July 2008. Disappointing habitat that looks nice from this photo but is actually much smaller than it appears. The long, rectangular-shaped enclosure holds at least 6-7 gorillas.
Being a Colorado resident I would have to disagree in the weather part of your post. Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and Denver both have really large Gorilla exhibits. Denver's Gorilla exhibit is very large with many different areas for them to climb and hide in while Cheyenne Mountain Zoos exhibit is built on a mountain. The large exhibit literally goes up. It also gets very cold up here. We have already had a couple of snows and the ski resorts have been open for a couple of weeks. The two zoos have very large Gorilla exhibits and yet it is very cold. So I don't know how the weather would affect having a large exhibit. Most of the Gorillas can come out in the cold to. Cheyenne Mountains are almost always out even when super cold or little snows.
Out of curiosity does anyone know how large this yard is relative to other zoos? Are there any threads here that compare gorilla exhibit sizes across zoos?
There are plans for it to be renovated. They have been drawn up but not for official reasons. The plan is to turn it into an all indoor exhibit, with exhibits on either side of the viewing path so that both groups can be out at the same time. I have already drawn plans myself. Anyways if this were to happen then it would be in probably 10 years. I just can't wait for their famous breeding to continue, the next baby(ies) won't be until at least next year. I watched the gorillas for an hour one day and it seems they aren't "stressed" at all. It is very lush, is loud with waterfalls, has a wonderful tree they can climb on, and keepers interact with them from across the moat everyday. Now currently 5 gorillas go out daily while Jomo, Anju, and Asha are greeting each other.
