It's interesting to contrast the amount of space given to the giraffes at Monarto (20 giraffes in what seems like at least 10 acres) and the few giraffes at the urban zoo with a tiny paddock.
Adelaide just doesn't have the room, with only 8 hectares, while Monarto has 1000. I think the masterplan suggests that the giraffes be moved to Monarto.
The different sizes of the zoo is extreme: Adelaide's 8 hectares equals 20 acres, while Monarto's 1000 hectares would be 2,500 acres. That seems enormous!
While Giraffes are always nice for attracting visitors, I think city zoos always struggle to do justice to them and their enclosures always look very plain and boring. They do rotate the animals between Adelaide and Monarto though, so they don't stay in the city long-term.
One of the better city zoo Giraffe enclosures in my opinion, is little old Wellington Zoo in New Zealand - I quite liked it, reasonably large and a good viewing platform. The fact that I was pretty much the only person at the zoo that morning also helped - I like quiet zoos
Once you've seen Monarto's Giraffes, Adelaide Zoo feels just so inadequate.
