If I had to compare it to another exhibit around the US, I would say this exhibit is almost identical to St. Louis's Hippo Harbor, which ironically, has received praise for it being a wonderful exhibit.
Hippo Harbor was constructed how long ago compared to Hippo Closet? Lets face it, Skimpcinnati touted this as a great addition. The whole complex is jacked.
Not surprised. It is Skimpcinnatti, after all. Before Moe' got all uptight over this and seeing the space allotted, knowing what it takes to care for them from LSS to Holding, wasn't much space left. Considering the service road needed to supply the "Amazing Views" of the Savanna. Snicker. Being <3000sf needed to comply so they could squish in the playscape. If they were smart, which obviously, they aren't, they shouldn't have constructed the dog or large, meerkat exhibit. At a clip of what? 40m+ over x amount of years, this complex is a waste of money and does no justice for the animals. Only the visitors. But, hey, america's greenest zoo, right?
That is what you get when you have educators and businessmen with little to no actual animal experience running the zoo... Believe you me, the majority of the keepers are incredibly frustrated with how the zoo is managed... They share many of the same issues with recent additions to the zoo that you have expressed.. And more.
This could be interpreted as a reporter error, but in one of the earlier videos posted by Cincinnati Zoo on Youtube, "vice president of facilities" Mark Fisher says exactly the same thing (that the filtration building is larger than the enclosure itself), and he should probably know.
It could possibly be due to the fact that the walls are really thick and take up a lot of the space. The filtration building however, measured out to be only 3,000 Sq ft.
Yes, that second ground level is w planter to conceal the monstrous filtration building.... There are also several smaller planters within the enclosure that further restrict the space allotted to the hippos.
That is what you get when you have educators and businessmen with little to no actual animal experience running the zoo... Believe you me, the majority of the keepers are incredibly frustrated with how the zoo is managed... They share many of the same issues with recent additions to the zoo that you have expressed.. And more.
It's not just Skimpci', that does this. Sadly. They just take the cake. HC is an expensive, water closet, basically. Imagine sitting on a clear, see-through loo. Along with this, and the shrinking Rhino Reserve yards, to pack in the species... Not much is left to be desired. As can only imagine the Gorillaquarium will be junk, as well. Need to pack the Zoo, empty purses and wallets, make sure people can charge their dumb phones and have free wi-fi, to share their experiences. Free publicity.
So far the yards have been expanded... The former okapi exhibit was combined with the river hog exhibit to make a third Indian rhino exhibit. And recently the second Indian rhino yard was just combined with the current okapi exhibit to make it twice as big all while the zoo's current Indian rhino was moved to a larger yard. Not only that but Rhino Reserve was all nearly closed in 2014 because they were expanding their indoor quarters.
