I can't speak for Wildlife Safari, but most opossums in American zoos are education animals that spend a lot of time outside interacting with the public and climbing around.
Their indoor spaces tend to be mainly bedroom areas, as shown here. Most zoo opossums over here are rescue animals that were either injured and cannot be released or found as babies and not trained to go back into the wild.
Once when I was at the Santa Barbara Zoo the keepers brought their opossum in to the indoor viewing area of the gorilla exhibit so that the gorillas could see it. The gorilas seemed quite intrigued by it, and it was one of the more unusual enrichment activities that I've seen.
I can't speak for Wildlife Safari, but most opossums in American zoos are education animals that spend a lot of time outside interacting with the public and climbing around.
Their indoor spaces tend to be mainly bedroom areas, as shown here. Most zoo opossums over here are rescue animals that were either injured and cannot be released or found as babies and not trained to go back into the wild.
Once when I was at the Santa Barbara Zoo the keepers brought their opossum in to the indoor viewing area of the gorilla exhibit so that the gorillas could see it. The gorilas seemed quite intrigued by it, and it was one of the more unusual enrichment activities that I've seen.
Even if they are educational or rescue animals surely they deserve a decent environment to live in. You say they spend a lot of time out interacting with the public but I am pretty sure they spend most of their time in this exhibit unless they are out for 12 hours a day interacting with the public, which I find hard to believe.
The photo shows the entire space allocated to the opposum, and there are zero climbing opportunities. I'm fairly certain that the animal in question would either be an injured specimen that cannot be re-released, or an educational animal. I agree that still does not excuse what is a very disappointing enclosure.
Even if they are educational or rescue animals surely they deserve a decent environment to live in. You say they spend a lot of time out interacting with the public but I am pretty sure they spend most of their time in this exhibit unless they are out for 12 hours a day interacting with the public, which I find hard to believe.
I don't know the particulars of this zoo, but the zoos and education centers that I have volunteered at and/or been a regular visitor at at do actually have their opossums out of the enclosure during substantial parts of the day either doing educational programs or exercising.
I'm not sure if this exhibit is indecent or not. As you said in your original post I guess it depends if it has the equivalent of an outdoor yard that it has access to and this is just its sleeping quarters. If it is cooped up here most of the time then I would agree with your assessment that it's pretty dismal.
