Underwater viewing for mammals

[Chlidonias]

I was just watching the freshwater episode of Planet Earth which had a great sequence of crab-eating macaques foraging underwater in the Sundarbans, and I thought it would be interesting to see what underwater viewing options there are in zoos for anything other than the traditional aquatic mammals. There are loads of exhibits with underwater viewing for pinnipeds, manatees, polar bears, otters, etc, but what about crab-eating macaques, Allen's swamp monkeys, grizzly bears, bush dogs, capybaras....

Links to photos would be good too.

 

[reduakari]

I was just watching the freshwater episode of Planet Earth which had a great sequence of crab-eating macaques foraging underwater in the Sundarbans, and I thought it would be interesting to see what underwater viewing options there are in zoos for anything other than the traditional aquatic mammals. There are loads of exhibits with underwater viewing for pinnipeds, manatees, polar bears, otters, etc, but what about crab-eating macaques, Allen's swamp monkeys, grizzly bears, bush dogs, capybaras....

Links to photos would be good too.

When the San Francisco zoo opened its "Primate Discovery Center" in the mid-1980s, it included an enclosure for crab-eating macaques with a pool with a small underwater porthole glass viewing panel. The idea was to put live crabs in to encourage the macaques to display their natural aquatic foraging behaviors. In the usually frigid fog banks that frequently envelop the zoo, I don't know if any monkey was ever tempted to take the plunge.

The crab-eaters are long gone from the collection, the pool drained and filled with mulch, and the viewport covered with a metal plate.

Reid Park Zoo has underwater views of its capybara pool, and many zoos show grizzlies underwater (Seattle, San Francisco, Cheyenne Mountain and Minnesota, among others).

 

[kiang]

Leipzig zoo has its underwater viewing in the elephant house

[ame="http://www.flickr.com/photos/icomedia/262112817/"]Water Elephant | Flickr - Photo Sharing![/ame]

And Wuppertal's Baird's tapir

 

[kiang]

And jaguars at Jacksonville

 

[Terp]

I really like this question, great way to single out some truly unique exhibits. Problem is, been racking my brain and I can't think of any others.

The closest thing I can think of is the fishing cat exhibits on Asia trail here in D.C. Marginal example though, as I've never seen the cats fishing there, let alone actually in the water. Small pools too, nothing like the examples kiang gave above.

 

[reduakari]

Malayan tapirs at Omaha; tigers in Leipzig, Bronx, Virginia, Adelaide; jaguars in Seattle...

 

[nicholas]

The amur tigers at Bronx Zoo have an excellent pool with viewing window.

I'm surprised that not more zoos have underwater viewing for crab eating macaques. I can assure you that they swim regardless of the weather. Especially youngsters.

 

[Zooish]

The elephant one at Leipzig is a good start. Waiting for the day when some zoo will be ambitious (and rich) enough to do something like this:

River Safari Singapore will have a crab-eating macaque exhibit (Mekong River zone) and from the plans it looks like there will be underwater viewing.

The proboscis monkeys at the Singapore Zoo don't quite fancy getting wet though (the youngsters very occasionally take a dip), which is a pity given the nice underwater viewing opportunities.

 

[Chlidonias]

those tapir and jaguar videos are great! That's the sort of thing I was thinking of, showing animals in ways you wouldn't normally think of them.

River Safari Singapore will have a crab-eating macaque exhibit (Mekong River zone) and from the plans it looks like there will be underwater viewing.

I shall look forward to that.

 

[DejaVuKatz]

Bush gardens has underwater tiger viewing.

This one is in Cleavland merto parks zoo. its a beaver and wolf mix species exhibit.

I want to say this was for Minnesota zoos grizzly coast.

This is a seal exhibit from somewhere in Shinagawa japan. its a full tunnel complex with a hub. I really have to start labeling my photos with were i got them from. X.x

 

[Steve Robinson]

showing animals in ways you wouldn't normally think of them.

Having seen the diving Crab-eating Macaque in Singapore Zoo's stage show one year, we came back with great ideas to incorporate a glass fronted pool in our Crab-eating Macaque enclosure then under construction.

Unfortunately, the cost of constructing that one feature was going to exceed the cost of the entire enclosure construction so the feature was deferred.

It still hasn't been built but remains firmly on the "to do" list.

 

[BeardsleyZooFan]

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay and the Bronx Zoo both have great underwater viewing areas. Unfortunately, I've never seen them swim there. The only place I've seen a tiger swim was at Lowry Park Zoo, and they don'y have underwater viewing there

 

[headkeeper]

Tigers at Australia Zoo

 

[Sun Wukong]

I remember an underwater view for moose in a small German zoo. There's a small underwater view at the indoor quarter of the capybara exhibit at Tierpark Hellabrunn in Munich. Several Brown bear exhibits sport underwater views, like the ones at Woodland Park or Augsburg zoo. And now I have to get through my photos and memories to come up with some more...

 

[Jurek7]

This is a type of exhibit which is perhaps most expensive failure in zoos, considering how much it costs and how rarely animals use it.

Cats and bears (including polar bears) rarely swim unless they have to. Sad fact. So underwater viewing is usually an expensive waste of money. Some zoos cracked it, and especially put food into water. My best observation of bear underwater was in a small Swiss zoo which doesn't have underwater viewing. But it apparently put some food underwater (possibly sunk some container with food) making male bear dive, emerge and splash all over for over an hour. Attracting a crowd of visitors.

The same applies to tapirs, capybaras, bushdogs, moose and many other mammals which sometimes get underwater viewing. Reason - hardly any visitor ever sees the animal going underwater.

Another problem is water quality. Most European zoos have biological filters. Plankton blooms in their pools, especially in summer, so that bears, sealions, hippos, whatever are invisible unless hey almost touch the viewing window.

Hippos in turn prefer to rest in shallow water. Only one American zoo I know cracked the trick. It made underwater island sloping backwards, so that hippos rest underwater with faces turned to the public. In contrast, Cologne zoo offers distant view of hippos backsides.

For me, the most interesting were ducks and geese underwater in hippo pools. I never expected that a normal, swimming goose is bent. Breast sinks deeply, body is at the angle of 45 degrees with legs higher, and the neck is bent backwards.

 

[Arizona Docent]

Mention of ducks and geese reminds me of the diving ducks pool in the walk-in aviary at Polar Bear Plunge in San Diego, which has great underwater viewing. Also someone said bears do not use pools much, but when I was at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo (Colorado) in January with snow all over and very cold out, the grizzly bear still went in the glass fronted pool for quite a while - lot of fun. Our capybara at Reid Park (Arizona) also goes in its glass-fronted pool quite often. Our new elephant exhibit, currently halfway through construction, was going to have underwater viewing, but alas that was cut out to cut costs (bummer - that would have been awesome).

 

[Sun Wukong]

I agree @Jurek7, however: when the animal is inside the water, the crowds around the underwater views tend to be huge-especially during hot summer days..

Ducks underwater? Gotta love Heidelberg Zoo then...

-Amur tigers, Leipzig Zoo.
-I can't remember correctly, but doesn't Miami's Monkey Jungle also have an underwater view at the "Wild Monkey Swimming Pool"?

 

[Callimico]

Monkey Jungle has a short concrete wall between the visitors and the water. No underwater viewing is present.

- Palm Beach has black bear underwater viewing
- Miami has a malayan water monitor underwater viewing.

 

[Sun Wukong]

Thanks for clearing that up @matthew. Now I have to remember where I saw the diving monkeys from an underwater pov...

 

[AnaheimZoo]

That elephant video isn't something you see every day! Interesting post, Chlidonias! And DejaVuKatz, you'd better find the link to that Japanese seal exhibit! That's amazing!