Can reptile houses still be original?

[pendraig_milnerae]

Reptile houses have been around as long as zoos themselves, however have been done so frequently throughout the years that they are sometimes viewed as a tired, clichéd method of displaying reptiles and amphibians. This view is sometimes correct in real-world examples, however these cases are often uninspired corridors that display these animals in a series of uniform glass-fronted boxes, and there are many more examples that buck the trend. As such, reptile houses can be real standouts when they take into account architecture, use of light, education value, incorporation of plants, an interesting and conservationally important array of species and many other factors, such as historical importance.

What are the best examples of these so-called ‘inspired’ reptile houses, that engage the visitor in the world of herpetology and seek to conserve the species they house instead of acting as mere display corridors?

 

[Fallax]

It seems like the new house at London might be what you are looking for when it opens from what has been said so far.

 

[dillotest0]

I recall perhaps the most interesting Reptile House I saw was at the Berlin Zoo Aquarium.
It had representatives of all but one of the 6 major groups of reptiles - in that it had tuataras, snakes, turtles/tortoises, crocodiles and lizards - though no amphisbaenians, which may as well be impossible to display.
From what I recall the enclosures for the most part were also of greater quality than most other reptile houses - giving each reptile a suitable amount of space.
Though I do sometimes wonder if the traditional reptile house is truly the ultimate way to display reptiles to full potential... I recall recently Marwell opened a new exhibit based off semi-deserts of the Mediterranean - which at the moment holds only 6 species off the top of my head, 4 reptiles [all lizards], 1 amphibian [green toad] and mammal [rock hyrax]. And one of the joys in this new exhibit is that the lizards are well camouflaged into the rocky backdrop, so one has to actually strain their eyes to find something. The toad is admittedly harder to find - a keeper I spoke to said he had never seen it himself; and the hyrax seems to like lounging at the back most of the time. The zoo also has a more classical reptile house, with traditional fare of smaller amounts of space.

I think part of the thought process with the traditional reptile house is that most reptiles don't move around a great deal - so they can get away with just enough space for the animal to walk/slither about on occasion. Still, some people don't even think that even this is fundamentally necessary. Many reptiles also don't walk around very much in their wild state, they mainly walk around to hunt. Gila monsters as example have an annual 90-day span where they may be most active - but less than a third of this span, it has been found, has them really do much. And most of the year they live in an underground burrow... though of course quite a few zoos try to bypass this for obvious reasons. Many charismatic reptiles, like large snakes, are also nocturnal, which doesn't help much. Tuataras, which are rare as it is, are nocturnal too.
Turtles and tortoises are unique in that quite a few species are actually large or active enough to warrant interesting enclosures, and so it is with crocodiles too. And amphisbaenians are subterraneans - meaning that theoretically you could put an amphisbeanian into a tank of dirt, provide it with essentials and call it at that... but no one would ever actually see it. And so it seems to boil down to that reptiles are interesting to look at mainly on morphological merit - but in terms of activity or ecology are not quite as interesting exhibit-wise as birds, mammals or even amphibians. And thus the main way to make them interesting is to have exhibits arranged in a visually interesting way. And thus the Scutes Family Gallery was born....

The new lizard diorama type thing at Marwell seems to work well, and so as much as I want to say that this would be the future of reptile exhibits... the one-size fits all is too easy to fall into. It works well for small lizards yes... but then with the vast majority of snakes, even those of little danger, it probably wouldn't work.
The traditional reptile house is not perfect on several merits, but it is effective. It accomplishes the task of showing reptiles in zoos fairly well. But that doesn't mean that there are not ways that it could be more interesting, both on aesthetic merits and biomechanical merits.

 

[pendraig_milnerae]

I recall perhaps the most interesting Reptile House I saw was at the Berlin Zoo Aquarium.
It had representatives of all but one of the 6 major groups of reptiles - in that it had tuataras, snakes, turtles/tortoises, crocodiles and lizards - though no amphisbaenians, which may as well be impossible to display.
From what I recall the enclosures for the most part were also of greater quality than most other reptile houses - giving each reptile a suitable amount of space.
Though I do sometimes wonder if the traditional reptile house is truly the ultimate way to display reptiles to full potential... I recall recently Marwell opened a new exhibit based off semi-deserts of the Mediterranean - which at the moment holds only 6 species off the top of my head, 4 reptiles [all lizards], 1 amphibian [green toad] and mammal [rock hyrax]. And one of the joys in this new exhibit is that the lizards are well camouflaged into the rocky backdrop, so one has to actually strain their eyes to find something. The toad is admittedly harder to find - a keeper I spoke to said he had never seen it himself; and the hyrax seems to like lounging at the back most of the time. The zoo also has a more classical reptile house, with traditional fare of smaller amounts of space.

I think part of the thought process with the traditional reptile house is that most reptiles don't move around a great deal - so they can get away with just enough space for the animal to walk/slither about on occasion. Still, some people don't even think that even this is fundamentally necessary. Many reptiles also don't walk around very much in their wild state, they mainly walk around to hunt. Gila monsters as example have an annual 90-day span where they may be most active - but less than a third of this span, it has been found, has them really do much. And most of the year they live in an underground burrow... though of course quite a few zoos try to bypass this for obvious reasons. Many charismatic reptiles, like large snakes, are also nocturnal, which doesn't help much. Tuataras, which are rare as it is, are nocturnal too.
Turtles and tortoises are unique in that quite a few species are actually large or active enough to warrant interesting enclosures, and so it is with crocodiles too. And amphisbaenians are subterraneans - meaning that theoretically you could put an amphisbeanian into a tank of dirt, provide it with essentials and call it at that... but no one would ever actually see it. And so it seems to boil down to that reptiles are interesting to look at mainly on morphological merit - but in terms of activity or ecology are not quite as interesting exhibit-wise as birds, mammals or even amphibians. And thus the main way to make them interesting is to have exhibits arranged in a visually interesting way. And thus the Scutes Family Gallery was born....

The new lizard diorama type thing at Marwell seems to work well, and so as much as I want to say that this would be the future of reptile exhibits... the one-size fits all is too easy to fall into. It works well for small lizards yes... but then with the vast majority of snakes, even those of little danger, it probably wouldn't work.
The traditional reptile house is not perfect on several merits, but it is effective. It accomplishes the task of showing reptiles in zoos fairly well. But that doesn't mean that there are not ways that it could be more interesting, both on aesthetic merits and biomechanical merits.

You’ve definitely touched on some really interesting points there, in that reptiles and amphibians are so variable in their ecologies, behaviours and sizes that a lot of the ‘one size fits all’ styles of reptile house can be fairly flawed. It’s been one of my own criticisms of many such buildings that a lot of enclosures just seem too small for the species they house, even if they’re fairly inactive much of the time, especially in regards to snakes. Personally I’m much happier if a snake has the room to stretch itself out properly, even if it almost never does.

The other thing is that some of the less-inspired reptile houses really don’t find interesting ways to present their species, with small glass-fronted boxes filled with sand and maybe a small hide at the back, and some of the examples given like Marwell and Berlin find other ways to present them that are not only better for the animals but more engaging for the visitor. Other examples might include San Diego’s multi-species glass reptile enclosure near the condors, where there are both indoor and outdoor spaces available as well as a much larger space for the animals and greater availability of hiding spots, or perhaps the low-walled reptile pods in a number of places in the UK for holding native species such as adders.

 

[dillotest0]

You’ve definitely touched on some really interesting points there, in that reptiles and amphibians are so variable in their ecologies, behaviours and sizes that a lot of the ‘one size fits all’ styles of reptile house can be fairly flawed. It’s been one of my own criticisms of many such buildings that a lot of enclosures just seem too small for the species they house, even if they’re fairly inactive much of the time, especially in regards to snakes. Personally I’m much happier if a snake has the room to stretch itself out properly, even if it almost never does.

The other thing is that some of the less-inspired reptile houses really don’t find interesting ways to present their species, with small glass-fronted boxes filled with sand and maybe a small hide at the back, and some of the examples given like Marwell and Berlin find other ways to present them that are not only better for the animals but more engaging for the visitor. Other examples might include San Diego’s multi-species glass reptile enclosure near the condors, where there are both indoor and outdoor spaces available as well as a much larger space for the animals and greater availability of hiding spots, or perhaps the low-walled reptile pods in a number of places in the UK for holding native species such as adders.

I think to come back to the Gila Monster... there can be a question to be had - is it possible to give a Gila Monster a sizable enclosure space, a fraction of what it may waddle in the Sonora? I would answer 'yes' to this... but of course you would never see it. And I guess this is part of the point.
And so I think here is where some interesting questions can start to be asked. Such as - in what conditions are Gila monsters most active? What time of day? How do they hunt their prey? These are all things, I think, that the budding zoo designer should ask themself not only with Gila monsters but with any animal. Maybe some Gila Monsters could be held as ambassador animals and taken out for occasional display.
I think with reptiles also zoo designers could take note with what is being done with mammals already. Many 'person-sized' mammals, particularly popular cats and dogs, are sluggish most the day as well - but feeding time is always a delight. I imagine if similar feeding times happened with reptiles it would also be very popular! And would definitely also warrant the construction of more interesting enclosures to accomodate for that.

 

[Kalaw]

For starters, the answer to the question in the title of this thread is definitely yes.

I have never seen it done consistently across an entire house, but I have seen several individual exhibits that really stood out to me as a creative and effective way to display reptiles. If a zoo were to take inspiration from some of these exhibits, and build an entire House in their image, that could be what be what you are looking for. Like @Fallax , I hope that London's upcoming House could be a similar ordeal, but until it opens, the best I can do is provide a list of some of the best examples and concepts that I have personally seen.

Mixed-species Lineups:
Creative and unusual mixed-species exhibits are always entertaining. Zurich and Hagenbeck both mix Rio Fuerte Beaded Lizards and Colorado River Toads, with the latter also throwing Common Chuckwalla into the mix. The best zoo which I have personally seen in this regard, however, is Antwerp - Caiman Lizard, Weberhorst's Sailfin Lizard and three species of freshwater turtle share one lovely enclosure with underwater viewing, while Cane Toad share with Green Tree Python, Long-nosed Frog share with Crocodile Skink, Madagascar Tree Boa share with Radiated Tortoise and (the highlight for me) American Alligator share with Black Iguana. The iguanas are offered a multitude of branches and trees to escape to, and since they spend almost all of their time up there, while the alligators are in the pool or on the sand, it hardly feels like a mix. But in a way, watching two different ways of life side-by-side is just as fascinating.

@KevinB - American Alligator / Black Iguana enclosure at Antwerp Zoo.

Open-fronted Enclosures
Certain animals can be held in an entirely open-fronted enclosure, designed in such a way that they are very likely to escape, but should they chose to do so, they are mostly harmless anyways. The best example that I have seen here is in the Exotarium at Zoo Zurich (the building is not entirely devoted to reptiles, but one room is, essentially a smaller reptile house). The milk frog enclosure has a glass roof, making it very bright, while the visitor corridor is extremely dark, with the light gradient usually being enough to keep them within, and I am sure that the noise of the corridor also plays a role. However, in a way, this enclosure adds to the argument presented by @dillotest0 above that, given that herptiles aren't all that active anyways, you might as well display them in a smaller space where they are more likely to be seen. I personally had no luck finding them in this massive space, although photos on the gallery suggest that it is possible.

@Kalaw - Amazon Milk Frog enclosure at Zoo Zurich.

Forcing You To Look:
Similar to the Marwell enclosure mentioned upthread, many zoos have offered their herptiles enormous, well-landscaped spaces where they are near impossible to find, but with some looking, can reliably be spotted, with the naturalism of their location only adding to the satisfaction. Back when Bristol was open, they did this very well with Trinidad Stream Frogs, who had access to the land portion of the Malaysian Giant Pond Turtle enclosure, the abundance of moss and the cracks in the rockwork at the far end offering them ample hiding spots, but it was possible to see them. Chester arguably does this even better, with Trinidad Stream Frogs free-ranging in their Butterfly House, which (coupled with the multitude of pathways through the house to chose from) encourages you to go out of your way looking for frogs, and I spent far longer than I care to admit doing so. But of course, since butterflies are the focus of the walkthrough, it wouldn't work so well in a Reptile House.

@gulogulogulo - former Trinidad Stream Frog / Malaysian Giant Pond Turtle enclosure at Bristol Zoo.

Imagery:
When it comes to telling a conservation message, haunting images are perhaps the best way to do so. London Zoo once did this with Annam Leaf Turtles, putting them in a kitchen-like setting with cooking pots and turtle shells on the walls, and a Vietnamese menu beside the sign, to show how cooking turtles in Vietnam is endangering them. It was very powerful, but it was perhaps taken a bit too far, almost coming across as cultural appropriation. Enclosures like these can be very powerful, but finding a balance is difficult. Eventually, they removed the turtles, some of the cooking items, and the controversial menu, in favour of more turtle shells, turning it into a museum of sorts with a more subtle conservation message. This enclosure, and many others like it, have been thoroughly discussed elsewhere on this site, so I will not speak any further of it - but I will say that, in a way, I am glad this enclosure is gone.

@devilfish - former Annam Leaf Turtle enclosure at London Zoo.

Feeding and Talks:
Another subject that was touched on upthread, feeding and talks are just as good a way with reptiles as they are with mammals of encouraging greater activity and entertaining visitors. And, when done well, they can be even better. At Crocodiles of the World, over 30 Nile and Morelet's Crocodiles share the same pool, and when they are fed with poles, seeing huge crocodiles leap out of the water in an open-topped enclosure can be terrifying and memorable. Of course, given the size of the pool, it does take up a lot of space, but there is still enough space in the Crocodile House for 5 (if memory serves) other crocodilian species, so it could definitely work in a Reptile House.

@Bwassa - Nile Crocodiles being fed at Crocodiles of the World