Bronx Zoo - Congo Gorilla Forest

See the Zoolex entry for details: Congo GF is indeed 6.5 acres. The two gorilla outdoor habitats are 22,000 and 28,000 square feet each. I would guess the total area of Atlanta's 4 exhibits is greater, but that is the only thing about it that is "superior" to Congo Gorilla Forest.

Those are both extremely large figures for outdoor habitats as both are a half acre or more. Bronx's is miles better than Atlanta's, nothing can really compare to this ultra-natural rain forest.

@BlackRhino: it is incredible to think that between the Bronx and Atlanta zoos there are about 45 gorillas! On top of that Atlanta has around 11 orangutans, 4 drills, and other rare primates.

It is very impressive. One question-can the Gorillas access all the vegetation in these exhibits, or is some of it hotwired? I'm presuming that the growing trees at least are....

What sort of % of the whole enclosure is offlimits to them?

There are fake branches that look incredibly realistic but also hide hotwire, and there is a subtle use of hotwire throughout the jungle exhibit. I have no idea what percentage of the 2 enclosures are off limits to the gorillas, but I think that it is widely regarded as one of if not the best gorilla zoo habitat on the planet. My personal opinion is that it is # 1 in North America, and Disney's Animal Kingdom also has a pair of brilliant gorilla exhibits that I'd rank as # 2. Both of those zoos have massive trees that provide an amazing amount of shade for the apes, and the effects of having a canopy covering are that the gorillas have completely naturalistic behaviours. After that there is Woodland Park, San Diego, Atlanta, etc...

My experience of Congo Gorilla Forest is largely negative. Knowing the entrance fee to the zoo beforehand spent my money in the morning getting camera fixed after it had died in central parks tropical house the day before. Wasnt expecting to have to pay extra to see the heavily advertised main attraction. In normal circumstances wouldnt have minded paying supplementary fee but only had enough money for zoo entrance, subway ticket (thank god its wasn't london!) and some cheap food. Left me with choice of either gorilla or indian rhino/gaur etc part or food? So increasingly annoyed with hunger waited ages in que to see Gorillas etc. Good job Bronx doesnt have a guidebook or wouldnt have seen them either.
Didnt see a mandrills backside in any of the other enclosures. Tried to enjoy seeing the gorillas and their enclosure (i enjoy looking at both equally) but the viewing halls seemed to be the congregation point for every school child in new york and incredibly noisy. No it wasnt a wednesday.
Yes the enclosures are amazing and good to see groups of social animals clearly well catered for but just personally didnt have the greatest paying customer experience.
Must add that other parts jungle world, world of birds etc more than made up for this.

Don't know if it helps, but the extra fee you pay to see Congo goes directly to support conservation work in Central African forests--to date over $9 million has been raised by this zoo exhibit to fund conservation of the real place and the animals that live there. While the exhibit sets a very high standard for realism, close up viewing etc. I know the people at the Bronx are most proud of the fact that it is the first--and only--zoo exhibit to directly raise funds (not just awareness) for conservation, and let visitors have a choice in how those funds (their admissions) are spent.

Well, considering that 24 gorillas call this enclosure home, and zero are visible in the photo, the gorillas must have a lot of areas of the enclosure to explore. Their certainly must be some hot-wire as after a decade of no hot-wire this would be an open field, and the gorillas would have no canopy which is probably the most important part of an enclosure. It is obviously the world's best gorilla enclosure, and I personally feel it is the world's greatest animal exhibit ever created.

Pertinax, this particular portion of the photo doesn't even express a tenth of the total exhibit space. As far as what portion is off exhibit, there is another photo somewhere that shows the indoor, mostly off exhibit areas. None of the outdoors are off exhibit.

one word for a replicated habitat
DAK!!!!!!!