This photo is from within a building, and thus through glass. Other photos will show that the enclosure is a typical moated grotto that is probably decades old, but it is interesting that from this perspective that cannot be known.
Being small and moated doesn't make it a 'grotto'!
'Grotto' means it's like a cave - and this just isn't. The Spectacled Bear exhibit I commented on could be called a grotto - this cannot. I notice you called the bear exhibit a 'pit' - again, this is not the case, as the animals appear to be at visitor level. I think you're using emotive terms to make exhibits you don't like seem worse than they are.
@Maguari: you might have a case with the tiger and lion exhibits at Buffalo Zoo, as while they are small and moated it is difficult to say whether or not they are true "grottoes". However, you are definitely wrong about the bear "pits", as there is even a sign at the zoo that says "Bear Pits" for the polar bears, spectacled bears and grizzly bears. If the zoo itself calls them "pits" then I feel correct in labelling my photos "pits".
Colchester calls it's Orang-Utan exhibit a Forest - doesn't mean it is!
I'm amazed that the zoo refers to the bear exhibits as pits - partly because I don't think they actually are, partly because that's surely not great marketing practice in any case!
But fairplay, if that's the name of the exhibit then you're certainly within your rights to label it that way.
I just looked at the other pictures you uploaded of this tiger exhibit and there is no way that's a grotto though!
I know that ZooChatter "blospz" lives in Buffalo and he visits the zoo at least once a week, so he can back me up when I say that there is actually a sign (perhaps historic?) that says "Bear Pits" on it that refers to the 5 pits/grottoes that contain several lethargic bruins. I was shocked that the zoo would still prominently display such a sign, as it does indeed conjure up negative feelings. However, the bear pits are amongst the worst of their kind that I've ever seen so perhaps they deserve the negativity!
Snowleopard is right; there's a sign that says they're bear pits. But I'm thinking it's been up since they were built and is still up because it's historic.
