Louisville Zoo Next big exhibit at Louisville Zoo...

I'm not really convinced by this; it looks a lot like the currently trendy fashion in western zoos to "replace concrete with fake rocks & fake surroundings" without actually improving a lot in terms of the animal husbandry.
You asked me in another thread what I consider a good Polar Bear exhibit; I think I gave the answer to that in one of the North American zoo threads, but let me summarize it: put the Polar Bears into a large naturalistic exhibit, like You would design for Brown Bears; let them climb trees, swim in large ponds and dig in the mud. Give them access to areas away from the public, to be able to raise their cubs quietly. Make it possible to seperate bears in adequate exhibits and offer multiple exhibits for surplus animals, females with cubs etc. They won't be as snow-white as the ones kept on concrete and artificial rocks, but they'd certainly be more content. And I'm pretty sure that this would be much cheaper than plans like the one above.
The Skandinavisk Dyrepark is going into the right direction:
Skandinavisk Dyrepark
 
Dyrepark does look good...

This exhibit (including the surronding ones), i.e. arctic theme, seems to be pretty close (to much to be coincidental) to Toledo Zoo's similar exhibit...
 
The most difficult mammal to design an exhibit for: the polar bear. The notion of maintaining a captive population of polar bears has been a constant theme on this forum, and there are not many easy answers. Even the so-called best enclosures sometimes don't offer enough enrichment for such wide-ranging carnivores. One problem, as in all zoo exhibits, is that occasionally there is more space devoted to human visitors than the actual zoo animals. San Diego Seaworld has a long corridor filled with fake tundra ice, a boat, fishing gear, etc that takes up probably as much space as the actual polar bear enclosure itself. Where's the conservation in that? The Louisville Zoo has plans that also contain a lot of planning for the human element.

Has anyone on this forum been to Detroit's Arctic "Ring of Life" exhibit, as it looks fantastic on their website. It won best new North American exhibit when it first opened.
 
Is that the exhibit with tunnels of glass for Seals to swim through the Polar Bears exhibit..?

Sand Diego Seaworld is to-for-profit IMO to consider a "zoo"...

Haven't been to America yet but so many zoos there that look, worth a look...
 
@NZ Jeremy: the tunnels that you are referring to are at the Detroit Zoo, and the exhibit is often hailed as one of the best for polar bears worldwide.
 
It looks quite similar to the new Predators of the Serengetti exhibit coming to Oregon Zoo...

Which will feature transparent tunnels with Mongooses able to run through the Caracal exhibit...

I wonder, will zoos more and more have prey species visible to predators as a means of stimulation to them both..?
 
I've written about that caracal/mongoose exhibit on here before, and am looking forward to May 2009 when it opens. Prey stimulation is a wonderful thing in zoos, as well as the rotation through exhibits. There are a handful of zoos (Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma being one of them) that rotate their animals through several different enclosures. Every time a zoo visitor walks up to the Asian forest section of the zoo in Point Defiance h/she never knows what will be in a particular exhibit. The animals are rotated up to three times a day into different enclosures, and often are let into exhibits where they can smell what would be their prey in the wild.
 
snowleopard said:
One problem, as in all zoo exhibits, is that occasionally there is more space devoted to human visitors than the actual zoo animals.
Click to expand...

While I disagree on the very first statement about the most difficult mammal to design an exhibit for (cetaceans like Blue Whales, specialised species like colugos, and "holy cows" like Elephants, Great apes...), I completely agree in terms of the quotation above; that's exactly what I fear said new exhibit will result in.

Prey stimulation however can backfire: see situation of mandrill & banded mongoose in Dresden, lions & parrots in Zurich and lions & meerkats in Schwerin; didn't work out the way it should...
Thumbs up for the rotation system-see also Zurich's Wolves & tigers.
 
@NZ Jeremy: interesting that the Point Defiance and Louisville Zoos rotate three of the same species (sumatran tiger, siamang gibbon and malayan tapir) and I'm a massive fan of such endeavours. To be able to have a series of interconnected exhibits leads to a lot more stimulation and enrichment for both zoo visitors and the captive animals.
 
Is there any evidence that this rotation is good for the animals? In particular one might imagine that being in very close proximity to a predator and surrounded by its smells might not be all that calming for a herbivore.
 
@NZ Jeremy: thanks for the link, and I've read that report before. That zoolex website is an amazing source of zoological based material.

Seeing all of the different zoos mentioned, and how the captive animals benefit tremendously from the extra enrichment and stimulation, then why aren't there more rotation exhibits? As the report outlines, it is cost that is the major concern. I've been to the Point Defiance Zoo twice and visitor appreciation is wildly successful, as there is indeed a sense of excitement when approaching an enclosure. One is never sure exactly which species will there on that particular day, and the benefits to the animals are clearly outlined in that 5-year study.
 
The report I posted seemed to suggest the animals were more active and healthy due to their rotation...

There are other factors to which the question can be asked, "Why not..?", e.g. adding substrate after defication periodically, animals apparently love having proper leaf litter in their enclosure...
 
snowleopard said:
There are a handful of zoos (Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma being one of them) that rotate their animals through several different enclosures. Every time a zoo visitor walks up to the Asian forest section of the zoo in Point Defiance h/she never knows what will be in a particular exhibit. The animals are rotated up to three times a day into different enclosures, and often are let into exhibits where they can smell what would be their prey in the wild.
Click to expand...

I'm not so sure about these exhibits (this or the one at Louisville zoo). Watching the animals, they behave no differently than those in non-rotated exhibits. And the result of the rotation is a "cage" barren of plants...what the anoa don't destroy the gibbons do, etc. The concept is terrific, but I wonder if it has been worked out successfully anywhere?

The Bronx Zoo started placing predator and prey side by side in the 1940s at the African savanna area. The nyala don't seem much motivated by the lions, and the lions only occasionally watch the nyala. In JungleWorld, the leopard and the langurs have no interest in each other.

Still, mongoose in a tube sounds like fun
 
snowleopard said:
@NZ Jeremy: thanks for the link, and I've read that report before. That zoolex website is an amazing source of zoological based material.

Seeing all of the different zoos mentioned, and how the captive animals benefit tremendously from the extra enrichment and stimulation, then why aren't there more rotation exhibits? As the report outlines, it is cost that is the major concern. I've been to the Point Defiance Zoo twice and visitor appreciation is wildly successful, as there is indeed a sense of excitement when approaching an enclosure. One is never sure exactly which species will there on that particular day, and the benefits to the animals are clearly outlined in that 5-year study.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that the research paper was presented by Jon Coe and (almost)all the exhibits discussed were designed by him and his associates.
 
@Zooplantman: good point about the Jon Coe designing team. However, surely captive animals having 2, 3 or 4 different exhibits to spend time in over decades has to be much more beneficial for them than remaining in the one enclosure for the rest of their lives? The two Sumatran tigers at Point Defiance Zoo have 3 exhibits that they rotate through, sometimes all in a single day. They scent mark each time they encounter a new enclosure, and can obviously smell the anoa, malayan tapir or siamang gibbons that had previously been inside a particular exhibit. It seems to me, and the research group that presented the paper, that this method of showcasing animals creates a more stimulating environment than the majority of zoo enclosures. As an added benefit zoo visitors never can be guaranteed what species out of 5 will be in a specific enclosure, and so there is a palpable sense of excitement when approaching the next exhibit within the zoo.
 
Hi snowleapoard,

I quite agree. I think it can be done well, I just don't think we've got it yet.
From my experience, I'll bet that to do it properly ended up costing more money, space and keeper time than the zoos have been willing to invest. It's quite possible that the oroginal plans were brilliant but not in the end adopted. So instead the animals are run through several enclosures, quietly trashing them.
 
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