I'm not sure if there are many gorilla exhibits in North America that have LESS trees and foliage than this one. The two enclosures for gorillas at the L.A. Zoo are wide open with little or no canopy, and looking at the photo it is easy to imagine that the exhibits were built for lions, hyenas, or perhaps even some species of hoofstock.
I'm not sure if there are many gorilla exhibits in North America that have LESS trees and foliage than this one. The two enclosures for gorillas at the L.A. Zoo are wide open with little or no canopy, and looking at the photo it is easy to imagine that the exhibits were built for lions, hyenas, or perhaps even some species of hoofstock.
There is rather high grass growing to the right and further back, and they can make the complete rounds behind all the middle ground for shade and privacy. And as you see the shadows forming in the photograph, they stay pretty well shaded during warmer days. And it's almost always shady and cool near the glass viewing area, right next to the waterfall. You'll often see the females all gathered there.
Compared to where we've come from, it is a vast improvement. Not the originally planned lushly planted project, but hopefully that will be reconciled in the near future. And strange that you should mention other animals, before the previous space was remodeled in the mid '70s, the Gorillas were exhibited in the three former Bear grottoes that use to stand here and once displayed Kodiak, Grizzly and North American Black Bears. So we have come a long ways, and hopefully they will continue to add the finishing touches. And I must admit after numerous visits, the Gorillas do seem much more content. Imagine when I had to watch 6 adolescent Gorillas in one of the old roundhouse exhibits back in the 1960s? Like I said, we've come a long way.
Now maybe they'll plant those large, mature, still waiting in their planters trees, that stand right between the Bongos and Campo Gorilla Reserve, and have been just sitting there for years. Those trees would add the well needed finishing touches.
