As in best quality or largest space? I just checked using google earth and it says that the Hippo Exhibit at the DeYoung Family Zoo is close to 12,000 square feet in size.
As in best quality or largest space? I just checked using google earth and it says that the Hippo Exhibit at the DeYoung Family Zoo is close to 12,000 square feet in size.
Until it is constructed, potential size are just numbers on paper. After the glorious playscape, they have to shoehorn everything else. Considering the size of filtration and other LSS and a decent holding area with pools, exhibit space will be limited. Add in visitor viewing, a decent pool and that leaves little space left for a land area. If size is the case, then Birmingham wins when Tadpole gets to use the big yard and various pools. Natural substrate, mature trees, wallows and grazing opportunities, no zoo, let alone skimpsinatti can hold a torch.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and that's how it should be but when you read some of these zoo chatters post you question their intelligence and that's a waste of a post just to say something negative
To clarify things before we have a rage war:
Is 9,000 s.f. the total for everything in the total exhibit (i.e. animal exhibit, housing, play area, LSS, and visitor area) or is 9,000 s.f. just for the animal exhibit itself?
To clarify things before we have a rage war:
Is 9,000 s.f. the total for everything in the total exhibit (i.e. animal exhibit, housing, play area, LSS, and visitor area) or is 9,000 s.f. just for the animal exhibit itself?
No, 9,000 all to the hippos outdoors, with 42,000 Sq ft available (10,000 of that needs to be reserved to food trucks, field trips to the back parking lot, and other animal deliveries), with this, the indoor spacing or just the building itself, will actually be larger than the outdoor exhibit.
9,000 is on the smallish side for such large animals, but not unreasonable (it's just shy of 1/4 acre). I checked some designs I found on a quick google search, and it doesn't seem to be anything stellar in its design, just run of the mill. Nothing wrong with that. What might be interesting though is the proximity to the wild dog exhibit. I know that San Antonio's hippo exhibit is designed where the hippos have access to the wild dog exhibit at night for grazing. If Cincy does this, then it might double the size of the exhibit and be perfectly acceptable for everyone.
