The giraffes on the picture seem to be very cool...We have a few zoos in germany with giraffe, antelope and zebra exhibits near to busy streets, and they have absolutly no problem with that. They know it, cars are nothing spectacular to them.Often humans have more problems with exhibits near to streets or parking lots than the animals by themselfs.....
@Zebraduiker: the Hogle Zoo's giraffe paddock doesn't look that good in the photo you posted, and I was not a fan of Cincy's brand new giraffe ridge. I think that you are right in that it will look much better a few years from now once the vegetation grows in, but the close proximity to the car park isn't that cool. Actually, parking at the Cincinnati Zoo is completely chaotic...
I bring comparisons to Bronx a lot (mostly because it's one of the few zoos I know like the back of my hand) BUT let's not forget that there are portions of Bronx (the Asia monorail ESPECIALLY) with a major expressway several car lengths away from tigers, elephants and far more skittish animals than giraffes. Urban zoos make deal with space as best as possible.
@tigertiger: do you have any recent photos of Giraffe Ridge that you could post onto ZooChat? I know that you are a fairly regular visitor to the Cincinnati Zoo, and I'm sure that this giraffe paddock looks much better now that it has had a year and a half to mature.
Here's some Google Earth snapshots so you can definitely tell the difference. The first one is from August 31, 2009 and the second from November 2, 2011.
