What would you consider to be the best elephant exhibits in Europe? Are there any that are universally praised and recognized as models for other zoos that build new elephant exhibits?
This picture isn't very flattering, but I consider Zürich easily the best in Europe, even when outdoors migt be small from an American perspective, I have written why in this thread: Best asian elephant breeding enlosure in Europe.
Overall there are many Elephant enclosures that are quite good, but fail in certain ways. The trend of moving away from boxes as indoor accomodation was set in Diergaarde Blijdorp (Rotterdam) 25 years ago and that design has been copied and expanded on. Other good enclosures can be found in Boras (Africans on a mixed savannah), Cologne, Magdeburg, Prague, Planckendael, Chester, Munich, Cabarceno (though it is really bad in indoor accomodation and separation pens) and a few others. A Danish safari park also opened a huge new facility recently, but I haven't seen pictures of it yet. Both Tierpark Berlin and Stuttgart will build new enclosures soon and if the plans are anything to go by they could be great.
Overall most European Elephant enclosures would appear small from an American perspective, but as I have written in the linked thread, size doesn't matter that much and it is more about enrichment, high number of feedint stations and structure. That is where Zurich excels.
