Best Jungle exhibits in US/Canada/Europe

J

jaguar78

Well-Known Member
I saw this issue discussed in some other threads.....what are the best jungle exhibits people have seen. Off the top of my head I would have to say Omaha and Bronx zoo are the best I have seen with none other coming close.

Others I have seen:

Cleveland - average at best - surprised when they built it wasn't more like the Lied Jungle. They have some wasted space where they could exhibit more animals.

Wichita - probably great at the time it was built but average by today's standards

Topeka - average at best, probably below

Brookfield - very large and spacious but too much like a museum with large open spaces rather than a jungle. I think they could do alot more with the building and throw in some more diversity with animals

Buffalo -small but very nice exhibit....good diversity of animals and the cabybaras in the same exhibit with the caimans is excellant.

Evansville - excellant exhibit ... larger than Buffalo and with a great jaguar exhibit. Highly recommend people visit Evansville.

Cincinnati - outdoor jungle exhibit walking through paths in a wooded area. Nice visually appealing exhibits but wish there were more mixed species exhibits as apes dominate the exhibits
 
Europe's best at the moment still is burgers bush. Which is remarkable since it was built 1988. This summer Gondwanaland opens in leipzig. I'm going to see it in september but from what i've seen it looks briljant, worldclass.
 
Dallaspachyderm said:
What about the Masoala forest habitat at zoo Zurich!
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Easily the best in Europe, if not the world. Burger's Bush is fantastic, but Masoala has greater ecological integrity (one habitat recreated faithfully as opposed to several haphazardly mixed), much greater height, a direct conservation funding link, better interpretation, and Is just more beautiful.

Gondwanaland looks amazing, but will have the same drawback of Lied Jungle and the Bush--trying to show several different continents' rain forests in one space, and relatively small exhibit areas for individual species despite the overall huge space.
 
jaguar78 said:
Wichita - probably great at the time it was built but average by today's standards
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I guess I was more impressed by Wichita's Jungle. Not quite as good as the Lied Jungle, but I found that I enjoyed myself more in there. It is not overdone with immersion like Omaha's.
 
Most really good jungle exhibits have already been mentioned.

Masoala has greater ecological integrity (one habitat recreated faithfully as opposed to several haphazardly mixed)
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Their collection isn't really ecologically correct. Most species in the hall are from tropical rainforest like the real Masoala national park or at least can sometimes be found at edge of rainforest (like in marshes or grassland next to rainforest) but there are also species that never are found anywhere near: Alaotra gentle lemur (highland reedbeds), Bernier´s teal (brackish wetlands/mangrove), Madagascar crested ibis (Zurich has dry woodland race urschi), Aldabra giant tortoise (arid shrubland and not from Madagascar), Bell´s hinge-back tortoise (Madagascar race in semi-humid brushland but Zurich has the west Africa race nogeuyi) and Rodrigues fruit bat (not from Madagascar). Not really anymore accurate than the commonly seen east Africa savanna exhibits with scimitar oryx or bongo antelope. But I'm a big fan of Masoala and still think it is one of the best jungle exhibits in the world.

Walsrode Bird Park - the large Indonesia rainforest hall. Very large collection of Indonesian birds including species that are very rare in zoos. Not sure if the tree kangaroos are still kept in the smaller cage within the hall but they are among the very few non-bird animals in the park and that is perhaps a disadvantage compared to jungle exhibits elsewhere.

Randers Regnskov - South America jungle is nice. The Africa and Asia jungle are also nice but I like the South America jungle exhibit more. It's not really a match for places at the level of Burgers Bush or Bronx but the huge planned new buildings could change that.
 
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Just popped in to make sure Masoala and Burger's Bush had been mentioned. And they have. All good.
 
Honestly i haven't seen masoala and haven't read much about it. I have now and it also looks briljant. As to the comments of ecology. The question was best jungle exhibit not the most ecological sound exhibit. By the way gondwana refers to the era south-america, africa and asia were one continent.

Another thing why aren't there more amazon exhibits with black caimans they are the most wide spread species of caiman but pretty rare in zoos
 
Sneeuwpanter said:
The question was best jungle exhibit not the most ecological sound exhibit.
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But I am sure many zoochatter's (myself included) will say that the two are connected and in that case jungle exhibits that try to combine species from the same region and habitat are likely to be preferred over exhibits than appear more random. These "best exhibit" threads will always depend on what the individual likes/believes is important

Sneeuwpanter said:
Another thing why aren't there more amazon exhibits with black caimans they are the most wide spread species of caiman but pretty rare in zoos
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The black caiman is much less widespread than the spectacled caiman and a bit less widespread than the dwarf caiman. Compared to these the black is also less available (breeding of black by zoos/private keepers is rarer), larger and often more aggressive = harder to handle and require more space. But I like the black and also wish more zoos would keep it
 
Sneeuwpanter said:
Europe's best at the moment still is burgers bush. Which is remarkable since it was built 1988. This summer Gondwanaland opens in leipzig. I'm going to see it in september but from what i've seen it looks briljant, worldclass.
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Just viewed the website for burgers bush and it looks amazing...hope to visit there one day.....
 
Toronto has some indoor jungle exhibits of Asia and Africa. These exhibits need updating and renovating but are still unique and good exhibits. When these exhibits were built back in the late 70's they were ground breaking and really ignited my interests in zoos when I was young. Toronto zoo was the first zoo I remember as a young child.
 
Burgers Bush was the first, and still the best in my opinion. I also liked the jungle hall in cologne, but it was not the same as Burgers. Americasa in emmen is also a very good one. It's not a large ecology display like the bush, but I love the way fish, reptiles, birds, mammals and amphibians are combined.

Gondwana is promising, and chester and emmen have also plans for an enormous jungle hall. So the future is promising.
 
I dont know whether other British members will agree with me, but I think that the best indoor rainforest in the UK (a place rather lacking in this type of exhibit) was the now closed Wildwalk @t Bristol. There were no really large animals- it was a collection of tropical birds and butterflies, along with some other small animals such as anole lizards and banana tree frogs all free-roaming. The thing I like about this type of exhibit is that you really had to look for the animals- I find it a real shame this sort of exhibit is not more popular here in the UK.
 
DesertRhino150 said:
I dont know whether other British members will agree with me, but I think that the best indoor rainforest in the UK (a place rather lacking in this type of exhibit) was the now closed Wildwalk @t Bristol. There were no really large animals- it was a collection of tropical birds and butterflies, along with some other small animals such as anole lizards and banana tree frogs all free-roaming. The thing I like about this type of exhibit is that you really had to look for the animals- I find it a real shame this sort of exhibit is not more popular here in the UK.
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I certainly don't agree with you that wildwalk @ Bristol is the best rainforest exhibit in the UK,I would put the Tropical Realm at Chester Zoo,The Livingforest and the Tropical House at North Anston Butterfly House all well in front of Wildwalk @ Bristol,but even these are no way near the Standard of The Bush at Burgers Zoo in Holland,which is the best of its kind that I have seen myself!!
 
zoogiraffe said:
I certainly don't agree with you that wildwalk @ Bristol is the best rainforest exhibit in the UK,I would put the Tropical Realm at Chester Zoo,The Livingforest and the Tropical House at North Anston Butterfly House all well in front of Wildwalk @ Bristol,but even these are no way near the Standard of The Bush at Burgers Zoo in Holland,which is the best of its kind that I have seen myself!!
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I have never seen those three collections myself, and a quick search about does seem to indicate that the three UK collections are certainly more impressive in range and diversity of species. And of course, Burgers Bush just looks incredible.
 
Sneeuwpanter said:
@ Johnny : I didn't know emmen had plans of building a jungle hall
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It would be wise to pay more attention to some threads on other forums;) part of the plan for the new park is a big jungle hall, 2.2 hectares in size. Inhabitants: lemurs, monkey;s, birds and last but not least, elephants.
 
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