Animal passages over visitor paths

J

Jurek7

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
What exhibits you know where animals can walk / rest over visitors heads?
- Are they popular and justify the cost of building them?
- What is good and what could be improved?

I toyed with two fictional exhibits. One is a fictional polar bear exhibit crossed by a visitor path inside a fake glacier crevice, with blue light and polar bears walking and resting on a glass roof. Another is a forest monkey exhibit with a visitor path flanked by an electric wire, with monkeys able to cross on ropes and trees overhead.
 
Jurek7 said:
What exhibits you know where animals can walk / rest over visitors heads?
- Are they popular and justify the cost of building them?
- What is good and what could be improved?

I toyed with two fictional exhibits. One is a fictional polar bear exhibit crossed by a visitor path inside a fake glacier crevice, with blue light and polar bears walking and resting on a glass roof. Another is a forest monkey exhibit with a visitor path flanked by an electric wire, with monkeys able to cross on ropes and trees overhead.
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Some zoos have those cables which orangutans swing on above the visitors heads, right?
 
I believe Rotterdam Zoo is planning to do a bridge overhead for elephants? Though they have presented so many plans so I doubt they all come true
 
At the entrance to Great Bear Wilderness at Brookfield, bison can walk on the top of it to get to another part of their enclosure.
 
At the Greensboro Science Center, the Red Pandas, Serval, and Back-footed Cat can walk over your head.
 
At the Maryland Zoo, the otters can swim over you.

Smithsonian National Zoo has a line for the Orangutans.

Philadelphia Zoo has "Zoo360", allowing animals to walk on elevated paths above the visitors.
 
Denver has three such passages. One for their white-cheeked gibbons which connect two islands over a bridge that guests walk on, one for their elephants/GOH rhinos/Malayan tapirs that leads to the big yard with the show area, and one for their Amur tigers which is the least impressive of the three and I personally have not seen the animals ever use it.

Omaha has passages that their gorillas can use that goes over guests heads which is interesting as the entire guest area is indoors but the passage connects two outdoor exhibits.

San Diego Zoo has a few for their leopards.

Cleveland also has some for their leopards and tigers.

It is becoming an increasingly common trend especially for new big cat and primate exhibits to incorporate some sort of transfer over guests that connects a back area to an exhibit or two separate exhibits together.
 
Edinburgh Zoo has this kind of set-up for their tiger enclosure, you've got a glass tunnel going through the enclosure that you walk through, and there are wooden catwalks (if you pardon the accidental pun) going over the top of the tunnel that the tigers can walk across.
 
I don't know if this is true, and please don't kill me if I'm wrong:D, but on the San Diego Zoo map there is or seems to be an overpass for African elephants with scarab beetles exhibit(s) in the tunnel, is this overpass or tunnel for visitors really there or what is this?
 
Tiger said:
I don't know if this is true, and please don't kill me if I'm wrong:D, but on the San Diego Zoo map there is or seems to be an overpass for African elephants with scarab beetles exhibit(s) in the tunnel, is this overpass or tunnel for visitors really there or what is this?
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There is a tunnel under the exhibit, but the insect terrariums are on the other side of that tunnel
 
I have seen this used only like an ad hoc solution when animal exhibits get enlarged but old substance and lack of funds don´t allow a zoo a good new design on a green field. So they build a new overhead passage to connect their house with outside exhibit. Coatis at Usti, lemurs at Dvur Kralove...
 
Jambi said:
Edinburgh Zoo has this kind of set-up for their tiger enclosure, you've got a glass tunnel going through the enclosure that you walk through, and there are wooden catwalks (if you pardon the accidental pun) going over the top of the tunnel that the tigers can walk across.
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I'm pretty sure there are also multiple glass tubes over guests in the Chimpanzee enclosure too if the building is still as I remember.
 
Jacksonville Zoo has a "caged" bridge for tiger accross the visitor path (as well as Cologne for some primates). Also Thoiry has a glass tube/tunnel thru their lion exhibit. And wasn't there anything similar at Houston Zoo?
 
Certainly the Zoo360 "trails" made this popular for so many zoos (thank-you Jon Coe!):
Cleveland Zoo - snow leopards
Cleveland Museum of Natural History - Perkins Wildlife Center
Jacksonville African primates (as already noted)
Louisville Zoo - Glacier Run
El Paso Zoo - Chihuahuan Desert
Tulsa Zoo - Lost Kingdom
Denver Zoo - elephants (as already noted)
etc., etc.

That said, Kansas Zoo's African leopard exhibit is a cage on either side of the trail with an overhead connection. That pre-dates most of these examples.
 
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OstrichMania said:
I'm pretty sure there are also multiple glass tubes over guests in the Chimpanzee enclosure too if the building is still as I remember.
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I've never seen anything like that in their chimpanzee enclosure, as far as I remember it's just a big window looking down into the indoor section, and their outdoor space is a standard ape enclosure with lots of logs and rope to climb on.
 
Monkeyworld has various exhibits with overhead tunnels, and the Hawk Conservency has a smaller version for their ferrets to exercise in.
 
Houston Zoo recently added one of these for their new jaguar exhibit. I really want to see them use the walkway!
 
Jambi said:
I've never seen anything like that in their chimpanzee enclosure, as far as I remember it's just a big window looking down into the indoor section, and their outdoor space is a standard ape enclosure with lots of logs and rope to climb on.
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There are 3 indoor areas and they are linked with 2 overhead tunnels with some glass in them. The chimps can go through these to move between the areas.
 
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