Best Elephant Park in Europe?

Zooplantman

Zooplantman

Well-Known Member
Although I have not "been", I get the impression that in Europe the best elephant parks have fantastic buildings, but the outdoor yards are as barren as elephant yards have been for a century. Is that true?

What are the great elephant parks? Why do you feel they are great?

Thanks
 
I haven't seen too many, but i think Chester Zoo's elephant house is very good (the use of rubberised flooring and sand and the enrichment oppurtunities) but the outside is indeed very barren and perhaps a little small for a breeding group of 10 elephants.

Whipsnade has a standard but excellent house and a huge (grassed) paddock, but it has a slightly dysfuntional herd...

I've read on these forums that Cologne (Koln) Zoo in Germany has a massive outdoor area, but I'm not too familiar with that.

Terra Natura's elephant exhibit in Benidorm pleasantly surprised me. It is built on the foot of a large hill and contains large pools close to the visitors and some planting. (There are some pictures in my gallery). I believe the house is quite basic though...

I think there will possibly be better ones however, than the examples I gave...
 
Keeping an elephant enclosure green is almost impossible. They destroy any trees and walk down any grass in their enviroments.
 
Toddy said:
Keeping an elephant enclosure green is almost impossible. They destroy any trees and walk down any grass in their enviroments.
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I disagree. It can be done, although not if the yard is too small.
 

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Like I said. "Almost imposible". It can be done, but most zoo don't have that kind of space.
 
Because Cologne does not have the space needed to keep it green
 
Toddy, do you know the size of their exhibit?

And, for that matter, what's the best elephant exhibit you've seen?
 
I don't know the exact numbers, but I visited Cologne twice in July 07.
 
Click here and then on "Gesamtübersichtsplan des Kölner Elefantenparks (Popup-Fenster)", there you´ll get the map of the exibit.
All outdoorenclosures together have a size of 14.000m². The indoor is 2000m² for the females and 750m² for the males.
Actually there life 3,10 elephants. 1,2 of them are calves.

The keepers try to let the gras grow on the exhibit, but it don´t work probably with so many elephants.
All elephants there are hold in protected-contact.
 
The enclosure of beauval for the african elephant are very good ! 5 ha for outdoor exibit !! :)
 
Whipsnade's outdoor enclosures are very large and stay grassed as a result. They are completely flat and a little featureless but the animals do have that all important space to move about in. Also the cows and calves are walked all around the park most days in what is a very large estate- so they have very good enrichment (better than Chester were they don't leave the paddock) It is a pity Whipsnade's isn't a more cohesive group but that is a problem the elephants themselves seem to have created...
 
Considering your background (ZooPlantMan) i will estimate that you are interested in the design of the exhibit more then the group dynamics. I've seen quite a few european elephant exhibit's and each and every one i've seen are barren.

Only Burger's Zoo in Arnhem (the Netherlands) manages to keep some trees alive in their elephant exhibit but the rest of the ground is barren again. Still, seeing elephants in the tree shades gives a REALLY nice feel about the exhibit and makes you feel that this is how asian elephants should be displayed, under tree canopy's.

The Elephant Houses are sometimes huge (Cologne) or very well decorated (Hamburg, Rotterdam, Leipzig) but always relatively empty for the elephant, except for a pool. Many zoo's however still keep them on rather small fenced or moated outside area's with small boxes per individual inside (Amsterdam, Liberec, Prague, Krefeld).

Worth mentioning would be Amersfoort Zoo who purposely build a completely seperate Bull-barn. It's the biggest building i know build for one single animal and for just a bull, it's very nice consisting of a large sleeping area with sand and a small area with concrete where they can do things like training, pedicure and take blood. Their female barn is about to be replaced by new one in 2010, building will start end of this year.

The only exhibits i would estimate worth seeing and not barren are Beauval, Benidorm and whipsnade. Perhaps one of the Aspinall's parks as wel, but that would be it. Copenhagen and Parc Paradisio (Belgium) are building a new elephant exhibit and Prague, Poznan? and Planckendael (Antwerp's open range-zoo) are planning new exhibit's, perhaps you could get your hands on some of their idea's?
 
jwer said:
The only exhibits i would estimate worth seeing and not barren are Beauval, Benidorm and whipsnade. Perhaps one of the Aspinall's parks as wel, but that would be it.
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Outside enclosures- Whipsnade's is barren. Howletts is barren. Port Lympne's are barren- in fact I'd say Port Lympne's are actually below acceptable standards as it is a very exposed hillside site. The indoor accomodation at both Aspinall parks is extremely basic too.

Of these Whipsnade's has the best management. at least the eles can browse on trees etc on their walks(not the bull though..)
 
I often feel that if the animal dynamics are sufficiently interesting, the exhibit doesn't have to be so beautiful. (Its great when we have both.) But for many species (not alpine or desert ones, etc) seeing them without vegetation seems so "off."

I've been trying to understand why these facilities don't emphasize grassed yards and I suspect from what everyone has written that a part of the answer is the larger herds than many US zoos have. Decades ago it was common for the bigger US zoos to present large groups of animals (even say half a dozen polar bears together) but there has been much less of that. And today any American zoo that wants elephants must not only meet space restrictions, but must be ready for an endless battle with the Enemies Of Elephants In Zoos.
 
Zooplantman said:
I often feel that if the animal dynamics are sufficiently interesting, the exhibit doesn't have to be so beautiful. (Its great when we have both.) But for many species (not alpine or desert ones, etc) seeing them without vegetation seems so "off."

I've been trying to understand why these facilities don't emphasize grassed yards and I suspect from what everyone has written that a part of the answer is the larger herds than many US zoos have. Decades ago it was common for the bigger US zoos to present large groups of animals (even say half a dozen polar bears together) but there has been much less of that. And today any American zoo that wants elephants must not only meet space restrictions, but must be ready for an endless battle with the Enemies Of Elephants In Zoos.
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I would say that the Emmen group is highly interesting to watch and therefore it's my favourite "Elephant Exhibit" by far in Europe. It's outside part is moated but has a lot of rocky outcrops and one large rock in the centre, therefore animals can get out of each other's sight and it features a large waterfall into a decent size pool.

It's bull is by far the most impressive tusker in Europe and very docile, which allows the park to keep him with the complete herd (with youngsters) and permanently connect the (rather small) bull-yard with the group area creating a slightly larger space. Many youngsters playing around and a huge bull laying on his side in the middle really makes for a fun exhibit, even though the area isn't that large and void of plantlife...
 
Zooplantman said:
And today any American zoo that wants elephants must not only meet space restrictions, but must be ready for an endless battle with the Enemies Of Elephants In Zoos.
Click to expand...

That sounds like a gang more dangerous than that of Jesse James ;). Are you having a lot of trouble with the animal rights organizations in America (PETA and such)?
 
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