Well, they can only build new exhibits a a certain pace. The masterplan features a new baboon exhibit by the savannah which they will share with black rhinoes. This may have been chanced since though...
... but the Baboons will have been in this for probably many decades, long before they built Pongoland- its the classic 'old & new' syndrome working again, where the Zoo wants to forge ahead with new exhibits while bad ones are left as they are. Ever read the criticisms of Melbourne's baboon cages in the Australian forum? A similar situation.
No, Leipzig Zoo builds a modern enough baboon exhibit for its time, then years/decades later builds probably the best multi-species great ape house in Europe, meaning that the baboon exhibit now looks a bit old and tired. Very different situation.
You speak (type?) as if they have just put the baboons in here, which is not the case.
With all the millons of Euros already spent by Leipzig Zoo on upgrading in the past 10-15 years, sure we can give them some break, right? Most important for Baboons is to have a large and natural social group, they do here and they do in Melbourne, I've seen both.
Yes, guess I should have skipped my contribution, but true, the Internet never forgets, many have discovered that painfully, including me sometimes But I wonder how Leipzig Zoo will finance all these changes, they have changed in a decade what the average zoo may take perhaps 20 years to do?
I'm not zoo, animal husbandry or architecture expert, but I find the mini rock mountain quite attractive. What's bad about this enclosure in my eyes is that the baboons appear to have no natural substrate (grass, earth, even woodchip or other logs) and too much space is given over to that moat. I understand why there is a moat, but in such a small exibit (another problem, tho not the biggest IMO), I personally think the space (or most of it), would be better turned into solid land for the baboons' use and some other barrier created. A narrower moat with a plexiglass wall, or maybe no moat at all and just a wall of plexiglass perhaps?
You are quite right in your observations Jodea, but the reason that Leipzig Zoo woulden't want to spend money on that, is that the baboons will move to a brand new exhibit within the next couple of years. First Gondwanaland needs to be finished and then the zoo will focus in the South American and African sections of the zoo.
