I can imagine visitors jumping over the wall after being dared to it by their friends, and I'm not sure that I've ever seen such a low barrier for an alligator enclosure.
"Alligator Touch Exhibit"? That has got to be one of the silliest zoo concepts ever. Are there really no accidents occurring?
Let´s see, what other kinds of crazy stuff could we come up with?
"Cuddle The Man-eater Exhibit" - people are let in with, say, the tigers. Sooner or later the cats will start to feed on the people, thereby honoring the concept!
"Swim With The Sharks Exhibit"? - some of the big and dangerous species, of course.
"Befriend The Black Rhino Exhibit"? - the rhinos might actually enjoy this and it would be an instant hit with the "Running with the bulls in Pamplona"-type of crowd.
"Make Out With The Anaconda Exhibit"? - a gripping experience.
@Dan, @Dan, take the "Touch Exhibit" expression with a grain of salt... I'm pretty sure zebraduiker is joking-in regard that the people responsible in the zoo did not plan to create a alligator touch pool in the first place. instead, due to shortcomings in exhibit design, security and common sense, visitors tend to touch the alligators-like they try to touch any dangerous animals in every zoo, if given the chance.
I kind of like the idea with the rhinos-and walking around with tigers on a leash, as "recommended" by a certain zoochat member, isn't too far away from your "Cuddle The Man-eater Exhibit" idea...
And aren't there quite a bunch of public aquariums, especially in Asia, where visitors can go scuba-diving in the shark tank? At least in the Blue Zoo in Beijing, this was possible-and explains the highly obese sharks there...
Of course the title of the pic was a joke, but if you see the not very high wall around the exhibit..I've seen later the day tocuhing the female alligator, she was liying right below the wall, so the people touched her back, not the head, because they were not stupid, ha,ha,Ha.
The visitors at the Berlin Animal Park can touch the spotted hyeanas, if they want.
@Dan. I like your ideas for new exhibits, but you forgot a few :
Ride the Warthog Experience, for the little children, which loves The Lion King
and at the Seaworlld Parks, the Stonefish touch pools, so the Seaworld Fun Staff can play nice games with the kids, so "Who finds the Stone fish between all the stones first ? " Or the people can walk through a pool wit a lower water level to cool their feet, and there are some stone fishs in the water...
Well guys, you see, the trouble with me is that I have no sense of humour and believe everything I read to be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth! Especially on a trust-worthy and serious web site such as this one.
BTW, I liked the "Meet our Cape buffalos"-concept. That would also go down well with the Pamplona-crowd, I believe.
@Zebraduiker Keep your picture safe because it´s already of historicaly value. This exhibit is beeing turned into an greenhouse right now (as I posted earlier on another forum), the opening ceremony is scheduled for late spring - summer 09.
Those visitors stroking the female alligator back were indeed stupid but quite lucky in their choise. Becouse Eliška had been living and performing in a cirkus before she got into the zoo, so she is used on human touches and manipulation. It was shortly after the Velvet revolution when a cirkus owner having some problems contacted the zoo and asked if they could not take care for his group of alligators for a while, 2-3 weeks the most. He came back a little bit later to pick them up, just 3 years delay... To cover the quite huge bill (housing, feeding, vet bills) he agreed to part with one female.
@Ashley-h Even if it really looks dangerous, I can´t remember any accident involving those alligators and visitors/keepers in last decades, but the following one:
Some 4-5 years ago, a young couple with a buggy and a female cocker spaniel on a leash were walking along the gator exhibit when the dog got curious and jumped on the wall. Then it managed to free of the leash and skiped into the croc pool. Eliška captured it and dived but the dog fighted and managed to escape just to come near to Libor´s head (the male alligator) to be catched in his jaws and dissapeared under the water surface. Even now the cocker fighted in heroic way and after some time it emerged and escaped from his mouth. Then was Eliška on, but she catched just the dog´s tail so the dog´s nose stayed above the water level. The spaniel was hawling and weeping and it´s master could not watch it any more. He skiped over the wall into the water and caught the dog´s head in his hands. He and Eliška were pulling against each other for a while, the dog owner proved to be stronger and won "the battle" in the end. The man was not atacked or injured in any way by the alligators, the dog suffered minor contusions and a shock. It think this accident was the last drop before the zoo started to plan a reconstruction of this exhibit.
@Zebraduiker What should happen to them?
The greehouse is projected to provide the aligator pair with an all the year round home - so there will be no need to move them to the back stage wintering groud and back. And of course it should considerably improve the security of both crocs and visitors.
