Snowleopard, a few years later and many zoo visits, what do you think of this exhibit now? I focused on the first outside exhibit and didn't really look too much at the second one. However, I felt it lacked vertical opportunities for the apes. The reason I ask is I am currently reading a zoo book praising the exhibit and I am wondering if maybe I didn't pay close enough attention to it's positive aspects.
There are quite a few gorilla exhibits in American zoos that are thick with green plant life but the enclosures often lack climbing opportunities and Louisville is a good example of exactly that. Not many zoos want to put a wooden jungle gym in a brand-new exhibit (like Phoenix Zoo did for its orangutans) but too often there are flat expanses that appear to be more like a soccer pitch than a gorilla exhibit (Pittsburgh and others). It is a very fine line.
Bronx seems to be the undisputed King Kong of U.S. gorilla exhibits, but places like DAK, Dallas, Atlanta, Woodland Park and Busch Gardens are all excellent. Then there is a second-tier of almost equally impressive places that have their great moments such as: San Diego, North Carolina, Lincoln Park, Como Park, Saint Louis, Sedgwick County, Kansas City, Denver, Riverbanks and Louisville. That makes 16 pretty good gorilla exhibits and I'm just rattling them off of the top of my head as there are many more that are also noteworthy. Zoos have certainly come a long way in the past 30 years when it comes to showcasing gorillas.
I will say that it is wonderful to watch a large family unit interact and in the case of Gladys Porter Zoo (way down in southern Texas) to have a so-so enclosure filled with a dynamic troop of active gorillas in many ways is perhaps better than having 4 bachelor gorillas in a multi-million-dollar field.
On my USA tour in March this year I was overwhelming impressed with this exhibit and the gorilla troops.
Interestingly the exhibit was no where near this lush and green and it was actually not open to the gorillas as they were having an issue with a perimeter fence that they felt was not gorilla proof.
To answer your question the exhibit is big but I would be surprised if they migrated through the exhibit as it's just not that big and in my experiance captive gorillas move reasonably quickly through an exhibit.
On my USA tour in March this year I was overwhelming impressed with this exhibit and the gorilla troops.
Interestingly the exhibit was no where near this lush and green and it was actually not open to the gorillas as they were having an issue with a perimeter fence that they felt was not gorilla proof.
To answer your question the exhibit is big but I would be surprised if they migrated through the exhibit as it's just not that big and in my experiance captive gorillas move reasonably quickly through an exhibit.
No, on a tv show called the ultimate zoo (watched on YouTube after hearing about it on here) I could've sworn they said this zoo had the gorillas (up to 3 troops) migrate around in a circular motion in indoor and outdoor exhibits everyday.
