I visited Melbourne Zoo and many other Australian zoos and aquariums in 2007 (on my honeymoon!) and I was quite impressed with this exhibit. The use of sway poles to allow the orangutans to shift around the habitat seemed innovative at the time, although there are a number of zoos around the world that utilize sway poles for their apes. The vegetation seems to have sprouted up in the enclosure, and are the siamangs allowed into this area or do they remain in the heavily furnished exhibit to the left of this one?
I visited Melbourne Zoo and many other Australian zoos and aquariums in 2007 (on my honeymoon!) and I was quite impressed with this exhibit. The use of sway poles to allow the orangutans to shift around the habitat seemed innovative at the time, although there are a number of zoos around the world that utilize sway poles for their apes. The vegetation seems to have sprouted up in the enclosure, and are the siamangs allowed into this area or do they remain on the heavily furnished exhibit to the left of this one?
On my first trip around Orangutan Sanctuary, Maimunah, Dewi and Santan (breeding female, baby and breeding male) were in the meshed enclosure, the siamangs indoors and the hybrid females along with Menyaru (adolescent male Sumatran) in this enclosure.
However, on my second trip around, the breeding pair + baby stayed in the mesh enclosure but the hybrids + Menyaru had swapped with the Siamangs, so it was Maimunah, Dewi and Santan in the meshed enclosure, Menyaru + hybrid females in indoor exhibit and the siamangs in the open exhibit.
