Please remember that the zoo is in Bolivia, not england or the USA. Resources are hard to find in very underdeveloped countries. The zoo is not even in the capital city, La Paz. That this animal collection is maintained is itself important in an area of so much biodiversity. International cooperation would certainly help zoos like this one to improve, which certainly they must.
Putting up a chain link fence (with a couple logs thrown in) around an existing plot of ground would be far superior (and cheaper) than building this concrete prison block.
I am sorry to say that a lack of funding is a popular excuse for many horrible enclosures in South American zoos (not just there of course!). I have to agree with Arizona Docent that much better enclosures could be built much cheaper than some of the concrete pits and cages wich can be found in many zoos. Unfortunately, a lack of interest is as common and a bigger problem than a lack of funding. Much could be improved with little or no money and some good will. Even a few shovels of sand and some cardboard boxes could help to greatly improve many enclosures. A lack of knowledge is another problem. Unfortunately some "advisers" from zoos in the "northern/western hemisphere" are just interested in selling their equally disfunctional and impractical but very expensive enclosure designs and architects to zoos in the developing world. They often don't have the benefit of the animals in mind and some zoos in the developing world (and not just there...) think that an enclosure has to be expensive with lots of fancy features (fake trees, naturalistic rock work, underwater viewing etc.) to be good.
The collection in Santa Cruz is outstanding by any means and I think the place is not without hope. They just have to seek the right kind of advice and not the most expensive !
