Worst Exhibit

[Hadley]

The 1960's Dudley Ape House used to house all three species; Gorilla, Orangutan and Chimpanzee. Latterly its only been used for orangutans and the dividing walls of the three outdoor enclosures have been knocked through.

They've been talking about either upgrading, or replacing this House for close on twenty five years or more, but so far to no effect. The inside areas are terribly gloomy by today's standards. I think perhaps it really will be demolished sometime soon as they have a multi-million pound major renovation scheme planned for the zoo..

I'm afraid Dudley has always struck me as a very depressing zoo, even on a fine day...

In the masterplan press release a two-storey Orang house was proposed, it could turn out to be nothing I guess, I can't actually imagine how the current house would have looked with Gorillas and chimpanzees as well. The current chimp area seems quite new, were they in this ape house previous to that?
It reminds me of Chessington's old ape house, by the time I saw it the chimps and Gorillas had moved to the then new cages now holding just the gorillas, and two very sorry looking orangs had the run of each walled compartment of the moated enclosure.

 

[Chlidonias]

A duirnal lemur species of equivalent size would never be kept in that sort of space. Granted, they are a delicate species, but again diurnal lemurs, some equally rare, are given access to fresh air and living vegetation in zoos as a matter of course. A similar thing happens with douracoulis, kept completely indoors in small exhibits compared to say, Callitrichids. Also, the acoustics of the public area, and the opening and closing of the doors at each end just gives me the impression that there is a great deal of disturbance for these animals as visitors traipse through (given that the male is a very nervous animal anyway).

unfortunately nocturnal animals always seem to come off the worst in zoo design. They almost always are kept in areas that are far too small, even in zoos where everything else is kept in large enclosures. And nocturnal animals in general are much more sensitive to stress from noises meaning they are often hidden from view anyway because of the amount of noise they are subjected to from visitors (not to mention the constant flashes from cameras). I like nocturnal animals of course, but it always makes me a bit sad seeing them in zoos.

 

[Nigel]

Apart from the Zoo at Kuala Krai in Malaysia -- that whole zoo should be closed down -- the large indoor tropical house at Seoul Grand Zoo gets no maintanance and has no ventilation -- it literally stinks !!

Closer to home I would nominate Wellington Zoos Sunbear enclosure -- too small , very narrow , and nothing to prevent boredom of its intelligent inhabitants

 

[patrick]

Closer to home I would nominate Wellington Zoos Sunbear enclosure -- too small , very narrow , and nothing to prevent boredom of its intelligent inhabitants

yet oddly they are one of the few zoos in the world that can breed sunbear!!

 

[Nigel]

Wellington Sun bears

....... you are right , Patrick

perhaps it is because there is no other stimulation that makes them breed successfully ? ( nothing else to do except pace back and forth .... )

 

[Chlidonias]

did you see those enclosures before they were used for sun bears? American black bear on one half and Asian black on the other (from memory; they could have been other species). They were basically just narrow concrete steps going down the slope to the moat.

 

[Pertinax]

In the masterplan press release a two-storey Orang house was proposed, it could turn out to be nothing I guess, I can't actually imagine how the current house would have looked with Gorillas and chimpanzees as well. were the chimps in this ape house previous to that?
It reminds me of Chessington's old ape house, by the time I saw it the chimps and Gorillas had moved to the then new cages now holding just the gorillas, and two very sorry looking orangs had the run of each walled compartment of the moated enclosure.

1.I've seen various plans in the past to extend or replace Dudley's apehouse- so far nothing...

2. Yes, the chimps lived in Dudley's Ape House too. There were four.(1.3).
one female died so latterly it was a trio. The pair of the Gorillas occupied the enclosure at the 'near' end plus the two larger indoor cages. THen Chimpanzee(one out plus one inside) Then Orangutans(pair) at the other end.
(The younger current female 'Jaz' is a daughter of the original male 'Joe')

3. When the new chimp enclosure was opened, the two old females were moved to London in exchange for their large group of females(but no male)
Dudley's original male 'Pepe' was added to the group but no breeding occurred before he died a couple of years back. I think he was intimidated by being a single male in this stranger group of females. I cannot understand why Dudley do not add two or three males to make a proper natural grouping- I thought they wanted a big breeding group there...?

4. The Dudley Ape House was modelled I think on the one at Bronx Zoo, New York which also had moated outdoor yards.

5. Chessington's Ape House was modelled on Dudley's- each time the design got smaller -with the nadir being Chessington's ridiculously tiny enclosure. The Gorillas Baffia and Kumba had to live in it for a while even as adults. The keeper told me recently that the female Baffia would spend all day on the only platform to keep away from him. Consequently she has a fear of males generally and has never bred(she now lives alone again with Kumba in their old age, nowadays they are quite compatible of course)

 

[Pertinax]

Correction- the female 'Baffia' did breed once, so I was told by the Chessington keeper. It was with the Jersey male (also Kumba) who lived there some years. He trapped her in a corner, mated her and she concieved- from that one mating. She miscarried. it never happened again

 

[MARK]

One of the worst exhibits that i have ever seen were the old bear pits at London zoo also the Polar bear exhibit at Whipsnade was quite bad

 

[Pertinax]

unfortunately nocturnal animals always seem to come off the worst in zoo design. They almost always are kept in areas that are far too small,

You don't have them in New Zealand I know, but the Syrian Golden Hamster is a small rodent which has become an enormously popular pet in the Uk, probably also Europe and other places too. Actually they are not particularly good pets as they are very nocturnal and are grumpy and apt to bite if woken quickly during the daytime.

The sad thing is, apart from when let out by the owner, they're normally kept in quite small cages, perhaps with an exercise wheel. Yet I've been told their wild relatives have been mapped as travelling up to SEVEN MILES in the course of a night. I hate to think how stressed they must be being closely confinement- though nobody thinks about this aspect of course.

 

[Chlidonias]

I read something once about a similar thing with rabbits. They are nice and placid in their little tiny hutches during the day but come nightfall they get really agitated because they have no proper room to move around in.

 

[Writhedhornbill]

Would the same apply to guinea pigs? I've just been out to feed them at the time of this post, and they were curled up asleep.

 

[Chlidonias]

I suspect it might. With the rabbits mentioned above an infra-red camera was set up to record their nocturnal behaviour. Guinea-pigs and rabbits are normally kept in similar-sized hutches, despite rabbits being considerably larger, but there still isn't much room in one for guinea-pigs either.

 

[patrick]

unfortunately nocturnal animals always seem to come off the worst in zoo design. They almost always are kept in areas that are far too small, even in zoos where everything else is kept in large enclosures. And nocturnal animals in general are much more sensitive to stress from noises meaning they are often hidden from view anyway because of the amount of noise they are subjected to from visitors (not to mention the constant flashes from cameras). I like nocturnal animals of course, but it always makes me a bit sad seeing them in zoos.

absolutely. taronga zoos nocturnal house has mesh instead of glass as well, so it can get rediculously noisy.

and there is another element that you didn't mention. the exhibits are completely devoid of live plants, rain, wind and all the other elements of nature. better i say, to have the zoo open at night, than have a nocturnal house.

 

[torie]

reptile houses are another group of exhibits that usually turn out not so great. like nocturnial houses they often get the short straw in terms of budget and space. i know snakes arnt the most active of creatures but reptile houses often have tiny 'boxes' with one or two dead branches in them for snakes to live on. Im not talking about outside reptile exhibits because they tend to be larger and more intersting but the ones inside buildings. snakes and lizards are also often used to fill in spaces in larger mega exhibits like the wollimi exhibit at Taronga where they have tiny little snake houses on the sides of some of the rock faces.

 

[Chlidonias]

better i say, to have the zoo open at night, than have a nocturnal house.

personally I don't like night zoos. From the ones I've seen (in person and on tv) the animals are kept in much smaller areas than in normal zoo exhibits because the animals need to be relatively close to the visitors in order to remain visible in the lower light levels. The actual exhibit space may look large to the visitor but the animals seem to be kept in a restricted area near the front of the exhibit by electric wires etc (which, handily, are not themselves visible in the dark, maintaining the illusion of a large exhibit).

In terms of indoor exhibits (nocturnal, also reptiles as torie says) I think it comes down to the expense of creating many large enclosures in a house. The idea seems to be that it is better to have more species in smaller areas than fewer species in large areas. It sort of smacks of the old-style menagerie houses where rows of small cages displayed all the varieties of monkeys or whatever.

 

[Zooish]

personally I don't like night zoos. From the ones I've seen (in person and on tv) the animals are kept in much smaller areas than in normal zoo exhibits because the animals need to be relatively close to the visitors in order to remain visible in the lower light levels. The actual exhibit space may look large to the visitor but the animals seem to be kept in a restricted area near the front of the exhibit by electric wires etc (which, handily, are not themselves visible in the dark, maintaining the illusion of a large exhibit).

In terms of indoor exhibits (nocturnal, also reptiles as torie says) I think it comes down to the expense of creating many large enclosures in a house. The idea seems to be that it is better to have more species in smaller areas than fewer species in large areas. It sort of smacks of the old-style menagerie houses where rows of small cages displayed all the varieties of monkeys or whatever.

Have you visited Night Safari Singapore before?

95% of the exhibits there are of 'standard' size, comparable to the average daytime zoo. Only the tiger and leopard habitats are severely restricted with hot wire as the cats were always difficult to spot. But i do admit that the intention to create the illusion of boundless space is there; however, don't most other zoos strive to do that as well?

For the rest of the habitats, a non-stop feeding routine coaxes the animals into the lighted areas. The keepers continuously put out small portions of food throughout the 5 hours the park is open.

With nocturnal houses, space becomes an issue. There is no way elephants can be displayed indoors permanently, and they are actually quite active at dusk and the earlier part of the night.

 

[Pertinax]

Would the same apply to guinea pigs? I've just been out to feed them at the time of this post, and they were curled up asleep.

I think Guinea pigs are active on/off through the day and night so it may have just been a rest period. If you watch them living in Children's Zoos you'll often notice how they are more active in a larger space and when kept on a colony system. The more there are, the more active they seem.

They appear to always like shelter e.g. hay or rock piles or whatever and they leave these in order to graze at intervals. In between they have rest periods when they do nothing. They can run quite fast between areas of cover if they need to.

 

[Swedish Zoo Fan]

The snow leopard exhibit in Kolmården.
It's big, but it doesn't look like the leopards like the exhibit.

 

[James27]

I think London Zoo's new gorilla exhibit is overated and the gorilla's look bored out of their wits. I also think whoever designed their aye-aye exhibit should be shot.