elephant barn interior

May 22, 2012.
Three stalls that actually form an L shape, so stitching them together in one shot like this gives a distorted perspective (especially with a wide angle lens). Imagine stall on left (with worker inside) facing one direction, stall in middle (with young elephant) being a corner piece - back walls are corner of barn and front metal is angled, stall on right (with large elephant) is ninety degrees to stall on left. Stall on left is cement flooring and has a solid metal door so that it can be used for quarantine. Stalls in middle and right are dirt flooring and are separated by mesh.

This might well be your first uploaded photo of the interior of the barn, and does that mean this area is off-exhibit for visitors or have the elephants simply always been outside when you've been volunteering at the zoo? What separates the visitors from the elephants? A low wall or fence?

Barn interior is off exhibit and today was the first day docents were given a tour. Soon they will start offering tours to special groups (Zoo Camp, etc), but it will not be open to the general public.

On the inside of the barn, there is an orange line painted on the floor that tour groups (including docents) are told never to cross or there will be severe consequences! On the outside exhibit, a waist high fence separates visitors. No cables in the way at all - really great - but there is a low hotwire just above the berm which gets in pictures if the elephants are right up close to the edge. If they are any distance back at all (even a little), it is easy to shoot over the hotwire.

Will the African Elephant barn ever be open to the general public? It seems a shame if the answer is no, but I suppose that the weather in Tucson, Arizona, will mean that the elephants will be outdoors year-round. Practically every single great elephant exhibit in North America is in a zoo situated in the southern United States, as many northern-based zoos have either sent their elephants away or have substandard habitats.

Not open to the general public, but they do give tours. So someone can sign up for the behind the scenes tour if they really want to see it. There is a yellow stripe painted on the floor for visitors to stand behind, so it is definitely set up for public tours.