Here's mine: 'the congo experience' (such an original title!)
There are three buildings. The yellow backed duiker building, the main house, and the okapi/buffalo house. They are all joined together, but there are doors to pass through into each one. The main building is a massive walk-in aviary.
The first Building is the yellow backed duiker building. This is the inside quarters for a small group of the species. There is also a small aviary in here with congo peafowl and lady ross's turacos. The path in this building is a boardwalk, and the surrounding area is a planted area. The enclosure for the duiker, has a concrete floor, but this is quite hard to see, because of the layer of plants in front. The congo peafowl/lady ross's turaco aviary is as tall as the building. with keeper acess from the outside of the building. The layout of this building, is the duiker inside area on one side of the path and the viary on the other side.
The main area of the exhibit is a massive walk in aviary, very much like the tropical realm at Chester, because it has vivariums and other bird aviaries inside it. There are numerous pathways, that lead off to different vivariums, and views to the outside paddocks for the yellow backed duiker, ongo buffalo and debrazza's gueneon, and the okapi and red flanked duiker. The species free flying in this aviary are:
Hottentot teal
White backed duck
White faced whistling duck
Hartlaub's duck
African pygmy goose
Comb duck
African openbill
Great blue turaco
African jacana
Hadada ibis
Hammerkop
white headed buffalo weaver
superb starling
red cheeked cordon bleu
green wood hoopoe
Lilac brested roller
There are some pools in the walk-in aviary for the waterfowl and the storks/hammerkops/jacanas. There is also a small building at the furthest end of the aviary, where some birds can be taken off show if they are not doing very well in the main exhibit.
The other aviaries in this exhibit are home to other exotic african birds, that could end up killing the other birds in free flight if released. The largest of these aviaries is for the black casqued hornbill. Right next to this aviary is another similar sized one for a pair of yellow casqued hornbills. The vivariums house a few species. The largest vivarium houses a group of royal antelope. They are put in a very large vivarium, about the size of the komodo exhibit at Chester. I decided to put the royal antelope in a vivarium, rather than an enclosur in the walk in, because the open bills or hammerkops, may target the young. The other vivariums are home to black and rufous elephant shrew ( a species which captive population is growing rapidly thanks to a few american zoos breeding them successfully.),Bell's hinge back tortoise, gaboon viper, west african green mamba, african bullfrog, golden mantellas and nile monitors.
The last building, has three exhibits, an inside area for okapi and red flanked duiker, an inside area for congo buffalo and debrazzoa's guenon, and an inside area for a group of red river hogs(or some other african pig. The buffalo and guenons are viewable through a very thick glass barrier. This is to keep the guenons in, otherwise, I would have jut left it as a cattle house. The okapi and duiker are kept in an area that can be split into two, one space for each okapi. The duiker also have a separate inside enclosure. The hogs arealso kept behind a glass barrier, but it does not go that high, and some visitors can look over it. The outdoor exhibits are quite large, and should be suitable for herds of each species.
No I need to draw up a diagram and put it on the gallery. Phew!
