Check out this visitor tunnel at Parc Safari in Quebec, Canada: http://www.biline.ca/Ottawa/Family/parc_safari/IMG_9084.JPG
Since there are no photos of the Lion exhibit at Zoo Eberswalde in the gallery and a google image search didn't produce useful results, the following youtube link shows some good still shots of the exhibit at the 1:29-1:49 point in the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYOJyYu_coA
You know, if this were done up with some well-done rock work to make it look like the inside of a termite mound or aardvark tunnel, it could become even more effective.
Is it just me or is this a really clunky exhibit? I didn't think that the tunnel did anything to enhance this exhibit, but maybe I caught it on a bad day.
I agree! For example, I know that "Arizona Docent" always raves about Houston's lion exhibit tunnel but the windows are small and foggy and I've never been that impressed with it.
I disagree. The foggy windows are an artifact of Houston's heavily polluted air (all the petro-chemical plants nearby). They've been slowly replacing all the windows around the zoo with higher grade material - just looks like they haven't gotten to these particular ones yet.
Parc Safari (Canada), Eberswalde (Germany) and Thoiry (France) are 3 zoos that have glass tunnels that go through lion exhibits. Perhaps Houston should consider revamping their tunnel to make it all-acrylic as if it is venturing through a shark tank. The sharks of the Serengeti!
I do not ONLY like the tunnel aspect, I like ALL of the Houston Zoo lion exhibit. The tunnel just adds one additional and unique way of viewing, which adds to the overall appeal. Houston has three unique viewing methods, one is with your eyes at ground level in the tunnel. Another is above ground but through glass at one end of the exhibit. The third (and largest) view is from the front across a water filled moat with no fence obstructions - great for photographs. The exhibit features a huge rock kopje and lots of mature trees and vegetation. The tunnel is well designed in that the windows are almost unnoticeable at the base of the kopje, so they do not ruin the natural appearance (something that is most important to me as a photographer).
