"Urban" style exhibits?

TheMightyOrca

TheMightyOrca

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
Are there any zoos that have exhibits designed to replicate urban environments? Like, for animals that are commonly found in cities, towns, and other human settlements.
 
I always thought an urban look would be interesting. There are quite a few animals that could be displayed that way.
 
elefante said:
I always thought an urban look would be interesting. There are quite a few animals that could be displayed that way.
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I was watching a documentary about monkeys in India (can't remember if the program was on macaques or langurs) that live in towns and cities. They got very, very good about stealing food from markets. I thought it would be kind of cool if a zoo set up a monkey exhibit that looked like a street in India, maybe with "market stalls" that the monkeys could eat from.

And speaking as an American living in a city, I'm quite familiar with a number of species that could be displayed in an urban-style exhibit. The light on my balcony has the side busted out, and a few different bird species have nested their and had babies. Soooo cute. I got to watch them grow up. :) When I used to have to walk through the campus at night, I'd see raccoons, and they were often doing something interesting. They're quite clever. Though I suppose urban-style exhibits would be most popular if done with exotic species; seeing a skunk walk around a porch isn't that interesting when you see that stuff a few nights a week already.
 
3 exhibits spring to mind directly :
1 ) The City moat aquarium at Artis - Amsterdam Zoo complete with bike
2 ) The City moat aquarium at Antwerp Zoo - some kind of copy of Amsterdam
3 ) The Sewer system rat enclosure at Emmen Zoo - was quite famous when it first opened, doesn't exist anymore as far as I know.
 
You could add Hanover Zoo in Germany. Asian animals are in mock Indian ruins, Australian animals in some mock outback station, African animals with some Arabian ruins, North American animals is some fairytale 'how a German man imagines Wild West'. Plus a toilet themed on a German farm when you can pee into milk cans.
 
Bristol has 'Upstairs /Downstairs' for two Rat species in their Nocturnal House- Brown Rats in basement, Black Rats in roof space. You climb a tiny staircase to reach the 'attic'. Quite clever. I like to see the Black Rats particularly as they are not often displayed.
 
Examples:

Regarding: "Sewer system rat enclosure"-copied and still existing in various German zoos (among others, Dresden).

Many "mice houses" in European zoos, usually depicting nostalgic kitchens and inhabitated by house mice. Or attics with black rats (Salzburg, Heidelberg or Bristiol as mentioned above).

Another zoo with recently opened mock "Asian temple" exhibits: Osnabrueck.

Plenty of mock farms in European and American zoos.

Domestic cat exhibit at Vyškov
 
There is often a cockroach exhibit using kitchen cupboards, i think this could be extended as you say mightyorca to include the ubiquitous Rat black for Asian exhibits, house geckos and monkeys, who could have the run of the place with visitors in walk through caged passages. looking into rooms over run with the rats then roaches and other related species including toads which are often found near to man.
 
Man, these all sound so cool!

Apparently the Texas State Aquarium has an exhibit designed to show how marine life takes back over an abandoned oil platform. I haven't seen it, though, I guess it's a more recent exhibit and I haven't been to that aquarium since I was a kid.
 
TheMightyOrca said:
Man, these all sound so cool!

Apparently the Texas State Aquarium has an exhibit designed to show how marine life takes back over an abandoned oil platform. I haven't seen it, though, I guess it's a more recent exhibit and I haven't been to that aquarium since I was a kid.
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Yes, it does.
http://www.zoochat.com/1542/2010-oil-rig-reef-292490/
http://www.zoochat.com/1542/2010-oil-rig-reef-292485/
The tank extends over the visitor as well as in front and to the side
 
London zoo has an exhibit for Australian tree frogs that replicates a bathroom. The tree frogs can often be seen sitting on the shower rail but tend to stay away from the toilet and sink.
 
The new skunk exhibit in Smithsonian National Zoo's Small Mammal House is the replica of the front of a country house. The skunks can go inside the front door and underneath the porch area. There's a view into this area from the side window.
 
blospz said:
The new skunk exhibit in Smithsonian National Zoo's Small Mammal House is the replica of the front of a country house. The skunks can go inside the front door and underneath the porch area. There's a view into this area from the side window.
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... That sounds absolutely adorable.
 
One of the exhibits in Taronga Zoo's nocturnal house is themed as a suburban backyard, with a porch, rubbish bins, washing line and BBQ. It holds Tawny Frogmouth, Possum and Bandicoots, and does display these species in quite a cool way - I think its difference means people spend a little longer at it than they would if it was naturalistic like the rest of the house's exhibits.
 
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