Best Gorilla enclosure in Benelux

[britishzoofan]

This is just a bit of fun to judge the general consensus on the best enclosure for Gorilla's in Benelex I have added a few photos from the gallery to make it easier for members to compare the different exhibits. If anyone wants to make an argument for a particular enclosure, please feel free to do so. Also, I would encourage people to perhaps list the enclosures in order of what they determine to be the best.

Antwerp

Pairi Daiza

Artis

Apenheul

Burgers

Beekse Bergen

Gaia

Ouwehands

Rotterdam

 

[lintworm]

I don't think there is any discussion here on which one should win....

 

[snowleopard]

I visited all 9 of these zoos over several weeks last summer and the clear winner is obviously going to be Apenheul. There doesn't really need to even be a discussion about it.

There are a number of zoos that have decent outdoor gorilla exhibits, although the trend seems to be that the indoor zones (and this includes Apenheul) are not sufficiently large enough at most of the zoos. The mixed-species setups at GaiaZOO, Ouwehands and Artis add to the delight of visitors, because seeing smaller primates in with the gorillas is exciting and Artis even has meerkats with the gorillas as well! The different design styles are worth a debate, as Pairi Daiza's volcanoes are controversial amidst zoo enthusiasts, and I personally hate the Ouwehands exhibit as aesthetically it's awful and my least favourite of all the gorilla enclosures on this list. (Although some folks like it!) Rotterdam has a large outdoor yard but the recent Master Plan means that the zoo is going to have a new gorilla exhibit by 2030.

If Apenheul is the clear winner, then the runners-up would likely be Burgers' Zoo, Beekse Bergen and GaiaZOO.

 

[ShonenJake13]

Apenheul’s indoors may not be the best - but there is indeed no contest when it comes to their outdoors.
It should be mentioned GaiaZOO and Blijdorp/Rotterdam both have much more undergrowth in their outdoors now!! But that won’t make much of a difference, Apenheul’s enclosure easily wins on size, let alone its design.

 

[lintworm]

Some of the pictures don't really do justice to how the complete enclosure looks, especially the Apenheul indoor area.

The Apenheul indoor enclosure was originally designed with lego bricks and basically is a ring of many connecting compartments, which are normally all open towards eachother. This compartmentalization means that the group can split up easily on a reduced surface area and with part of the indoor enclosure off-show, the animals can get away from visitors if they want. As the enclosure is a ring animals cannot easily be cornered in a conflict. It might not look very pretty, but the Gorillas themselve, as well as the keepers are really happy with the set-up, which has been copied in other places (like Frankfurt and Duisburg). It is pretty ugly, but as Apenheul is closed during the colder months, hardly any visitors will actually enter this building. The outdoor enclosure of 1 hectare (2.5 acres) is still among the largest in the world, even though it is one of the oldest, being close to 50 years old. Apenheul was among the first to start with a proper grouping and put a great effort in avoiding hand rearing Gorilla babies, which was still common practice back then. In total 40+ Gorilla have been born at Apenheul and practically all have been parent-reared.

Burgers' and Gaiazoo come on second / third place for me. But most Gorilla enclosures in the Benelux are pretty good. @Timmiegun , can you explain your vote for PD, the indoor enclosures are fine, but both outdoors are too open imo and especially the second one is very narrow with water moats, so strikes me as quite a risky enclosure.

 

[vogelcommando]

This is a tricky one. Outdoor island at Apenheul is without any doubt the best Gorilla outdoor enclosure I've seen sofar but the indoor-enclosure - althrough the animals seem to be happy with it - is IMO to small for such a group.
Burger's indoor is much larger and because also the outdoor enclosure is realy good my vote goes to this one.
Beekse Bergen is in this case a good third place and Blijdorps outdoor enclosure was superb before the escape of Bokito and still is not bad and althrough the indoor enclosure look old-fashioned, its great in to provide the animals with some privicy, so making this my fouth place.
Like the Chimp-enclosures in the Benelux I think none of the enclosures is realy bad.

 

[Choco115]

I personally vote for gaiazoo, which has a fabulous outdoor and indoor enclosure. This is the rest of my list:
2. Apenheul (another beautiful outdoor enclosure but I don’t like the indoor part)
3. Beekse Bergen (such as their chimpanzee exhibit: nice outdoors, quite good indoors as well)
4. Pairi Daiza (not as big as 1-3 but beautiful enclosure.
5. Blijdorp (great outdoor, bad indoor though)
6. Burgers (good outdoor, but indoor a little too small.)
7. Antwerpen (ok outdoor, ok indoor, not very special though)
8. Artis (as much as I love this zoo, the indoor enclosure is not very big, but is good. The outdoor however is way too small.)
9. Ouwehands (the indoor is good, but I dislike the outdoor. The building is incredibly ugly as well)

 

[lintworm]

6. Burgers (good outdoor, but indoor a little too small.)

You are aware that the indoor Gorilla enclosure at Burgers' is very clearly larger in size than Beekse Bergen and after Ouwehands is likely the largest indoor enclosure of them all. The problem is that it looks much smaller as it is viewed from above, but it is close to 300 square meters (and that is without the 100-150 square meters of back-stage enclosures which are not visible to the public). Gaiazoo has exactly 200 square meters of indoor enclosures, but separated in 5 smaller ones.

Also wonder why you rate Blijdorp as better, as their outdoor enclosure (~2150 square meters) is much smaller than Burgers' outdoor enclosure (slightly under 3000 square meters) and it is walled, which means Gorillas can't easily watch to see what is happening around them

After Apenheul Gaiazoo has the largest enclosure outdoors (>4000 square meters), then comes Burgers', then both Beekse Bergen enclosures and only then the larger Pairi Daiza enclosure. The second Pairi Daiza enclosure is the second smallest of them all (except Artis) and incredibly bare for a forest and privacy loving species. I really cannot think for a single good reason why anyone would vote for Pairi Daiza here, except if you like fake volcanoes, it won't be for Gorilla welfare, as then Ouwehands would get more votes (but that enclosure is universally ugly, but extremely effective though).

 

[Andrew Swales]

The second Pairi Daiza enclosure is the second smallest of them all (except Artis) and incredibly bare for a forest and privacy loving species. I really cannot think for a single good reason why anyone would vote for Pairi Daiza here, except if you like fake volcanoes, it won't be for Gorilla welfare,).

The seemingly endless series of these votes in the UK section over lock-down, established that animal welfare is not the main issue here, it is just down to the aesthetics apparent in a photograph or two.

 

[Choco115]

You are aware that the indoor Gorilla enclosure at Burgers' is very clearly larger in size than Beekse Bergen and after Ouwehands is likely the largest indoor enclosure of them all. The problem is that it looks much smaller as it is viewed from above, but it is close to 300 square meters (and that is without the 100-150 square meters of back-stage enclosures which are not visible to the public). Gaiazoo has exactly 200 square meters of indoor enclosures, but separated in 5 smaller ones.

Also wonder why you rate Blijdorp as better, as their outdoor enclosure (~2150 square meters) is much smaller than Burgers' outdoor enclosure (slightly under 3000 square meters) and it is walled, which means Gorillas can't easily watch to see what is happening around them

After Apenheul Gaiazoo has the largest enclosure outdoors (>4000 square meters), then comes Burgers', then both Beekse Bergen enclosures and only then the larger Pairi Daiza enclosure. The second Pairi Daiza enclosure is the second smallest of them all (except Artis) and incredibly bare for a forest and privacy loving species. I really cannot think for a single good reason why anyone would vote for Pairi Daiza here, except if you like fake volcanoes, it won't be for Gorilla welfare, as then Ouwehands would get more votes (but that enclosure is universally ugly, but extremely effective though).

I didn’t realize Ouwehands was that big, but since it’s extremely ugly I still even prefer Artis above it. I think Blijdorp is walled because of Bokito btw, which seems a fair reason to me. I also didn’t knew Burgers’ indoor is that big, however I don’t like that indoor enclosure anyway, it’s very old and has few climbing opportunities. But it’s just that I rate these as visitor, and probably not as how a gorilla itself would rate it.

 

[HungarianBison]

I voted for Apenheul, because the outdoor is very nice, aesthetic, big and good for gorillas.
2. Burgers
3. GaiaZOO
4. Pairi Daiza
5. Beekse Bergen
6. Blijdorp
7. Artis
8. Ouwehands

 

[snowleopard]

One interesting fact is that at least 5 or 6 of the gorilla exhibits on the list contain other animals (small monkeys or meerkats) and yet in North America I think that ZERO gorillas are mixed with other species. I am struggling to think of a single case from my hundreds of zoo visits, while in European zoos plenty of gorilla and orangutan enclosures also feature other mammals.

Already 14 out of 20 current voters have chosen Apenheul, with the recognition that 2.5 acres (1 hectare) for gorillas is an extraordinary amount of space for the apes. Many elephant exhibits in Europe are not that large!

Seeing the gorilla troop is easily done by attending a daily feeding session, plus the zoo has some colorful and educational graphics that add to the overall quality of the exhibit.

 

[Antoine]

One interesting fact is that at least 5 or 6 of the gorilla exhibits on the list contain other animals (small monkeys or meerkats) and yet in North America I think that ZERO gorillas are mixed with other species.

Didn't you forget Houston ? From what I know gorillas are mixed with red river hogs.

 

[snowleopard]

Didn't you forget Houston ? From what I know gorillas are mixed with red river hogs.

Yes, you are correct. Yahoo...that makes one! The exhibit was just built a few years ago and I saw it in 2015 when I went on a big zoo trip to 40+ zoos in Texas. Although, technically speaking, the gorillas and the hogs rarely mix as the apes have an elevated area above the hogs and so I'm not sure that it even counts.

A photo that shows the difference in elevation:

MIG | Portico - Houston Zoo Gorillas of the African Forest | Zoo architecture, Houston zoo, Zoo

Another image that shows the different exhibits:

Gorilla-Exhibit-At-the-Houston-Zoo-March-2015-Mabry-Campbell-9

 

[vogelcommando]

Another noteworth fact about the Gorilla island at Apenheul : it used to be much larger ! At a surtain moment they dicided however to keep 2 groups so the island was split-up into two islands. Later the second group was moved and the second island is now used by the Pygmy chimps.

 

[vogelcommando]

Another noteworth fact about the Gorilla island at Apenheul : it used to be much larger ! At a surtain moment they dicided however to keep 2 groups so the island was split-up into two islands. Later the second group was moved and the second island is now used by the Pygmy chimps.

Found an old plan of the Apenheul on which the Gorilla island was in its original state. They shared the enclosre at that time with Patas monkeys and Springboks :

Apenheul Plan beginning of the 1980s

• vogelcommando
• 9 Aug 2020
• 5

 

[britishzoofan]

Score update. Apenheul currently have a large lead with over 70% of the vote with the rest being spread out amongst various other collections.

 

[Mr. Zootycoon]

Although some folks like it!

Indeed!

I'm actually really surprised Ouwehands is last on so many lists. Maybe as @Andrew Swales put it's down to aesthetics, and Gorilla Adventure has it's limitations there. The glare on the glass is horrible and the viewing is not particularly good, both indoors and outdoors. I get that, even though I'm personally not that easily put off by it.

I like the Ouwehands enclosure from an animal welfare perspective. The Netherland experiences a temperate climate, one in which weather that gorilla's don't like is rather frequent. While the enormous island of Apenheul is impressive, once the temperature goes down in winter the gorillas need to accept much lesser accomodation. But not in Ouwehands. With the large indoor enclosure, which includes live plants, deep mulch and tons of enrichment, the gorillas do very well here in winter. The outdoor enclosure also has it's advantages, as more than any other enclosure I have seen it stimulates the gorillas to climb, to use the impressive mulscles they're famous for. The cage construction also allows for extra climbing frames and very precise feeding from above, which lessens the chance that conflicts arise in the all-male bachelor group. Again filled with enrichment and deep substrate, along with corners to hide from both the public and each other alike, the outdoor enclosure is rather good from an animal welfare perspective. It could be bigger of course, but so could all gorilla enclosures.

Is this inherently better than Burgers's, Gaiazoo's or Apenheul's enclosure? Not really. But at least I think the enclosure should ge more recognition than it currently gets.

 

[reduakari]

Yes, you are correct. Yahoo...that makes one! The exhibit was just built a few years ago and I saw it in 2015 when I went on a big zoo trip to 40+ zoos in Texas. Although, technically speaking, the gorillas and the hogs rarely mix as the apes have an elevated area above the hogs and so I'm not sure that it even counts.

A photo that shows the difference in elevation:

MIG | Portico - Houston Zoo Gorillas of the African Forest | Zoo architecture, Houston zoo, Zoo

Another image that shows the different exhibits:

Gorilla-Exhibit-At-the-Houston-Zoo-March-2015-Mabry-Campbell-9

Omaha has kept colobus monkeys with gorillas (indoors only?)

When Congo Gorilla Forest opened, DeBrazza monkeys shared one of the outdoor gorilla habitats—but that only lasted a few years.

the Gulf Breeze Zoo had gorillas and sitatunga In a shared exhibit area in the 1980s.

The gorillas in Houston can (and occasionally have) enter the hog subsection of their exhibit.

 

[lintworm]

Indeed!

I'm actually really surprised Ouwehands is last on so many lists. Maybe as @Andrew Swales put it's down to aesthetics, and Gorilla Adventure has it's limitations there. The glare on the glass is horrible and the viewing is not particularly good, both indoors and outdoors. I get that, even though I'm personally not that easily put off by it.

I like the Ouwehands enclosure from an animal welfare perspective. The Netherland experiences a temperate climate, one in which weather that gorilla's don't like is rather frequent. While the enormous island of Apenheul is impressive, once the temperature goes down in winter the gorillas need to accept much lesser accomodation. But not in Ouwehands. With the large indoor enclosure, which includes live plants, deep mulch and tons of enrichment, the gorillas do very well here in winter. The outdoor enclosure also has it's advantages, as more than any other enclosure I have seen it stimulates the gorillas to climb, to use the impressive mulscles they're famous for. The cage construction also allows for extra climbing frames and very precise feeding from above, which lessens the chance that conflicts arise in the all-male bachelor group. Again filled with enrichment and deep substrate, along with corners to hide from both the public and each other alike, the outdoor enclosure is rather good from an animal welfare perspective. It could be bigger of course, but so could all gorilla enclosures.

Is this inherently better than Burgers's, Gaiazoo's or Apenheul's enclosure? Not really. But at least I think the enclosure should ge more recognition than it currently gets.

The Ouwehands enclosure is great for the Gorilla, it is very effective, but it is so incredibly ugly and bad from a visitor perspective, I could never vote for it.... With the directors office on top of this enclosure, it reminds me a bit of one large phallus symbol....