I guess that they get some natural light at least - I would have thought this to be an outdoor exhibit without your photo label. How does this exhibit stack-up to other indoor exhibits in your assessment?
I wonder why they don't build an outdoor exhibit for the gorillas? From the map of the zoo it looks like they have a lot of room.
I guess that they get some natural light at least - I would have thought this to be an outdoor exhibit without your photo label. How does this exhibit stack-up to other indoor exhibits in your assessment?
I wonder why they don't build an outdoor exhibit for the gorillas? From the map of the zoo it looks like they have a lot of room.
Frankin Park, Brookfield, Buffalo and Erie are perhaps the last 4 North American zoos with gorillas in all-indoor environments, and Erie has an elderly female who has health problems (arthritis) and she will live with a rabbit until she dies in the next few years. Franklin Park clearly has the best of the remaining trio, while Brookfield's gorilla exhibit has visitors looking down upon the apes as it is basically a mock-rock pit. Buffalo's is the smallest and worst of the lot and I still cannot believe that there are gorillas there.
Orangutans can be found in all-indoor exhibits in these 7 North American zoos: Brookfield (both gorillas and orangs are in Tropic World), Racine, Toronto, Cleveland, Birmingham, Fort Wayne and Pittsburgh. There might be more that I cannot recall off of the top of my head, but at least zoos have come a long way from 30 years ago when in general great ape exhibits were deplorable.
Interestingly enough I cannot think of any all-indoor chimpanzee exhibits, and I also cannot think of any excuse for keeping even gibbons indoors year-round with zero access to the great outdoors.
Actually, at Franklin Park, the outdoor part of the gorilla exhibit is just to the left of the large white domed building, which is their indoor home, in the picture below.
I don't believe that the gorillas have any access to that outdoor zone as on my July 16th, 2012, visit it was under construction and slated to be the future home of "red-crowned cranes and Siberian cranes" according to the sign posted there.
@ snowleopard: I would not consider Buffalo Zoo the smallest of the exhibits. I think Erie Zoo is smaller. Unless you're talking about in terms of inhabitants and their age. Then yes, that space for Erie's elderly lone gorilla is fine. While the space for 3 adult and 1 baby gorilla at Buffalo might not be as big for that inhabitant/space ratio.
Back to this photo, this exhibit looks a lot better than the crappy gorilla exhibit set they made for the movie, Zookeeper.
That's too bad about Franklin Park. I use to enjoy seeing the gorillas outside. But I guess you guys are correct. It has been a couple of years since I last saw the gorillas outside. A keeper once told me there was also an outdoor off exhibit "cage" that the gorillas can be given access to. The topic came up when we were talking about Little Joe, the male gorilla that had escaped. Folks were concerned that Little Joe would be confined to some small indoor off exhibit bedroom. But the keeper told me he still gets outside in the off exhibit area.
But the bronx zoos gibbon exhibit is one of the best gibbon exhibits in the country. Its large ,has many species mixed in with them and live trees and plants.
