That's amazing that zoo visitors can be in the same enclosure with such large reptiles! Unfortunately, I don't think that would work at all in the U.S. -- I can picture little kids screaming and teenagers taunting the animals. Eventually, there would be some sort of injury and the zoo would end up getting sued.
@Mr Gharial, I'm sure that is true. Here in America there aren't many walk-throughs except for aviaries and a few Australia-themed ones. I just think that reptiles would be more problematic because a lot of people get scared by them easier. I also don't think it would be safe for the reptiles either -- the behavior of some zoo guests here in the States is really atrocious!
@Lori Patton What I meant is that I see a lot of Americans surprised by walkthrough-safe animals in other countries, even though most of them are relatively common. I'll admit I haven't seen a lot of Rhinoceros iguanas in walkthroughs, but it has happened before.
Seeing the mixed-species exhibits and crazy walk-through areas is one of the great joys of travelling to zoos in other continents. In Europe, there are primate walk-throughs everywhere and literally a couple of hundred of those type of exhibits, while in the U.S. there's almost zero. There's minimal barriers at plenty of European and Asian zoos, with no one threatening lawsuits like so many Americans would if they were bitten by a reptile or primate. Open-topped scorpion exhibits, open-topped piranha pools, Wisent walk-throughs, Asian Water Monitor petting areas...I've seen it all.
