Thank you both, I've found the other pictures now (can't believe I missed them before). Will give the lengthy threads a read. I really find it hard to imagine a completely indoors exhibit for hippos. These must be the largest mammals kept entirely indoors anywhere
Yes, entirely indoors. It wasn't that bad, I wasn't sure what to expect going in - based on past photos and descriptions on here, it used to be pretty awful - but they seem to have quite a bit of water to swim in and enough land area. I've definitely seen smaller hippo areas. It's not a immersive exhibit but it's one of the more natural looking ones in the aquarium (it's extremely kid-orientated).
I wanted to do a video but it was already packed and very, very loud.
Looking at past photos, this exhibit used to have quite a few birds, but I don't think it does now. There was no signage, and I didn't see, or hear, any. I only saw 4 bird species in the entire aquarium - kookaburra, a red-lored amazon, and of course the blue penguins and african peguins.
There's also no longer a porcupine in there.
@Crowthorne I was going to say belugas are bigger and are often kept indoors but it turns out that on average they are slightly less massive (although with plenty of overlap).
Does anywhere keep orcas indoors? I think Chimelong does currently in a temporary exhibit.
This exhibit was also once featured on a Dirty Jobs exhibit called "Hoof Cleaner", in which Mike Rowe helped clean up heaps of hippopotamus excrement. The episode also featured the behind-the-scenes holding facilities.
