Best zoo elephant house in the world?

Dan

Dan

Well-Known Member
A comment by Ituri to a photo in the gallery gave me the idea to start this thread. The comment:

http://www.zoochat.com/413/inside-elephant-house-50869/

So which is the best zoo elephant house in the world? I mean it literally: which is the best HOUSE? Disregard the outdoor enclosures in this case. Considering the fact that a lot of elephants are kept in cold climates and in fact spend the majority of their time indoors, makes the question even more urgent.

I have two suggestions: the elephant houses in Cologne and Copenhagen.
 
I'll nominate Chester

ZooLex Exhibit

- Good immersion for visitors,
- good supporting cast of animals (hornbill, tree shrew, fish, turtles etc),
- use of rubber and sand floors,
- decent sized off-show sections,
- heated,
- large space to allow the group to rest together.

One of the few elephant houses that i've seen which is very good for both elephants and visitors.
 
- Most spacious/best for the animals: Cologne Zoo

- Nicest building to see: Blijdorp Zoo (inside and out, an asian temple)

I also liked the indoor space of Wuppertaler Zoo, with very big beams supporting the roof in a semi-circle :)
 
At the moment in my opinion one cannot find “the best elephant house” anywhere. Much more interesting for me is the question what are the most important aspects to build an optimal inside-enclosure for elephants, attractive for visitors as well. A good elephant house should have:

  • a large ecological heated area where the “greys” could move freely
  • possibility for separating (for newcomers, sickness, incompatibility etc.)
  • training stalls (for PC-Training and medical procedures) and simple ERC with weighing scale
  • a large ecological heated pool or moat with min. 2 flat entrances
  • the most part sand flooring for elephant-wellness
  • feed walls, feed balls, feeding nets…and other behavioural enrichment
  • for the visitors space saving possibilities (gallery) for watching the elephants to seat oneself or lean against or walk and pass by (also for baby-buggies and wheelchairs)
  • an interesting and attractive ambiance (special topic)
  • some information about elephants but not too much, because this would draw off the attention from the “living object”!

Sure, you´ll find some good elephant-indoor-enclosures in Europe as: Chester, Dublin, Blijdorp/Rotterdam, Copenhagen, Cologne, Leipzig, Hamburg/Hagenbeck, ..., but none of them satisfies all above mentioned claims!
 
Single best house is I think in Cologne/Koeln, because of it's huge size and sand floor. But I don't like its "brutal" non-natural architecture and relative lack of educational themes.

Poznan zoo elephant house is strong contender, it's already finished and waiting for elephants (expected in a few months due to some bureaucracy in quarantine). Its architects were taken on a zoo tour across Europe to learn all management issues of elephant housing. Pics are in this thread:
[Poznań] Słoniarnia - Page 26 - SkyscraperCity

Coming to think, Rotterdam, Leipzig, Hamburg and Dresden are also examples of "new wave" of elephant houses. Dresden has the best landscaping by far (it is part of rainforest hall) but the zoo has no space for a bull, only (distant) plans for bull house.

Non-German speakers may not know, that all German elephant spaces are well illustrated here:
Zooelefant.de - Deutsche Zoos
Zooelefant.de - Zoo Dresden
Zooelefant.de - Zoo Leipzig
Zooelefant.de - Tierpark Hagenbeck
I think Google Translate can make the text at least half understandable ;)
 
Jurek7 said:
Single best house is I think in Cologne/Koeln, because of it's huge size and sand floor.
Click to expand...

The indoor-elephant-enclosure of Cologne has unfortunately no sand floor! In Germany you´ll find sand only in the elephant-indoor-free-moving-area of Leipzig and Hamburg. In Osnabrueck there is only one stall with sand floor.
 
elephant house

dublin has to be in the there,sand floor,timed feeding wall,over head feeding options,all elephants lying down every nite to sleep!!
 
I'm going to defend American Elephants Houses. Columbus has the largest in the US, second in the world, at 41,000 sq. ft. I think ours is one of the best if not the best in the US. We have the capacity for up to 12 elephants, and countless off exhibit areas. I think my favorite aspects of the exhibit are the skylights which allows light into the building, and the single visitor viewing area. While it only offers visitors one "room" to see, it is a huge community room where we exhibit up to three elephants at a time.

Other US Zoos With Excellent Elephant Houses:

- Indianapolis Zoo

- Zoo Atlanta

- Portland Zoo

- Cincinnati Zoo

Note: A lot of major zoos are renovating their elephant exhibits (National Zoo, Cleveland Zoo, Los Angeles Zoo)
 
I was just waiting for some of our forumsters in North America or Oceania to enter the discussion and put forward some nominations!

Some reflections:

Sitara´s list of requirements for the ideal house is certainly well thought through. When will we ever get to see a building like that?

Cologne - one of my two nominations? Yes, on second thought, the lack of sand flooring is a definitive minus.

I was not aware about the new building in Poznan, Poland. The whole exhibit promises to be very exciting and the house looks brilliant, except - again - for the lack of sand flooring! The pictures in the link from Jurek 7 are most informative.

Also, I got very interested in the house in Dublin, as mentioned by dirty harry. I have trouble finding good pictures of it, though. Would be grateful for links! Found a few photos, though not very good ones, in this otherwise extremely interesting 40-page study on some of the best elephant exhibits in the world:
http://www.churchilltrust.com.au/res/File/Fellow_Reports/Conroy John 2006.pdf
Don´t miss it for the world, if you have the slightest interest in the subject!
 
Really impressed with the new African elephant house at Poznan, architecturally the building looks stunning, large and airy not claustrophobic at all, the paddock seems to be pretty expansive too.
I have also been impressed with the new house at Copenhagen, again open and light, but to me any way the main indoor are seems to consist of a large sand pit and thats it!, are there any logs, toys or any other forms of stimulus for the elephants.
And in all the pics i have seen, have yet to see an indoor pool, is there one?
 
I think it is a huge stretch to include Portland, Atlanta or Cincinnati in any list of good elephant buildings. Portland has just recieived millions of dollars to completely rebuild/expand their very inadequate building and exhibits, and Cincy's building is nearly 100 years old and is about to undergo its second major renovation in just the past ten years.

Disneys' complex is far and away the best in the US. Columbus's is good for a cold weather city but is still burdened by concrete flooring.

Houston just opened a new barn with sand floors that looks very good as well.
 
Kiang forces me to withdraw my second nominee....

No, there is no indoor pool at Copenhagen. Originally the herd enclosure was planned to have one, but somewhere along the way it disappeared from the blueprints. No toys or logs either, I´m afraid. Some holes in the wall where treats can be hidden, I seem to recall.

The main feature IS the the sand itself, which the elephants obviously enjoy - they love it. And in the sand lots of food is hidden and the animals spend a lot of time searching for it.

Every time the elephants go in or out, the sand is rearranged by the keepers. They use small caterpillars to create "new hills" - inside as well as outside - for the animals to "throw themselves into" or look for food in.
 
reduakari said:
I think it is a huge stretch to include Portland, Atlanta or Cincinnati in any list of good elephant buildings.
Click to expand...
I know, but the fact is there aren't that many good US elephant buildings. When you say Disney are you talking about the Animal Park? I haven't been to DAK for a while. Do visitors even have access to the building and are there any pictures of it?

I also have no idea why we haven't started using sand at Columbus yet.
 
I actually just found a cool website that lets you cruise around the Animal Park from a birds eye view. The Kilimanjaro Elephant House isn't open to the public and isn't larger than 20,000 sq. ft (It looks 10,000). Granted it's a beautiful building with multiple off exhibit yards but I don't think it's the best in the US.
 
How about a link to the website? DAK's elephant facility is great--in part because it is essentially open to the air around it, not possible in most northern zoos. It is highly flexible and very safe for staff. The exhibits are wthout peer anywhere--they are very large but look even larger (endless), have great landscape features that say "Africa" not a "giant field somewhere in Europe." And Disney can afford to replace large plants in the exhibit areas on a nearly daily basis
 
I've visited the Columbus Zoo and have also posted a few photos of it here on ZooChat, and while the elephant house there is indeed the largest in North America its concrete floor must be a killer on the joints of the pachyderms. Taronga Zoo in Sydney actually has a nice new elephant house with loads of sand, but the climate there is amazing and thus the elephants don't actually have to use the barn that much.
 
reduakari said:
The exhibits are wthout peer anywhere--they are very large but look even larger (endless), have great landscape features that say "Africa" not a "giant field somewhere in Europe." And Disney can afford to replace large plants in the exhibit areas on a nearly daily basis
Click to expand...
I do agree that the exhibits are beautiful and are no doubt one of the best outdoor exhibits, but the thread is addressing the best Elephant House, the indoor facilities, not the exhibits themselves.

Here's a link to the website. Very cool!

Virtual Globetrotting: Disney Animal Kingdom - Elephant House
 
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