I had a thought when I visited today and was looking at Sabu in the bull elephant yard. I think the old elephant house land area for hippos may have actually been bigger than the fancy new one. The pool was a goldfish bowl, but the yard was probably bigger.
@ Drew - Thanks for the correction; I should not have placed the blame solely on designers. It is likely a combination of head staff, fundraising societies, designers and perhaps many others I am unaware of. Nonetheless, the end result is woefully disappointing.
The exhibit is so crowded that guests must first stop at the welcome center to pick up an assigned time pass. If you don't have one, then you can't enter.
There is always tension when designing zoo exhibits. The management is concerned about the visitors needs (Can you blame them? Without sufficient visitors, whose gonna pay the bills? Certainly not Zoochatters); the keepers are rightfully concerned about their own needs and animal management needs, and some Zoochatters are willfully vocal about how much space the animals need. Most of the time management wins because at the end of the day, zoos are designed FOR PEOPLE to look at animals.
I hope someone can post photos of Hippo Cove that capture the full extent of the exhibit, both land and water space, with the hippos in the photos for scale.
I hope someone can post photos of Hippo Cove that capture the full extent of the exhibit, both land and water space, with the hippos in the photos for scale.
I hope someone can post photos of Hippo Cove that capture the full extent of the exhibit, both land and water space, with the hippos in the photos for scale.
You can see Henry in the back corner where I'm guessing the hippos will spend most of their life due to the that area being the most shallow. If you were wondering where BiBi is, she's right under him.
