What is your favorite enclosure to photograph at?

[cloudedleopard611]

For me its the prairie dog exhibit at the St. Louis Zoo. It's just so perfect. The animals are a really at a really easy distance, the animals are always active and are constantly interacting with each other and things in their environment, they are a very nice size for photography, there's no obstructive barriers to worry about, and the angle is great! It also seems to lend itself to interesting shadows that can make for interesting compositions.

 

[birdsandbats]

Any free-flight aviary.

 

[Lafone]

Purely on enclosure layout and access and lack of mesh my favourites are mongoose enclosures at Cotswold - I can spend hours watching the dwarf or larger mongoose.

I also really enjoy the corsac foxes at Hamerton - despite the silvery mesh they are amazing to take pictures of and to watch in general.

 

[cloudedleopard611]

Purely on enclosure layout and access and lack of mesh my favourites are mongoose enclosures at Cotswold - I can spend hours watching the dwarf or larger mongoose.

I also really enjoy the corsac foxes at Hamerton - despite the silvery mesh they are amazing to take pictures of and to watch in general.

Cool! Mongooses are such fun subjects.

 

[cloudedleopard611]

Any free-flight aviary.

I love those kinds of exhibits so much!

 

[robreintjes]

I love the exhibits of the bears especcially the brown bears in Zoom Erlebniswelt Gelschenkirchen in Germany. They are big, with natural overgrown substrate and nicely decorated. You have different viewing points, clear or through glass and from different directions. The last is nice because you have more opportunities with sunlight in your back throughout the day.
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[cloudedleopard611]

I love the exhibits of the bears especcially the brown bears in Zoom Erlebniswelt Gelschenkirchen in Germany. They are big, with natural overgrown substrate and nicely decorated. You have different viewing points, clear or through glass and from different directions. The last is nice because you have more opportunities with sunlight in your back throughout the day.
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Cool! Bears do make for really good subjects! They can have some fun expressive faces.

 

[Zoo Birding]

Any free-flight aviary.

Here here!

My favorite aviaries so far are both of San Francisco's aviaries, Fresno Chaffee's Tropical Rainforest Aviary, and even Micke Grove's Mediterranean Aviary is beautiful and relaxing.

I would say Safari West but there's a time limit Brookfield's many aviaries are weirdly configured, as is Lincoln Park's bird house.

While I'm impressed with the sizes and I'm all for it for the bird's well-being, all of San Diego's are very big (except their Hummingbird Aviary) that you'd need to spend nearly the entire day just to get glimpses at all their birds. San Diego Safari Park has a hidden aviary that's very well planted but I couldn't spot any of their smaller birds in there; the second flight in the same building have larger birds that are more easier to spot.

 

[Zoo Birding]

Personally, I'm a fan of any mixed species exhibits, especially if they're with animals that would love together in the wild.

I know for large mammals, there's individual and spacial consideration that needs to be accounted for, especially since I've heard zebras can be particularly temperamental. I remember as a kid, their giraffes, Grévy's zebras, and ostriches all shared the same space. It wasn't until I saw a manual about mixed species exhibits that some of the animals were injured or killed because of incompatibility.

 

[Sphenisciologist]

Gonna have to go with Penguin & Puffin Coast at the Saint Louis Zoo. There’s no glass walls between you and the birds, so taking nice pictures of them is much easier.

 

[robreintjes]

Gonna have to go with Penguin & Puffin Coast at the Saint Louis Zoo. There’s no glass walls between you and the birds, so taking nice pictures of them is much easier.

In Europe in Tierpark Hagenbeck, Hamburg Germany you have the same situation. It's al little bit dark over there (and cold), but the pinguins are sometimes within a meter from the visitors. In Pairi Daiza Belgium they opened a new enclosure for penguins, which is much lighter. Very nice underwater viewings, but without glass above the waterlevel.