Many of these zoos are in areas that get a lot colder than koala range in Australia does. In Texas it gets very hot and humid (Houston Zoo had their koalas inside too when they had them), more so than wild koala range, so probably they want to make sure that they are shielded from weather extremes (which do still occur in Australia as you point out Pat, but maybe not to the degree that they do in many of these zoos).
The same could be said for most species that are kept outside their natural range but they still have access to the outdoors. It just seems so odd that San Diego specifies this.
Gumleaf Hideout at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo features both indoor and outdoor exhibits both of which are open air without glass.Its unique setup allows you to get incredibly close to these marsupials.It should also be noted that the zoo has produced 11 joeys since 1999 which is more than any other zoo in the SDZ Koala Loan Program.Without a doubt Cleveland is the best exhibit outside of SD.
I haven't seen San Diegos indoor exhibit, but I heard that it is behind glass. Since 1999 there have been 17 koalas born at CMZ. The first 12 with the original male, Ouraka and 5 with Bulkee. Of the 17, three of them have gone on to produce joeys of their own. Wruwallin at Columbus has had Kiki and Bunyip, Yabber at San Diego has had Tekin and Cambee and Omaroo at ZooParc de Beavual in France has sired three joeys (Pintupi, Eora and Mayra).
I haven't seen San Diegos indoor exhibit, but I heard that it is behind glass. Since 1999 there have been 17 koalas born at CMZ. The first 12 with the original male, Ouraka and 5 with Bulkee. Of the 17, three of them have gone on to produce joeys of their own. Wruwallin at Columbus has had Kiki and Bunyip, Yabber at San Diego has had Tekin and Cambee and Omaroo at ZooParc de Beavual in France has sired three joeys (Pintupi, Eora and Mayra).
The San Diego Zoo's old indoor exhibits looked pretty much like these - glass fronted rooms full of branches and climbing structures. It will be interesting to see if the new exhibit makes any changes, although there may be only so much that you can do with an indoor koala exhibit...
The exhibit at CMZ is awesome !! When you walk inside Gumleaf Hideout you feel like you have walked into a eucalyptus forest. The exhibit is divided into two sides, with a Goodfellows Tree Kangaroo on one side and koalas along with two echidnas on the other side. On the tree kangaroo side there is a waterfall which is beautiful but also serves the purpose of muffing the sounds from people talking loud and yelling. On the koala side are two actual eucalyptus trees and climbing structures made primarily from sycamore trees for the koalas to climb on. There is dirt in the exhibit which goes down several feet so the echidnas are able to burrow and the dirt is covered with mulch. There are also other various plants and bushes growing in the exhibit. The walls on the animal side of the exhibit have been painted to look like a eucalyptus forest and in many places looks very three dimensional.
Just for the record, San Diego had BOTH indoor and outdoor (though the latter was not that exciting). Los Angeles used to have all indoor but for the last several years has had all outdoor. The Cleveland exhibit has me intrigued - I will have to look at their gallery for the pics.
I'll look through my photos and post some to Zoo Chat. I need to try to get some photos up here. I'll try to find some that show the exhibit and not just the koalas. Don't know if you ever go to Flickr.com but I have most of my photos posted there. You can find me under Paula~Koala if you are interested in checking them out.
The San Diego Zoo is a zoo I very much want to exhibit some day. I figure that I will need at least two days there - one for the pandas and koalas and the other for the rest of the zoo. I heard that they have both indoor and outdoor exhibits for their koalas and that there were a lot of koalas in the outdoor exhibit. Four of the koalas that were born at Cleveland are now there - Yabber, Kookoora, Wundurra and Wonne Warra.
As you may know from the San Diego thread, they are currently redoing their whole koala/Australia area. (The sign says they will also have tasmanian devils - currently none in the US - so a lot of ZooChatters will be drooling if that comes true). You do need at least two full days to fully take in San Diego Zoo, plus a third day for San Diego Safari Park.
