okay, so haven't been to howletts. but i have over the years seen many, many photos and footage of their apparent "world-class" gorilla cages.
everyone raves about them. but i don't get it. can someone please explain what makes them so good?
does the zoo also have large, unroofed outdoor enclosures for warm weather?
Okay Pat, how long have you got....
The Howletts Gorilla cages you will have seen on T.V. many times. NONE of the five groups at Howletts has access to any unroofed areas. The large cages are all roofed but only the central strip is protected from rain etc- otherwise they're largely open to the elements(rain,sunlight) etc. They can't really be extended because of space and their locations within the park.(three of the five are located in a walled 'kitchen garden' area right near a public road)
At Port Lympne(the 2nd much larger park) there are the two all- male group areas, of similar design to Howletts, but these DO have huge completely open paddocks attatched(built on later)- interestingly the gorillas only use them when they're fed in them- preferring to remain in the covered cages otherwise. There is also one breeding group there with similar covered and open air enclosures.
Where the cages score is in having all that roofspace with climbing equipment to allow them to utilise the whole space. Being roofed, the Gorillas feel completely SECURE too, unlike so many open areas they're reluctant to use(I'm not including Melbourne as nowadays its well wooded to provide the cover they like so much) The deep litter straw system at Howletts allows them to continually sort through it and forage etc. In the daytime the keepers feed them from gantry walkways on the rooftoops, the gorillas all climb up into the roof area to catch the food as it showers down on them, or pull the vegetables through the mesh- rather like if they were feeding in the trees... This bit is always good to watch and gives them valuable upper-body exercise and stimulation.
Where the cages AREN'T so good is;
1. At Howletts they are spacious but not ginormous- so the biggest groups there nowadays can look overcrowded. (This doesn't apply at the much larger Port Lympne park)
2. The original run of cages at Howletts, now over forty years old(!) is still in use with a new young breeding group- it is really archaic and looks cramped too...its certainly a bad exhibit. They seem to have stopped increasing the number of Gorillas or building any more new accomodation for them at present.
3. The night/sleeping areas consist of gloomy tiled 'halls' with many small shut-off dens, functional but not very attractive, and viewable only through dirty glass windows.
All I can say is the original design proved successful for breeding so they have stuck to it throughout. Remenber initially his park was a private concern- cages were simply functional for the animals rather than attractive for visitors. When he opened his gates, the attitude was- the enclosures were designed for the animals- not for you... The Gorillas probably would have bred anyway so I don't think the design of the enclosures has anything to do with that. In fact in the early years he lost several gorillas to illness, including his first silverback and then was short of a decent male for some years. So he started breeding them about ten years later than he would have done without those setbacks.
I wouldn't term these enclosures 'world-class' anymore, though everyone knows its still the top Gorilla breeding centre.
