Best Orangutan Exhibits in Zoos

V

Viper

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
When have you never seen a large crowd of people at the orangutan exhibit at your local zoo? These animals have a unique ability to draw attention to themselves due to their michevious antics and gentle nature. But I wonder if there are any noteworthy orangutan exhibits that demonstrates the ape's arboreal behavior, natralistic landscaping, and what the're doing out in the wild to help their species. I have visited the majority of the zoos in CA, but none of them have anything spectacular about their orangutan enclosures.

Does anyone know of any well thought out and planned orangutan exhibits that provide all factors needed for the apes and visitors aswell?

Viper
 
I've seen 57 of America's 60 best zoos, and all in the past 6 years, and yet there is not really a single outstanding orangutan exhibit. I've stated on ZooChat in the past that perhaps the #1 enclosure is in Seattle at Woodland Park Zoo but after that there are slim pickings. The "O-Line" at the National Zoo is fantastic, but the rest of the enclosure is weak. There are many so-so exhibits, several all-indoor ones that are disappointing (Cleveland, Brookfield, Fort Wayne) and the ugliest outdoor one of all must be Kansas City.

These are very approximate rankings and what I would call the top 5 orangutan exhibits in the United States:

#1: Woodland Park
#2: Omaha (65 foot structures and lots of netting in 2 exhibits)
#3: Sedgwick County
#4: Saint Louis
#5: Atlanta (probably still the most great apes of any zoo in North America)
 
@Viper, you might want to join this earlier thread:
http://www.zoochat.com/2/what-best-orangutan-exhibit-260067/

I have felt for sometime that a great orang exhibit as you describe may be the single most challenging project in the zoo world. I have some doubts that it can even be done.... which is why I'd love to try!!!!
There are some fine exhibits both in the US and elsewhere for orangs, but no single one touches all the bases, IMO
 
Singapor seems to be fantastic, due to the fact that it provides a lush habitat and climbing opertunities. The apes seem to be taking advatage of the structures. (unlike San Diego Zoo) :D
 
I might put my two cents in about one of my favourite exhibits for orang-utans. Melbourne Zoo's fantastic exhibit is pretty unique and allows for 6 orang-utans and a family of siamangs to move around three habitats.

I've looked through the gallery for some photos to make a little virtual tour.

The first view you get is from a distance across a lake although you still have a fair way to go before you get there because Trail of the Elephants is in between here and there.

http://www.zoochat.com/51/melbournes-orang-utan-sanctuary-29259/

Once you're sick of the elephants you finally get to the beginning of the Orang-utan Sanctuary. The first view is into the large netted exhibit. It's full of thick trunks, ropes, platforms, and enrichment stuff and the large surface area of the netting means that the apes have a whole lot more climbing opportunities.
Here's a photo of the approach to the netted exhibit.

http://www.zoochat.com/51/melbournes-orang-utan-sanctuary-29260/

And here's a photo of the actual netted exhibit. The metal part in the front of the exhibit is one of the locations where keepers do demonstrations during the day.

http://www.zoochat.com/51/melbournes-orang-utan-sanctuary-29261/


After this you can into the indoor part of the exhibit. This space is a really effective area because it accommodates large crowds and during the summer it presents one of the few cool places to escape the heat. Windows on both sides of the pavilion offer views into both of the outdoor exhibits.

http://www.zoochat.com/51/melbournes-orang-utan-sanctuary-29262/

Towards the back of this exhibit is the double height indoor exhibit with another presentation point and one of those interactive puzzles with the sticks and treats. I couldn't find a photo of just that exhibit though...it's at the back, in the left, of the above photo.

The last part is the largest and, in my opinion, best part of the exhibit. It is a huge, open-topped exhibit with a moat along the front and wall along the back and it's viewed from a high boardwalk so you can see into treetop level. This exhibit also has one of my favourite features of the whole area. Heaps of fibreglass sway poles are scattered around and allow for the apes to move around the exhibit without having to lumber around on the ground. There are heaps of photos in the Melbourne Zoo gallery if you feel like trawling through it but I'll include some of them that show it in the best light ( ;) ).

http://www.zoochat.com/51/melbourne-zoo-july-2009-a-90423/

http://www.zoochat.com/51/orangutans-sep-2008-a-78101/

http://www.zoochat.com/51/melbournes-orang-utan-sanctuary-29267/

http://www.zoochat.com/51/melbournes-orang-utan-sanctuary-29271/


Hope you enjoyed.
 
@Pat: I agree with you 100%, and thanks for the effort in typing up your response. Melbourne Zoo has a superb orangutan/siamang habitat and it is definitely one of the best that I've ever seen both from a visitor experience and from the perspective of the arboreal apes that are the inhabitants.
 
No worries. I have Patrick/Phoenix to thank for a lot of the photos.
 
Zooplantman said:
@Viper, you might want to join this earlier thread:
http://www.zoochat.com/2/what-best-orangutan-exhibit-260067/

I have felt for sometime that a great orang exhibit as you describe may be the single most challenging project in the zoo world. I have some doubts that it can even be done.... which is why I'd love to try!!!!
There are some fine exhibits both in the US and elsewhere for orangs, but no single one touches all the bases, IMO
Click to expand...

Do people think that it is hard to create a great orang-utan exhibit that is naturalistic or that is actually good for the orangs?

It seems like there actually are some really good orang exhibits around from the perspective of orang activity, enrichment, and health, but that are not naturalistic like we see in the best gorilla exhibits (Bronx, Seattle, DAK).

In California San Diego, LA, and Fresno have spacious exhibits with lots of climbing opportunities for the orangs that they actually use. These zoos have all had successful births with the babies being raised by their moms. I have seen zoo visitors in all of these places entranced by watching the orangs, especially when climbing. San Diego and LA usually have volunteers around to interpret the orang behavior, answer questions, and discuss orang conservation.

Other than not resembling a Sumatran or Bornean rain forest, these exhibits seem successful from both an orang and zoo visitor perspective. They are immersive in the sense that people seem engrossed in watching the orangs, and hopefully learning about them and their habitat...isn't this the main goal of any good zoo exhibit, even if it doesn't look like their habitat, which may be impossible to meaningfully replicate? I'm genuinely curious about anyone's opinion on this.
 
DavidBrown said:
Do people think that it is hard to create a great orang-utan exhibit that is naturalistic or that is actually good for the orangs? .
Click to expand...

IMO, it is difficult if not impossible to achieve both together.

Pleasing the animals, it turns out, is far easier than placing them in proper context: arboreal, rain forst, somewhat solitary.

There are a number of exhibits that are a joy to watch, as you say. But none that encourage proper and healthy behavior AND are immersive in the zoo design sense.

DavidBrown said:
They are immersive in the sense that people seem engrossed in watching the orangs, and hopefully learning about them and their habitat...isn't this the main goal of any good zoo exhibit, even if it doesn't look like their habitat, which may be impossible to meaningfully replicate? I'm genuinely curious about anyone's opinion on this.
Click to expand...

It may be the "main goal" but it is not the ONLY goal... not even the only very important goal.
 
Zooplantman said:
It may be the "main goal" but it is not the ONLY goal... not even the only very important goal.
Click to expand...

What would you define as the major goals of a good zoo exhibit?

*Animal welfare obviously at the top of the list.
*Assuming that the animals are acting as conservation ambassadors for their wild relatives then the exhibit will hopefully tell a meaningful story about the animal and its habitat.
*Visitors having a positive experience watching the animals.
*What else?

Do zoo designers accept that there are some species like gorillas and African savanna species where building a fully immersive, naturalistic experience like Congo Gorilla Forest or Disney's savanna is possible and some species like orangs where it isn't, and creating a healthy experience and joyful experience for the orangs should be the goal?
 
DavidBrown said:
What would you define as the major goals of a good zoo exhibit?

*Animal welfare obviously at the top of the list.
*Assuming that the animals are acting as conservation ambassadors for their wild relatives then the exhibit will hopefully tell a meaningful story about the animal and its habitat.
*Visitors having a positive experience watching the animals.
*What else?

Do zoo designers accept that there are some species like gorillas and African savanna species where building a fully immersive, naturalistic experience like Congo Gorilla Forest or Disney's savanna is possible and some species like orangs where it isn't, and creating a healthy experience and joyful experience for the orangs should be the goal?
Click to expand...

Orangs' natural use of the forest canopy (and all of the features of that habitat--including leaves, small branch clusters and vines) as a primary mode of locomotion, shelter and foraging, in combination with their enormous strength and active "engineering" intelligence, make them a particularly challenging species to exhibit in a naturalistic context.

Zoos have been successful in replicating tropical forest floor environments (DAK, Congo, Lied Jungle, Burger's Bush etc.). But except for birds and small primates, the forest canopy has yet to be accurately represented anywhere in a zoo I am familiar with. Giant buttress root tree bases have been fabricated with great attention to detail in a number of exhibits, but the complexity of what happens dozens of feet above that is rarely attempted, for very good and practical reasons.

I've seen a few zoos where orangs have been given access to large mature trees (most memorably Leipzig, Paignton and Denver). When watching an adult male or female with youngster traversing branches in these settings, the true nature of "orangutan-ness" is abundantly apparent. None of these exhibits, however, bore the slightest resemblance to a lowland Bornean or Sumatran rain forest. That remains one of the great challenges in zoo design.
 
Of the zoos I've been to here would be my list:
1. Cincinnati Zoo- The lushest orang exhibit I've ever seen. Jungle Trail is definitely one of the best immersion exhibits I've ever seen.
2. Zoo Atlanta- The sheer number of orangs alone makes this exhibit a winner. Exhibits pose many climbing opportunities for the apes and the setting is fairly naturalistic.
3. San Diego Zoo- This exhibit mixes orangs and siamangs and I love seeing the combination. It's not as forested as the other ones but it does provide them a good amount of space and enrichment/social opportunities along with the guests great viewing opportunities.
4. Los Angeles Zoo- Very good exhibit for the apes complete with running water.
5. Lowry Park Zoo- Very lush exhibit.
6. Columbus Zoo- Good use of rocks and climbing opportunities.
Here are some I didn't care for so much(in no particular order):
1. Zoo Miami- This exhibit, while not tiny, is rather generic.
2. Cleveland Metroparks Zoo- Great apes should never be inside all year long. NEVER!!!
3. Pittsburgh- To be blunt, this one really kind of sucks.
4.
 
The new Islands exhibit at Chester, which opens next month, will have a new exhibit for the very successful breeding group of Sumatran orangs. It will be interesting to see how the new exhibit will improve on the current Realm of the Red Ape, which is already the best orang display in the UK. It will also be interesting to see how RotRA is modified to house the zoo's Bornean orangs.

Alan
 
I think that Saint Louis does a pretty good job of creating a naturalistic enclosure. While it might not look exactly like an Indonesian jungle, it's more than just a field of lawn grass with a climbing structure in the middle of it; there's foliage, varied elevation, and varied substrate. The viewing is somewhat difficult with that exhibit though, as it is essentially a hill and the viewing windows are at the bottom of the slope on one side. The climbing structures are decent, but not extensive or noteworthy in any way.

Something to note about orangutan behavior: orangutans in zoos tend to spend a significant amount of time on the ground, even when they have climbing opportunities available to them. A few recent studies done in Borneo also suggest that wild orangutans come down from the trees more often than previously thought. So while climbing structures are indeed very important, they might not be as vital as for more strictly arboreal animals like gibbons.

Also, some good news regarding orangutan enclosures: the hamster cage-like exhibit at Kansas City has been replaced by a new and much better enclosure. It's not particularly large, but it is definitely an improvement.
 
Coelacanth18 said:
Also, some good news regarding orangutan enclosures: the hamster cage-like exhibit at Kansas City has been replaced by a new and much better enclosure. It's not particularly large, but it is definitely an improvement.
Click to expand...

Is the new exhibit open yet? No photos have made their way onto the gallery if so. Not that I will be visiting any time soon, but it would be good to see an exhibit that doesn't look out of place next to the Chimpanzee enclosure.
 
FunkyGibbon said:
Is the new exhibit open yet? No photos have made their way onto the gallery if so. Not that I will be visiting any time soon, but it would be good to see an exhibit that doesn't look out of place next to the Chimpanzee enclosure.
Click to expand...

Maybe it's not open yet. I saw an article about it, but I only skimmed it so it's possible I misread. If not, it is indeed under construction and will be open soon.
 
reduakari said:
None of these exhibits, however, bore the slightest resemblance to a lowland Bornean or Sumatran rain forest. That remains one of the great challenges in zoo design.
Click to expand...

Any updates on this?

After nearly a decade, are there any zoos that have achieved for orangutans what DAK and Bronx have for gorillas?
 
5thGatePlease said:
Any updates on this?

After nearly a decade, are there any zoos that have achieved for orangutans what DAK and Bronx have for gorillas?
Click to expand...
The Chester zoo enclosures for their Borneans and Sumatrans are often said to be very good for both species, encouraging them to be quite arboreal. Singapore zoo has given their orangutans access to real forest and if I'm not mistaken, are allowed to roam large distances.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top