibits are not really excellent, they are looking that way, but be careful, not every good looking woman is a nice woman ,too....
