Hippo Cove Play Area

July 18th 2016
...Don\'t get me started on just how absurd this inclusion was...

Cincinnati Zoo is for the Children... or was that Wu-tang? Can't believe this POS got more land area than the Hippos... Sad.

This last minute addition to the project cut the size of the exhibit in at least half, essentially... And for what? The keeper staff was not happy at all... But they have had very little say in many of the latest design plans at the zoo...

It shows. The only decent things in Africa, are the dog, meerkat and cheetah run. Everything else is small and got played for human amenities and revenue making opportunities. Sigh.

I'd say it's the photo as I don't recall the space between the construction fence and the exhibit itself being that far apart.. I know some might hate me for saying this again, but the measurements of the play area add up to be half the size of the exhibit.

If the LSS is larger than the exhibit itself at 3,000 sf then what does the actual space the Hippos get to "enjoy" equal? Breaking it down "beach" vs "pool", probably not much. I hope the pool is jetted to keep them physically fit. Not much going on for land space there in 2016. Guess they can climb in and out of the pool for exercise, but what about the cold months when they're locked in? Hippo treadmills while they play this https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=otXGqU4LBEI over speaker for enrichment? They shoved 8,000 pounds in a plastic bag. You can google earth, measure and all, but it won't change a thing. These guys were promoted and "bragged" about heavily, all across media platforms and the end product is crap.

This is a recurring complaint on ZooChat: hippo exhibits with little or no land space for the animals to walk or graze. It seems we (forum members) are universal in our criticism and they (zoo designers) are universal in their refusal.

In my opinion there can only be two logical conclusions. Either ZooChat members have no clue about basic hippo biology or zoo planners and staff are more concerned with public appeal than basic hippo biology. Sadly I think the second conclusion is the correct one.

I would say that zoo designers are not universal in their refusal to design larger, more spacious land areas for the hippos. There are many factors that go into the design of exhibits... space limitations, budget, donor wants, animal wants, and about a million other things. I can tell you from experience zoo projects are extremely complicated and it is hard to be too much of a critic until you know the details.

That being said, I completely agree that more "grazing" space would be ideal and that zoo designers should push harder for this in all future hippo exhibits.

I would say that this is largely correct. The play area,the current viewing area, and the garden in between combined are likely roughly equal to the size of exhibit as it was built. The exhibit itself was originally supposed to include this area within its footprint, thus why I said that it was cut in half by this last minute inclusion.... But that's how this project has gone, making things smaller and smaller in order to fit more and more in...

The complaints of lack of land area for walking and grazing in newly built hippo exhibits, the one that is echoed by Arizona Docent, myself, and so many other members is, too, echoed by the keepers and curators here in Cincinnati, and they've been quite vocal about it after the change of plans... Unfortunately, they seem to have fallen on deaf ears. I can only hope that, eventually, at least one zoo will get it right and provide these animals with the land area required to satisfy such a basic biological need.