Indoor Tiger Exhibit at Tierpark Berlin, 30/08/11

Sumatran and Amur Tigers rotate between this exhibit and the outdoor exhibit.

This is truly terrible in my honest opinion...

Whilst some of the criticism of the Berlin zoos on the forum can tend towards excessive PC attitudes, there really isn't much to be said in defence of the cat enclosures in the Alfred Brehm house. If they were turned over to birds and the cats rehoused in some of the abundant and underused woodland it would be a great improvement.

Come to that, there really isn't much to be said in defence of the cat enclosures in the Carnivore house in the West.

Why is a big indoor enclosure bad? Normal holding areas indoors are small and have no deep watermoat.
There are many bad things in this house, this enclosure is not one of them.

I agree with animal. Show me a better indoor enclosure and I might think about it, or show you loads of worse ones. Wait they often cannot be seen, right? They could, however, have put in some more trunks etc.

It still eludes me how people consider this a world class zoo. The enclosures are sterile concrete platforms. The world's best collection of animals is still not a good zoo if it is kept in 1950s quality enclosures.

While I would be the first to admit the Tierpark has its flaws, bear in mind that most of the good enclosures get little or no discussion on here. They're not spectacular ground-breaking exhibits, perhaps, but most of the collection is emphatically not on 'sterile concrete platforms' but in perfectly decent exhibits. Outside this house, the only real shockers are the sun bear enclosures in the old ape house, and perhaps the rather small manatee pool. There are a number that certainly would benefit from additional furnishing, but very few other than in these handful of buildings are really bad (and even this house really isn't as bad as it can be painted on here sometimes). Many are very good - the mountain ungulates area, the gull aviary, the series of huge paddocks with a complete set of camelids, the renovated Spectacled Bear exhibit.

Thanks for the perspective Maguari. That does make it sound like a much better zoo than one gets an impression of from photos of exhibits like this.

As I say, there's little there that will win any design awards. But there has been on these pages a lot more emphasis on its flaws than its strengths of late.

I get the feeling both Berlins are suffering from perhaps having rested on their laurels a little and so no longer being able to live up to expectations these days (perhaps in a similar way to San Diego - or indeed London).

This indoors isn't that bad, but because the outdoor enclosure is occupied by a group of malayan tigers, the 2 siberian tigers, do spend all their time here and it is absolutely not suited for that.

@Maguari, I think the quote "There are a number that certainly would benefit from additional furnishing" is a bit an understatement. Most of the exhibits need much more furnishing, the most striking example is the mangabey enclosure.... Most exhibits need structure and are boring to see for the visitors.