While I take the point that it was just a gag, bear in mind that it's not just the era of the exhibit, but the aims and tastes of the staff and contractors that designed and built it. It does not follow that building a replica Indonesian rainforest is the only 'good' (or, indeed, the only modern) way to display orang-utans.
Toddy - yes, I agree with those sentiments entirely! How many recreated rainforests and savannahs does one really need to see?
I know Aalborg Zoo had gorillas in the 1980s but I understand the last one left in 1986 (presumably to Copenhagen) so I wonder if the gorillas were housed in the other present Orangutan enclosure? I visited Aalborg Zoo in 1986, aged 5, and seem to recall a gorilla in an exhibit looking like this.
Yes, Aalborg Zoo did indeed house gorillas in this house for a while. The orangutan house consists of several indoor exhibits and two outdoor exhibits so it mnakes sense that it was built to house two species.
However, I am not sure if the gorillas moved to Copenhagen. I know the origins of three of the four gorillas that lived in Copenhagen and none of them came from Aalborg:
Samson (male): Orphaned in the wild then taken to Copenhagen. Now living in Givskud Zoo. Salome (female): Orphaned in the wild then taken to Copenhagen. Passed away due to a tumor a few years back. Nille (female): Origin unknown but cleary handreared. Now living in Givskud Zoo. Effie (female): The daughter of Samson and Salome born in 1993. The first and only gorilla born in Scandinavia and the only one in Copenhagen. Moved to Givskud Zoo --> Berlin Zoo --> London Zoo.
