View of Land Area and part of Water Area of Hippo Enclosure - Afrykarium

Is the land area quite small?

Yep. Probably my biggest criticism of the Afrykarium (and unless I'm forgetting anything, the only major one). What you can see in this picture is the entirety of the land area.

and there's no outside area, correct?

Do you know what are all the horizontal sticks in the air? Just ornamentation?

There is no outside area. The pool for the hippos is quite large and deep, however.

The horizontal sticks are decorative, though I think they may be intended for use as perches as well for the many free-flying birds.

thanks. I thought the sticks must be mainly decorative - kind of weird in my opinion but also somehow I like the way they look (although perhaps not so much in terms of exhibit design, just how they look in themselves).

The size of the hippo's land area is indeed disappointing...