Dresden had an outdoor enclosure for sloths in the old monkey house, Hannover Zoo has an outdoor exhibit, also Nordhorn and Üsti nad Labem. I think, outdoor exhibits are very good for them, because Slothes enjoying sunbathes and rain...I know, you can do that artifical, but its not the same as the original...............
Sloths should have outdoor access during reasonable weather, of course. So why do we not often see this in zoos? The reason is simple - when the animals need to come inside in the evening when the temperature drops, the keeper will probably find that they are sleeping, not interested in being tempted inside, or even in the best scenario, so slow-moving as to be the desperation of the staff in a busy section.No chance of carrying them in either, unless you want a long sharp claw stuck in your arm.Fortunately, a wonderful solution exists.Think of the old gorilla house in London Zoo.Basically the whole enclosure was mounted on a turntable and a 180º turn would move the animals indoors or outdoors as necessary.All entirely independently of the cooperation or non-cooperation of the animals.Not necessary, as it turned out, with such intelligent, collaborative & fast-moving animals as gorillas.However, this concept would be IDEAL for slow-moving animals which pay little or no attention to the requirements of their keepers (at least in the time-frame of minutes when we are talking about a busy section of a zoo ).Any takers?
I was going to say that, although they chopped down most of his tree so it is not nearly as good as it used to be.
Reid Park Zoo used to have one; he was housed with the king vultures. However, he was sent to another zoo a couple years ago for breeding. But even in Tucson, we had to take him off exhibit and keep him inside for three or four months during the winter.
