@amur leopard That may be the most visually pleasing hippo exhibit I have seen. Where is it? Also how much of the land area can they access? Is it just the grass in front or can they go all the way to what I see between the trees in the back left?
@Arizona Docent This is at Beauval. From my understanding, they can't access all of the land seen in the picture, but they are allowed into a nearby paddock for nyalas where they can graze.
@pachyderm pro has essentially entirely answered the question but a natural barrier separates the hippos from the nyalas and to the left the red river hogs. The trees and foliage extends around 20-30 m (65-100 ft) back from the bank and curves around the pool. The whole exhibit is under a large mesh aviary because in with the hippos are various species of ibis, stork, pelican and vulture. The nyala paddock is also under the same mesh net but the exhibits are separated at ground level, allowing the birds but not the hippos or nyalas through. Inside the pool are various species of cichlids. More photos can be found here:
@Arizona Docent You must see the visitors building. It's the contrary of natural !
The hippo pool is large but the land area is really small without grass. The hippos don't have access to the nyalas part. It's nice when there is foliage but awful without.
I would prefer to see natural hippos enclosure like Detroit's one in 1966.
If the Detroit Zoo were to bring back hippos (first of all, they would need a massive filtration system), should they do a viewing area akin to San Diego while maintaining this grazing area for them?
It would require a lot of funds and quite the drive to make such a hippo exhibit, especially in Detroit, which has a much colder climate than SD. I don't think they would do it and instead focus more on cold-weather animals. It would be nice to see an exhibit that had grass fields for hippos and underwater viewing like at SD or Beauval, but I'm not sure we will be very soon.
