Fav. Exhibit

Writhedhornbill

Writhedhornbill

Well-Known Member
What is your favourite exhibit? There are two catagories: Houses ( Like The elephant house at Chester or the Nocturnal bird house at Jurong that house many different species, maybe on a theme of country, culture or habitat); and single species or mixed exhibits ( this is just one enclosure or aviary. It can have lots of species or just one. Examples Shoebills at Frankfurt or Speke's gazelle, lesser Kudu, Soemerring gazelle and gerenuk at San Diego)

I'll post mine when I've had a think......
 
my favourite mixed exhibit is the walk through aviary at lowry park zoo, florida, i thought yet another mixed aviary but this is what i love an exhibit you go into with no idea what is in the exhibit, you know what you are going to get in an elephant house or a major exhibit like realm of the red ape. The aviary at lowry park was a densely planted slice of rain forest with great indian hornbill, toco toucan, red birds of paradise, open billed stork (african i think), victoria crowned pigeon, boat billed heron all species at the time new to me. what an experience i spent about an hour in there just sitting and watching a fantastic experience and i am not a bird person hoofstock my favourite.
 
choosing one is very difficult.

heres the short list.

Realm Of The Red Ape
Bear Mountain
Twilight Zone Bat Cave
Miniture Monkeys
Monkey Islands
Tropical Realm
African Plains at Dublin
Spirit Of The Jaguar
Lemur Islands at Chester
Snowdon Aviary
Moonlight World at Bristol
Europe On The Edge
Elephants Of The Asian Forests
Gorilla Kindgom
Spectacled Bears at Jersey
Bears Of The Cloud Forests
Monkey Islands at Dublin

i'll try and pick a favourite out of them.
 
I'd nominate 'Palace of the Apes' at Port Lympne which is a single species, multi-enclosure house, and the penguin pool at Edinburgh which is a double enclosure for three species.
I think they fit into your second and first categories respectively, but I can't help feeling it should be the other way around :confused:

Alan
 
Yes that works.

My favourite house is islands in danger and I'm going to have to have a think about my favourite individual exhibit.
 
i've managed to cut down my list to just 10

Realm Of The Red Ape
Twilight Zone Bat Cave
Miniture Monkeys
Monkey Islands
Tropical Realm
African Plains at Dublin
Spirit Of The Jaguar
Snowdon Aviary
Europe On The Edge
Monkey Islands at Dublin
 
I agree with Grant.

My favourite exhibit is Europe on the Edge at Chester. I can stand and watch the birds going about their business for ages.
 
Some of my favorites:

Emmen Zoo: The savannah, a large exhibit with mixed animals like zebras, giraffes, rhinos, wildebeests, gazelles, cranes, etc.
Apenheul: This zoo with almost only apes and monkeys has a lot of large, green exhibits with much trees and bushes.
Burgers Zoo: The Bush, a very large building with a piece of rainforest.
Amsterdam Zoo: The small mammals house.
Rotterdam Zoo: Tamman Indah (Asian elephants, Indian rhinos, tapirs, etc.)
 
Most unfavourite new exhibit

I don't want to be too negative but I'd like to nominate one newish exhibit I wasn't too impressed with.

That's the 'Monkey Heights' building at Paignton Zoo.

It replaces the original Monkey House and the new 'complex' in the central part of the zoo cost a great deal of money. It houses various species but seems to have failed to give its principal residents, the monkeys (two groups of Colobus, Sulawesi macaques, Diana monkeys) any real climbing opportunity...

Three of the four outdoor enclosures have a very large existing Plane tree as the central feature, but they are electrified to prevent the monkeys climbing them- obviously to prevent damage to the foliage. The monkeys have climbing structures beneath the trees. It seems strange to see them limited to using these instead of leaping about in the trees- especially the very arboreal species like the Colobus and Guenons. There is a great deal of fencing in evidence too and the raised public walkways mean the monkeys tend to be below you rather than above.

I feel they would have been better sighting this exhibit in the undeveloped wooded hillside area of the zoo, where groves of trees could have been incorporated in the design and the monkeys allowed to use them. This is how Howletts and Port Lympne are designing their new primate enclosures and its very effective.

I think 'Monkey Heights' is 'Monkey Low' really. :( Any opinions?
 
I was very impressed by the penguins at Edinburgh Zoo. It's the only real world-class exhibit they have.


My favourite mixed exhibit is Prague Zoo's Indonesian Jungle which looks like a miniature Eden Project and houses orangs, gibbons and binturong amongst others. The planting and theming of the indoor enclosures is just brilliant, miles better than Realm of the Red Ape.
 
Chesters "Cloud forest" exhibit i think is the best asethically. "Realm of the red ape" is really good, its really approved the quality of the exhibit for the orangutan and encourages their natural behaviour more. My only problem is it gets too crowded.
 
I agree with the Bush House at Burgers Zoo. This is a huge building absolutely crammed with plants, very atmospheric, although for the size of it not that many animals. Manatees are the main stars, there didn't seem to be many free flying birds. I also really liked the desert house, which has some rarely seen animals like bobcats, roadrunners, and cacomistles.

Has anyone been to the Henry Dorling Zoo, which looks like it has a fantastic tropical/nocturnal house?
 
If the Edinburgh's pinguin pool is virtually unchanged since 4 years back it's not even close to Emmen's Playa Pinguinos which houses over 200 Humboldt's in a walk-through area with a 20-something meter glass underwater-window.

Very good exhibits:
- Emmen's Playa Pinguinos (apparantly the Loro Parque one is even better...)
- Prague's climbing goat exhibit's (barbary sheep with barbary apes, chinese goral and ibex)
- Apenheul's Gorilla island (allthough the inside is a bit cramped and old)
- Harderwijk's Dolphin lagoon (a lake to to keep dolphins in, they deserve nothing less)

Very good buildings
- Duisburg's Rio Negro (the amazone dolphins were mesmorizing when there still were two, the only exhibit i know that i could spent a whole day just sitting and watching)
- Arnhem's Bush (The only building i know that actually makes you feel like you are in the tropics)
- Prague's Asian rainforest (almost a little over-the-top thematised building but it's amazing to be in)
 
Mine are all UK exhibits....I'm not so well-travelled.

- The living coasts aviary

- London Zoo's B.U.G.S. exhibition

- Port Lympne's African Safari reserve

- Longleat's Flamingo aviary

- The new tiger enclosures at the Isle of Wight zoo

- London zoo's Clore Rainforest Lookout (I mean the central exhibit, not the house at a whole)

- Dartmoor Wildlife Park's 'Bruin's Wood' for Brown Bears and Red foxes

- Port Lympne's Malayan Tapir facitlity

- Looe Monkey Sanctuary's Woolly Monkey complex

- South Lakes Wild Animal Park's Bat enclosure

- Drusillas Park's Beaver country (before the Capybara were added!)

- Thrigby Hall's Swamp House
 
Nigels favourites

mine would have to be the Hamilton Zoo walk through aviary .
It is HUGE , and larger than any in Australia , and covers more area than the big one in san Diego Zoo .
Another excellent exhibit is the baboon hillside at Wellington Zoo -- one of the better exhibits in this old run down zoo . There are plenty of rocks and logs scattered throughout this enclosure , which keeps all the baboons occupied looking for grubs etc when they are not playing with each other . It is also an innovative use of part of the zoo which would otherwise be difficult to use
 
from ones i've visited:

Realm of the red ape (light years better than the old orang house)
Jersey Zoo's Orang Habitat
Islands/Dragons in Danger
Clore Rainforest Lookout in London
B.U.G.S. at London
Twilight Zone at Chester
Whipsnades's elephant facilities.
 
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