I think media were viewed as essential workers during much of lockdown.
Chester Zoo Chester Zoo Discussion and Questions 2021
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I think media were viewed as essential workers during much of lockdown.
taun
Well-Known Member
Depends on what they are classed as, as ShavingtonZoo said, if they were "media" they could work during it.
A slightly random post however I wanted people's views on my idea. I have for a long time now been thinking about this. I think that the zoo should do a house swap between the chimps and bornean orangs. I think this because this chimp group I feel will do better with more space as they are quite a large troop. Also Realm of the red ape was a good enclosure when both orang species lived there but now I think it is a waste of a good large enclosure. With a few tweeks to both enclosures they could be really good for both species. What are your opinions
Not sure about this, chimps spend more time on the ground than orangs, and there isn't much ground level viewing in the current orang building.
littleRedPanda
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Pretty sure someone posted that idea before
Ridiculous size. Terrible design. Very popular species with a just few yards of limited viewing area. Who designed that?
Ridiculous! Only managed to see them because it was a quiet-ish day at the zoo.
PicanBird
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It was likely designed by someone that respected the privacy, etc. of the animals instead of the guests. From what I hear that sounds like an improvement. It is an indoor area after all.
Gigit
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The viewing area is indoors but the orangs are outside from what I recall.
I do think it is just bad design, and not done to give the animals any more privacy than they'd have with a bigger viewing area. The adult male in particular when he seeks privacy, goes into the connecting shutes where he is out of sight anyway. The problem is caused because at busy times, the volume of people who visit in there is simply not matched by the disproportionately small viewing window area.
The Hedgehog
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@Mayki I have never been to Chester Zoo’s Monsoon Forest. Can you please tell me what the “useless junk” you are referring too was? Can you give me an overview of what is different about Monsoon Forest now than before the fire of Christmas 2018?
The architects were the dan pearlman Group.
But I think that their brief from the zoo included the relatively limited indoor viewing of the orang areas in the Monsoon Forest. I think that was a deliberate choice because of the way that the hand-reared females came right up to the windows in RotRA, spending long periods interacting with visitors, which caused crowds to gather around those windows and hindered visitor movement through the building. Emma and Subis can still approach the windows in the Monsoon Forest, but rarely do so, and they cannot stay there comfortably. I agree that this limited indoor viewing can be frustrating for visitors, but I am sure that it benefits the animals, and the outdoor viewing in Islands is far better than in RotRA.
I agree. The remodelled vivarium exhibits in the 'Field Station' now give significantly better access to the orang viewing windows and a lot of the 'stage set' stuff has gone. I think that reversing the one-way system, so the orangs are now at the far end of the Monsoon Forest, may have had some effect too.
This is what it used to look like soon after it opened in 2015. I'm afraid I don't have a photo of the same area now, but I assure you it's much better.
I don't understand why they didn't make the whole/most of the area visible in this lower photo as viewing windows, instead of just the little enclaves. It would allow visitors to spead out more instead of packing into those smaller focal points.The architects were the dan pearlman Group.
But I think that their brief from the zoo included the relatively limited indoor viewing of the orang areas in the Monsoon Forest. I think that was a deliberate choice because of the way that the hand-reared females came right up to the windows in RotRA, spending long periods interacting with visitors, which caused crowds to gather around those windows and hindered visitor movement through the building. Emma and Subis can still approach the windows in the Monsoon Forest, but rarely do so, and they cannot stay there comfortably. I agree that this limited indoor viewing can be frustrating for visitors, but I am sure that it benefits the animals, and the outdoor viewing in Islands is far better than in RotRA.
I agree. The remodelled vivarium exhibits in the 'Field Station' now give significantly better access to the orang viewing windows and a lot of the 'stage set' stuff has gone. I think that reversing the one-way system, so the orangs are now at the far end of the Monsoon Forest, may have had some effect too.
This is what it used to look like soon after it opened in 2015. I'm afraid I don't have a photo of the same area now, but I assure you it's much better.
As to the outsides. In Monsoon Forest the inside and outdoor viewing areas are a long way apart, meaning its far more chancy whether you find them in either location. In ROTRA at least the indoor and outdoor viewing areas are much closer together.
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Gigit
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What on earth is the person in pink on the left of the first photo doing?The architects were the dan pearlman Group.
But I think that their brief from the zoo included the relatively limited indoor viewing of the orang areas in the Monsoon Forest. I think that was a deliberate choice because of the way that the hand-reared females came right up to the windows in RotRA, spending long periods interacting with visitors, which caused crowds to gather around those windows and hindered visitor movement through the building. Emma and Subis can still approach the windows in the Monsoon Forest, but rarely do so, and they cannot stay there comfortably. I agree that this limited indoor viewing can be frustrating for visitors, but I am sure that it benefits the animals, and the outdoor viewing in Islands is far better than in RotRA.
I agree. The remodelled vivarium exhibits in the 'Field Station' now give significantly better access to the orang viewing windows and a lot of the 'stage set' stuff has gone. I think that reversing the one-way system, so the orangs are now at the far end of the Monsoon Forest, may have had some effect too.
This is what it used to look like soon after it opened in 2015. I'm afraid I don't have a photo of the same area now, but I assure you it's much better.
Its a girl pretending to be an Orangutan...
but I think she's just enjoying the immersive props maybe..
When I visited yesterday the one-way system was how it was originally.
Ditto when I visited on 23 September.
If I remember correctly, she was a young girl who her mother had lifted up so that she could see the spider (or whatever it was). I don't think that her mother noticed immediately when she reached up to take hold of the top of the display, a moment before I took the photo. She took her down and told her off a few seconds later.
The photo was taken a few weeks before the orangs were moved into the Monsoon Forest, as the chutes between the indoor and outdoor enclosures were not completed.Its a girl pretending to be an Orangutan...
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