Great Ape exhibit - 1982

Great Ape exhibit - 1982
21-11-2008

There are three enclosures here, one has chimps, one orangs, and the last has gorillas. Water moat at the front.

21-11-2008

Wow. I've seen thousands of old zoo photos over the years, but these are some of the worst enclosures I've ever seen for great apes. It's truly shocking how tiny the space is for these animals, as these days many of us complain about exhibits that are an acre in space but lack climbing opportunities. The zoo world has come a long way...

22-11-2008

This was the worst ape house in the UK at the time. It was at least as bad as it looks here.

Alan

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15-02-2009

In a book i have The penguin guide to British Zoos it states that this is a fine modern great ape house but perhaps in its time it may of been...

15-02-2009

I believe this was modelled on Dudley's ape house; certainly, they both look very much like enomrous urinals.

This was a real shocker - as bad as anything in Cambodia, for example (qv ongoing discussion re photos elsewhere), but without any excuses being valid at all.

I visited the old Chessington as a child in the early 80s, and hated it. It was a nasty zoo in every way, with nothing to redeem it other than a large collection. The ape house was probably the worst thng there, but there were other horrors to behold.

15-02-2009

The reason I visited Chessington that time was because a friend of mine worked there. She said the Ape House was a fairly recent addition (this was in 1982), and I recall the zoo promoting it as a new attraction.

As Sooty Mangabey said - there were other horrors to behold. The Children's Zoo had a concrete bunker, a rectangular construct about 6 feet long and three feet deep, 2 1/2 feet high. Concrete on all sides except the front which had a window in it. Door cut into the the back wall. Inside were some tortoises. Three were dead and well into decomposition, the green leafy vegetables on the bare concrete floor were a few days old and rotting.

15-02-2009

Thanks for the information Hix and Sooty Mangeby.I had a feeling it was modeled on Dudleys Ape house as at the time it was considered very modern and state of the ate but this idea didnt last for long but this one is alot smaller and more basic.At least things have changed with Chessington.

08-03-2009

This ape house was built in 1967 , it housed a pair of each ape , none ever bred in the building. The public access was at the back , each end, there were three indoor dens , glass fronted. The water moat outside always kept filling with rubbish and the public used to try to pass food to them through this. Later three strands of electric wire were added to the moat at a distance to prevent the apes reaching too far. Z

08-03-2009

The suffering that these animals went through!!

Is it all our responsabilities to make sure nothing like this is acceptable again! Then they may not have suffered in vain.

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08-03-2009

I remember the wires. I also remember thinking that if the apes fell in the water, the wires would be the first (and perhaps the only) thing they could grab.....

09-03-2009

Yes , absolutely , the apes habit of reaching for floating "food" was a real risk , and whilst the water was initially shallow it then took a sharp drop just beyond those electric wires. Obviously apes have drowned before in such enclosures. By our current standards in zoos it was awful but back in those days this building was hailed as one of the very best for its day, though its popularity was short-lived. It replaced the even worse old chimp cages that stood on the site prior to 1967. Z.

04-05-2009

It was modelled on Dudley's, which in turn was modelled to an extent on the Bronx zoo's house. But each was built smaller than the previous one- Chessington's being the tiniest. It was truly awful.

the female Gorilla 'baffia' spent nearly all her time when outside sitting on the single platform to keep away from the dominant Kumba. As a result of this fear, as an adult female she never bred as she would not let males come near her. Now in their old age Kumba and Baffia are back living together again, but in considerably more harmony than in their youth.

The orangutan pair Tuan and Nonja never bred either but lived as fully adult animals in this house.. I believe they were exported to Holland(?)

04-05-2009

Oh.my.god.

You know ....... 1982 really wasn't that long ago, and it's quite astonishing how comparatively recently this sort of thing was thought to be perfectly acceptable by people who worked day in, day out, with animals.

Yet long before 1982 - as a small child in the 70s - I can remember my parents (who were complete amateurs, but animal lovers) frequently commenting upon zoo enclosures they came across which seemed to be lacking in space, privacy, shade, shelter, and/or stimulation. They obviously wouldn't have been the only visitors to feel horrified and upset by what they often saw ...... e.g. animals displaying signs of mental distress.

If the public could see what was so terribly wrong right in front of them, why did it take so comparatively long for the so-called experts to realise it too ?

04-05-2009

This was a unique example- nowhere else at that time built anything nearly as bad as this. Its as if they thought adult Apes were only the size of small monkeys...

I think it 'slipped through' because Chessington is not a normal zoo, historically being more a leisure park with an animal collection attatched to it. They had not kept Gorillas or Orangutans before so had no prior experience of them and were probably completely ignorant of their needs anyway and the architects only work to what they are asked for..

Oddly Chessington have a thriving Gorilla group nowadays and are soon to embark on a very large new enclosure.

04-05-2009

Ever seen photos of Sydney's old Ape cages? The Orangutans were still living in them until the early 1990's.

I visited Oklahoma Zoo in the early 1980's- there was a new Gorilla House(pretty poor) but the Orangutans and some Gorillas were still living in the old 'house'- awful, and it didn't have any outsides at all.

New Orleans/Audubon Zoo had a pair of young subadult Gorillas(Scotty and Molly-the same age as Baffia & Kumba at Chessington) living in a tiny barred cage which I think was even smaller than Chessington's enclosure!