Best Indoor Elephant Exhibits

designingzoos

designingzoos

Active Member
Hi all! I'm doing a bit of benchmarking on elephant exhibits and I'm looking for some guidance on the best indoor exhibits around the world. Details as to size are always helpful.

Also, I've got an image in my head of an unknown zoo that I swear I had a photo of, but can't seem to locate it anywhere... Its a large indoor enclosure with glass roof over the community yard. But what's special is that the walls are glass and can be opened in warm weather...similar to Calgary's giraffe. I seem to remember vegetation and rockwork as well. Am I dreaming, or does this exist???

Thanks so much everyone!
Stacey
 
Last edited:
Smithsonian National Zoo is renovating their old elephant house to have dirt flooring instead of conrete (and maybe making it larger?). It certainly won't be the best but at least it's better than what they used to have.

Just a question- Does anyone know what Bronx's inside elephant house is like?

~Thylo:cool:
 
Biggest indoor European exhibits are Cologne and Poznan Nowe Zoo. Haven't seen Poznan myself, but the pictures on the net are impressive. Cologne is simply massive.

One of the better exhibits I've seen, and one that (almost?) matches your discription is Amersfoort. It's a pretty new and a very attractive building, both from the outside looking at it as from inside.

There are more notable exhibits, but these spring to mind immediately.

edit:
Here's Amersfoorts' details:
http://www.zoolex.org/zoolexcgi/view.py?id=1243
 
I like this one:
Zoo Zürich - Elephant Park
http://www.zoo.ch/documents/OnlinePoster_Zoojournal_2014_def.pdf
MSA

bild_s8.jpg

under water view

WD000533_klein.jpg

elephant-sized vivarium

Elefant%20Wehrli%20140410-25_klein.jpg

indoors visitor pathway

WD000478_klein.jpg

building from outside

(images from links provided above)
 
Last edited:
Zurich and Cologne are in a league of their own, especially Zurich.

Copenhagen has gotten a lot of attention. Hamburg and Leipzig's are quite good.

For the money (as in inexpensive), Cheyenne Mountain got a lot for relatively little.
 
I'm guessing the person who started this thread isn't interested anymore as she hasn't been on zoochat for a year, but now where other posters reopened the thread......

The new elephant house in Zurich combines the best from Cologne (massive size and indoor pool) with the best from Copenhagen (soft sand floor and glass roof allowing natural light) and Leipzig (underwater viewing). With the addition of large standing tree trunks (as in Amersfoort) and out-of-reach living plants, which make it appear far less barren than most zoo's elephant houses, I think Zurich is in a league of its own. Zurich and Cologne are the largest, followed by Copenhagen and Poznan at about half the size. I believe these are the four largest zoo elephant houses by far (space available to animals, not total building size!).

As far as I know the only immediate "threat" to the clear lead position of Zurich's elephant house is the opening of Oregon Zoos elephant complex. It remains to be seen how it will look when finished.
 
Last edited:
elephant indoors side-by-side

some of the better elephant indoors of the last ten years, side-by-side.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top