old-school zoo

C

Ciololo

Member
Greetings All,
first of all i wanna say that i want the best possible conditions for all the animals, naturalistic exhibits and etc..
but in the past few months i have big interest in old-school style exibits with cages, wire mesh
i like to watch how some zoo's creates exhibit in small space with a lot of branches and plants. I found a lot interesting photos, most of them in europe like:
Outdoor monkey cages in Poland lodz zoo
http://www.zoochat.com/461/outdoor-monkey-cages-94125/
or Inside the old Primate house in Vienna zoo
http://www.zoochat.com/107/inside-old-primate-house-75155/

So if you have some thoughts or examples of old style zoo's just name them.

p.s. thx zoochat for impresive photo gallery and good luck in 2010years!!!
 
Ah, I like this sort of thing too :D
London zoos reptile and bird house for example, I know they're not really "old school" but their architecture certainly is. I prefer zoos like that, not theme parks and "window displays" lol.
Edit: By the way, this thread WILL cause controversy, I imagine among people from the US :p
 
Well, I consider it a guilty pleasure. I love the look of beautiful old zoos, the architecture, the detail. I am not comfortable watching animals in such confines, but I still love the style!:o
 
I don't know, the Vienna monkey house doesn't really look cramped (assuming there's outdoor enclosures too), I've definitely seen smaller.
 
As long as they provide a happy life for the animals that live inside them, then I'm fine with them. Howletts and Port Lympne are the best example of this, and the fact that Cotswold blends it's enclosures with it's estate setting is one of the best things about it. Infact, my top 6 collections are either mostly or partially designed with regards to function: Marwell, the New Forest, Longleat, Port Lympne, Howletts and Cotswold.

The best case IMO is when a simple, functional exhibit seems natural without ££££ and fake rock. These include Marwell's African Valley, Port Lympne's Tapir Paddock and the New Forest's Lynx Enclosure.

Here's a post related to it I made in another similar thread:
OK, here's something 'revolutionary': I actually like the so-called ugly, unimmersive enclosures in the UK that still manage to fulfill the animals with a satisfying life. I've been to the immersive zoos like Chester and London, but I'd far rather go to Howletts and Port Lymnpe to see they're big green iron gorillariums and wood-and-wire small cat and primate enclosures. It fills me with a pleasant nostalgia, being able to see wild animals behaving happilly and naturally in what I can see is a piece of British countryside or city park and not the heart of a rainforest. It's far more leisurely and nice watching gorillas in a walled kitchen garden at Howletts, following tamarins jumping about in cages set within the Hall Garden at Marwell, seeing rhino and zebra graze placidly in front of oak trees and Bradwell Grove Manor at Cotswold Wildlife Park, then walking through a commerciallised, crowded 'super' zoo filled with exhibits of fake rock and hotwire and the smell of hot dog stalls not far away. Yes, natural exhbits are nice, but should be used relativley sparingly, for the greater sense of thrill it creates when one sees and ultimately the zoo's own funds. Not only that, is that sometimes it just doesn't work to the proposed effect. Take Marwell's African Valley: In summer it's glorious, the trees are blooming, the sun is shining off the waterhole, the grass is long and that savanna-yellow colour and the animals graze and run with content; it really isn't too far off the serengeti for what it makes. In winter, when it's cold, windy, overcast, the grass is much greener from rainfall and the animals try to stay down. Where did that African Savannah go?

My shot: Use immersion sparingly for good effect, and if you don't have it already, try to get a wider perspective on enclosures that aren't: Bear in mind zoos are for animals, not people.
Click to expand...

Of course, the REALLY traditional enclosures are NOT suitable.
 
We're talking about the REALLY traditional ones, like the pictures linked above. I don't think it's fair to say they're all unsuitable.
 
I suppose the real old-school example is the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. It's been a long time since I was there, but I remember the atmoshere of the old buildings vividly.
Of course it would be unacceptable today to keep animals in the same way that they were kept 100 years ago (with one or two exceptions, perhaps). This doesn't mean that the old enclosures cannot be used, provided that they can be refurbished and a suitable species can be identified.
In some cases they can be left unoccupied as reminders of the old days, or given alternative functions like the old raven's cage and the Decimus Burton camel house at ZSL.
In general, I still think that zoo buildings should be built with the expectation of demolition within 40 years.

Alan
 
At the Lincoln Park Zoo, the Bird House was built in 1904, the Lion House, 1912; the Reptile House (now a food court), 1923 and the Primate House, 1927. We're a city known for its architecture. These buildings will never be torn down.

The last old-fashioned cage on the east end of the Primate House was torn down when the Regenstein Center for African Apes was built in 2004. The cage wasn't used but was there to show visitors how animals used to be exhibited.
 
Both Berlin Zoos are totally old-school zoos ; no wonder, the director is a man from the past and collects animals as like as other people stamps...I know, lovers of biiiig animal COLLECTIONS lloving both places, because for these people its more important so see diffrent rare species as much as possible than a good welfare of them...
 
Zebraduiker said:
I know, lovers of biiiig animal COLLECTIONS lloving both places, because for these people its more important so see diffrent rare species as much as possible than a good welfare of them...
Click to expand...
Not for me, but I still like the place. Loads of it seriously out of date but some of it is fine.
 
i remember my childhood, i was grabbing a lot of candies from candy shop and was running near a lot of cages with monkeys, damn it is shame to tell this but most of my candies was used not for myself:D Now i am zookeeper in same zoo and i am happy when my animal is sleeping somewhere in the brush, he is safe and has place to hide.
But i think in these day's zoo's attracting not that much kids like before, because kids have less patience like us, they want everything close and clear.
 
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