To say that shade trees have been planted is great, but how many years will slide by before those very same trees supply effective coverage? It looks remarkably like London Zoo's Gorilla Kingdom, and that has received an endless torrent of abuse from ZooChatters.
My guess is they are fast growing sycamore/acacias which do grow pretty fast but admittedly will not be effective in the first few years. I would also like to see a denser planting too but of course this is compromised by the desire to allow the Gorillas to be visible to the public and not hidden in the middle of a dense grove of trees-. But contrast this with so many enclosures where no effort is made in this direction at all....
I too thought this is similar to London's enclosure but even that one looks much better than it did at first. If ZSL planted shade trees it would help it considerably more.
It would be great if this zoo had trees planted all over this exhibit. Not just a few here and there.
When l first came to understand just how sensitive a gorilla is l was amazed. As they are certainly not that in aperance. They really are very shy and incredibly seneitive.
Lets give this exhibit a year or two. As Frankfurt is really very good with gorillas.
1. true- maybe they will add some more in due course.
2. They are extremely sensitive. If you are ever watching gorillas in a zoo and there's a distant rumble, or a bird flies overhead, they always flinch and look around(and upwards) nervously. Anything unusual, such as building work, going on near their enclosure, can worry them too. How many places when they devise a new enclosure, find their Gorillas are very reluctant to venture into the lovely but alien new 'habitat' until they get used to it.
3. Frankfurt have been breeding Gorillas since the 1960's- they were the fourth(?) zoo to do so in the World. I am pretty confident they will have taken most aspects into consideration with this design. (sorry but I'm still a big admirer of Frankfurt... )
