I found this a really tough one to vote on, as for me there was no stand out winner and to be honest, I have found a number of Maned Wolf Exhibits look a little cosy.
Axe Valley, Hemsley and Shrepreth feel on the smaller size for me, and they don't have loads of planting and bar the wolf house at Shrepreth and the houses at Axe Valley and Hemsley, they don't have areas to get away from the public unless they want to go indoors, which I find is a shame.
I do like Yorkshire's and it's great they've got the ditch and a small bit of trees, but in many aspects it again feels open, and for an exhibit at Yorkshire, it is on the small size.
Hamerton's is a nice size, but again feels very open, whilst I feel like Belfast's is similar.
I don't dislike South Lakes, I like the water access, bit of tree covering, and the mounds and grazing, areas they can hide, fallen logs etc, but I preferred the exhibit when it was a mixed Spider Monkey, Tapir and Maned Wolf exhibit and since they've all been separated, it has less appeal to me.
I was stuck on this one, and torn between three, Paignton, Exmoor and Banham.
Paignton is by far the largest, it also has dens, open areas, foliage etc, and probably in a roundabout way, is best for the animal. This is obviously important, but the flip side of the coin is, I've never seen the Maned Wolf there. Great exhibit yes, and arguably maybe I should have voted for it, but having failed to see the wolf there, I find the fact it can become fully elusive stops me awarding it first place.
Banham is smaller than Paignton's and similar to Exmoor. I do like it. When it's a sunny day, light rays come through the exterior trees and you can see the wolves basking on the fence line. It is nicely dense with foliage and there are hideaways and they have a house, not on show to the public. Banham's looks like a forest so to speak, and how I would imagine areas of the forest floor in South America to look, but I marginally prefer Exmoors.
Exmoor's exhibit offers 180 degree of exhibit view, meaning there is a large area you can see, but also areas behind a mound, and an offshow paddock adjacent to the house, which gives the wolves full offshow access if they need. The house is off show to the public, and there are outside dens, foliage, mounds, stream and overgrown grass, which has the forest floor feel. Not so much the tree covering of Banham, which I would love to see, it has a combination of everything, and I don't feel the pictures above do it justice, and I actually think the pictures above kind of flatter Shrepreth as it certainly didn't look that well planted when I visited recently.
Overall, I went for Exmoor, but I kind of feel I done a disservice to Paignton and Banham, who are at least equal.
Yorkshire's is not bad, but for a zoo which has such immersive and impressive exhibits, I find the Maned Wolf one lacking.
South Lakes is bigger than the image suggests, and gives 360 degree view at the zoo, it shouldn't have no votes when places like Hamerton which is just very open with no foliage, dens or cover has three votes, but everyone is obviously entitled to their own opinion.
