From a visitor's perspective this is easily one of North America's truly great orangutan exhibits. The soft, spongey walkway (complete with trees that need to be dodged) is outstanding, and the long glass viewing windows stretch far beyond what is shown in this photo. There are benches for sitting and plenty of space to view the orangutans and siamangs while they swing around their "clothesline-style" apparatus. The breeding record at the zoo is impressive and the apes can even retreat (although they rarely do) from the prying eyes of tourists by going down the rear hillside.
This is indeed a fine exhibit, and this photograph of the viewing area is better than the ones I took recently (I was there in the early morning and the low sun made for harsh shadows through the trees). When this exhibit first opened in 1982 as part of the Whittier Southeast Asian Exhibits, it was actually two exhibits for orangutan; one for Sumatran, one for Bornean. They were divided by simulated rock walls, that were removed when this exhibit was combined and rebranded as Absolutely Apes (early 2000's?) Viewing was through glass windows on a lower level (similar to what is shown here) but there was also an elevated wood walkway that provided open-air views from above each habitat and revealed more of the extent of each habitat's hillside location. Each habitat was dominated by a massive timber structure for climbing, much more impressive than the abstract metal tree structures seen now. I remember one of the male orangutans was an escape artist and made several successful adventures outside of the habitat! Just across from the two habitats were two fine island habitats for siamang; they were demolished when this became Absolutley Apes and the siamangs moved into the main habitat to make it a mixed-species one. The islands were located where the perimeter of this large viewing area is now as well as the adjacent walkway they call Easy Street.
Before the Whittier Southeast Asian Exhibits were built, this area was occupied by several exhibits (I think there were 5) for various baboon species.
