Should orangutans be kept indoors for all of their lives? Interesting question after one sees photos from Cleveland's rainforest building. The height of the climbing apparatus is decent for the apes, but Omaha has an outdoor orang exhibit that is almost double the size in terms of horizontal climbing opportunities (65-feet). I'd take Woodland Park's lush, naturalistic, outdoor orang exhibit over any other in North America.
The orangutans here certainly seemed happy and active, and they receive loads of natural lighting. Their exhibit is entirely glazed so there is no open area for visitor screams to loudly echo through their enclosure. This is not a top exhibit but I'm not sure its a detriment to keep them inside yet.
Our orangutans are extremely active most of the time. They seem very happy and it doesn't seem to be a problem keeping them indoors year round. The youngsters love to climb all the way up to the top to hang out there. What I like about this exhibit is that it encourages arboreal behavior, since a lot of the exhibit is not a ground layer. I don't this is the best orang exhibit, but it's most definitely not the worst.
