Baboon Exhibit

This photo shows just about as much of the exhibit that I could fit into one photo. This is taken from a high moated viewing area that is the first view you get of the exhibit when you come down from the main entrance and is pretty large so can handle a fair crowd (there was a school group at the exhibit the first time I went past. To the left of this viewing area is a glass box that juts out into the exhibit so you can have the baboons on three sides of you, and further to the left of that is a small area where you can look into the exhibit through mesh. It is pretty big and although there aren\'t many trees for climbing there are quite a few logs and heaps of rocks, two pools, palm trees and lots of grasses and shrubs. You can see a lot of the fence and the holding building but compared to the baboons last home it is a massive improvement.

This is a HUGE improvement on the chain-link fenced cage that previously housed the baboons, and Andrew Fairley (Chairman of Zoos Victoria) said that "their enclosure was not only disrespectful to animals and visitors, it also wasn't consistent with our messaging" after the demolishment of the cage. There was no excuse for the zoo to not have bulldozed that cage years ago and built the troop a much needed new habitat.

While I agree this is a huge improvement, i have to take issue with this statement. MONEY and other priorities are as valid an "excuse" as anything. It's hard to argue that the elephants, orangs and seals in their previous inadequate exhibits didn't "deserve" new digs at least as much much as the baboons. Good to see it done, however.

Here is the old baboon exhibit, and it was perhaps unanimously agreed upon by ZooChatters that it was the worst enclosure at the zoo before it met its fate with a bulldozer.

http://www.zoochat.com/51/baboon-exhibit-melbourne-zoo-july-2009-a-90280/