North America's Gorilla Exhibits

snowleopard

snowleopard

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According to ISIS there are a dozen zoos in North America that have 10 or more gorillas. I have visited 10 out of those 12 zoos, and can anyone post a review of the gorilla habitats at either the Gladys Porter Zoo or Louisville Zoo? Are they adequate in terms of size and enrichment for the number of apes that they hold?


Zoo: Gorillas: Exhibit Quality:

Bronx Zoo - 21 (outstanding pair of exhibits)
Zoo Atlanta - 21 (four above average habitats)
Columbus Zoo - 14 (decent Howletts-style enclosure)
Gladys Porter Zoo - 13
Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo - 13 (four exhibits that are of average quality)
Lincoln Park Zoo - 12 (terrific ape complex - rotating chimps)
Louisville Zoo - 11
San Diego Zoo - 11 (excellent Gorilla Tropics)
Woodland Park Zoo - 11 (two 30 year-old, excellent exhibits)
Cincinnati Zoo - 10 (disappointing moated enclosure)
Oklahoma City Zoo - 10 (good size, above average exhibit)
Toledo Zoo - 10 (average habitat with large field)


I have visited approximately 50 zoos in North America, and close to 30 of those zoos have gorillas in their collection. Here are my personal top 6 gorilla exhibits in North America, as these are habitats that stand out from the rest as being truly exceptional.

1- Bronx Zoo
2- Disney's Animal Kingdom
3- San Diego Zoo
4- Woodland Park Zoo
5- Zoo Atlanta
6- Lincoln Park Zoo


The 3 worst gorilla exhibits that I've seen in North America?

1- Brookfield Zoo (entirely indoors and in Tropic World = FAKE)
2- National Zoo (varied terrain but overall quite disappointing)
3- Pittsburgh Zoo (indoors is cramped, outdoors is large but bare)
 
Hi snowleopard, it would be interesting to hear what your critiera is for judging.

Outstanding, excellent. above average ect?

A few points worth mentioning.

"Bronx zoo outstanding" Bronx have always produced allot of gorillas. Never it seems taking responsability for the oversupply of males. Exactly how many months are they indoors for?

Loncoln Park. Great outdoors that is not used to its full potential. Primarily due to weather maybe! Although not as big a problem at Howlettes. Indoors is actually really poor on privacy for gorillas! Thoose huge viewing windows are totally against what we know gorillas like.

Pittsburgh. Is this the worst place in the world for a gorilla.

I also think a thread on North America's Gorilla Exhibits, is not complete without a mention of Gorilla Haven. yes only 2 gorillas at the momment.

Looking forward to reading this thread. Great idea mate.
 
zooman said:
"Bronx zoo outstanding" Bronx have always produced allot of gorillas. Never it seems taking responsability for the oversupply of males. Exactly how many months are they indoors for?
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I don't know about your other questions, zooman but this one I can provide assistance on. The gorillas are inside situationally for 4 to 5 months a year. This is very dependent on the weather. Mild years involve more outdoor gorilla time while harsher winters mean more times. In general, December to March-ish are 'inside' months.

What do you mean when you say they never seem to take responsibility for their males? In my mind, that type of statement would indicate some level of mistreatment (which I don't think you mean), which isn't the case. Thank you for clarifying.


On the snowleopard's post though, I agree that National is a highly disappointing enclosure.
 
I assume zooman is refering to the fact that the Bronx Zoo does not maintain a bachelor troop of gorillas.
 
I don't know enough about gorilla keeping but what is the value/detriment of keeping a bachelor troop?
 
I really don't think weather should be taken into account, because most zoos don't have the luxury of being in a climate like San Diego. Just because Bronx Zoo's gorillas have to spend a period of time inside in the winter shouldn't handicap it for being #1. Bronx Zoo's Congo Gorilla Forest most definitely the #1 Gorilla exhibit in the nation and maybe the best exhibit of any kind in the nation.
 
By the way Scott, I 100% agree with your list of great gorilla exhibits. I just visited Gorilla Tropics and loved it, and the cascading waterfall really makes for a convincing African Rain forest.
 
A gorilla troop basically consists of a silverback male, his harem of females and the resulting offspring. However when breeding any animal there is often a 50:50 ratio of males to females. While every zoo would like to have a breeding troop of gorillas, it is just not possible due to the gender ratio created through breeding....thus a surplus of males. It is rather unethical for the zoo community to just dispose of these males, so the responsible thing would be to create bachelor troops to maintain these males.

Now, I dont know personally who gets to deceide what zoo gets bachelor troops. But it is generally known that zoos who wish to hold gorillas should have two seperate enclosures, one to house a breeding troop and one to house a bachelor troop. It just may be that there are not enough males for every zoo to house a bachelor troop, and it would be better for the Bronx to have two breeding troops, this may just as well be something the SSP reccommends.

Therefore it should be noted that while SSPs do only make reccommendations, it is in the best interest of the facilities and the species involved to follow these reccommendations. And captive breeding programs are set in place to insure that zoos as a whole do take responsibility for their surplus offspring. While the Bronx may not be housing a bachelor troop of gorillas at this time, there will probably come a time when the SSP will ask the Bronx to do so. Until then, the responsible thing for the Bronx to do is follow SSP reccommendations...thus one can say that the zoo is responsible for its surplus.
 
Best:
Bronx
Seattle
DAK
Atlanta
San Diego
Oklahoma
Busch Gardens
Dallas
Louisville

Best Indoor:
Lincoln Park
Louisville


Worst:
Como Park
Boston
Brookfield
Pittsburgh
National
Albuquerque
Toronto
Calgary
Columbus (yes, good breeding but terrible from a habitat/visitor perspective)
Ft. Worth

Most generic (yawn):
Philadelphia
Los Angeles
Jacksonville
Memphis
Denver
Colorado Springs
Cincinnati

Europe (limited information):
Leipzig
 
Great list, I would assume the lists are in order? as Bronx is definitely the best gorilla habitat anywhere
 
Normally I would defend my zoo however I do agree while Columbus is by far the most famous in terms of gorilla achievements and breeding our exhibits aren't that great. Considering how old the Howlett's style outdoor exhibit is, I would cut it some slack and while it not natural it provides great climbing opportunities that some zoos dont offer. Considering there are never more than five gorillas in the outdoor yard at a time I think its adequate for our gorillas not an outstanding exhibit. However I do think that the indoor exhibit is very engaging. You can view gorillas of all ages (3-52) in a 360 degree exhibit. Most zoos dont offer such great gorilla indoor exhibits and while ours aren't huge they offer again lots of climbing opportunities for the semi-arboreal apes. However I do hope whenever they choose to revamp the African Forest region they can build a much more natural exhibit.

I've also thought it would be fun to let the gorillas in the amazing bonobo exhibit. The only problem is there isn't a chute to connect the gorilla building to the bonobo exhibit, and frankly I dont think the gorillas would want to come back in after spending lots of time in a great exhibit.

@snowleopard - The Louisville exhibit is excellent, it is a lot like Toledo, they both lack major climbing structures but the exhibit is very natural. Its on Zoolex.

ZooLex Exhibit
 
Although the Columbus Zoo gorilla exhibit lacks naturalism, it provides a great life for the gorillas as they have loads of enrichment and climbing opportunities. To sum it up, they are given ample opportunities to show natural behaviors in a very unnatural setting.
 
I'm surprised Hogle didn't make your list of either worst or most generic. Also, I'm wondering how SF's gorilla exhibit ranks on your list?
 
I haven't seen Hogle.

SF is harder to rate for me--it opened about the same time as Woodland Park's, and although it is deeply flawed (ugly concrete walls, visitors surrounding gorilla space), it was one of the very first to allow gorillas access to tall living trees, and is fairly large. So it was simultaneously ahead of its time and instantly outdated! With some modifications it could perhaps be a good exhibit, but as it stands now is somewhere between generic and bad.

Also have not seen "The Zoo" where apparently sitatungas could swim in the gorilla moat and share space with them--that would be interesting....

I forgot to add Milwaukee to the list of "the worst": it's pretty terrible.
 
I've seen the Louisville exhibit four times. It's a really nice one. There are some very large outdoor yards with grass and climbing structures. The odd thing is, I've NEVER seen a single gorilla in them. They are always inside when I visit. The indoor facility is cool, I'd just like to see them outside sometime. The pygmy hippo exhibit next to the building is neat as well.
 
I'd probably also toss Audubon and St Louis in the blah category. They weren't awful, just not too memorable. Cleveland's was pretty unimpressive, too. Just two gorillas out behind the Primate, Cat and Aquatics bldg, which happens to be one of the most institutional zoo buildings I've ever seen.

The worst I've ever seen bar-none was the old Pre-Jungle Trails Ape House in Cincy. Gorilla World was open, but they always had a few in the building. It was one of the worst zoo building's I've ever visited by far.
 
okapikpr said:
I assume zooman is refering to the fact that the Bronx Zoo does not maintain a bachelor troop of gorillas.
Click to expand...

Thanks okapikpr, thats exactly what l mean.
 
BlackRhino said:
... the cascading waterfall really makes for a convincing African Rain forest.
Click to expand...

Totally off topic here, but I have to smile at the number of rainforest exhibits with waterfalls. After spending six months in Central Africa, I saw a total of three (3) waterfalls, only one of which was a sheer drop (of 15 feet) - the other two (both larger) were more like rapids. Are all of the zoo waterfalls skewing public perception? (One of my major pet peeves: waterfalls that emerge from the highest point of an exhibit. Where is the water supposed to come from, I ask?!)

And I do feel somewhat obligated to pipe up about the Toronto exhibit ... while the indoor theming may be a bit weird (logging camp), few other indoor exhibits/holdings that I've seen give gorillas full natural substrate (including dirt, mulch, and grass) while indoors. The semi-off-exhibit dayroom allows the gorillas to remain together as a group when not out in "the rainforest", and they are separated only for training and some feeds. The outdoor exhibit is a definite eyesore, though - no contest.
 
Yeah, I've always been rather peeved at "waterfalls from nowhere" The one in Phoenix's Forest of Uco particularly bugs me because you walk all the way around the boulder from which it springs.
 
Well, I think the waterfall fits in very nicely into SD's Gorilla Tropics.

@Ungalate: Did you ever spend time in West Africa?
 
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