Columbus Zoo - Gorilla Exhibit

Are you saying this sarcastically? Because if you don't believe me you can check on the Bronx Zoo's website. They do ineed give their gorillas straw.

To respond to your first part, there are two reasons why zoos usually renovate/create new exhibit areas. This is a generalization, but 95% the time I would say it is accurate.

1) Provide a better home for the animals. If I am correct, the gorillas at Congo used to live in an old-style cage type exhibit. This new exhibit is ovbiously miles better in the sense that they have trees to climb, large areas to explore, much more vegetation (I highly doubt it is all hot-wired), and the much needed canopy.

2) Provide a more educational/meanigful/realistic experience for visitors. Without visitors zoos can't survive, so they must create exhibits that draw the public. Also, seeing a gorilla in a natural rain forest exhibit inspires guests much more to care about gorillas in the wild, then seeing a depressed gorilla in a tiny cage.

I am just using Congo as an example, but those two reasons are why my home Cleveland Zoo decided to build a new elephant habitat, why Woodland Park Zoo built Jaguar Cove, etc.

BlackRhino, I suggest you take a deep breath before responding next time. If you see sarcasm in "I am delighted if the Bronx Zoo is so relaxed about their Congo notion that they still give their gorillas straw to make beds from" then you see something that is not there at all. What I meant was that I was delighted if they do give them straw; nowhere did I hint that I did not believe it.

I usually do not comment on exhibits I have not seen myself, hence I do not make any statements about the Congo. I have seen the Columbus gorilla facilities, in 2003, that is why I commented on the photo in the first place. You in Cleveland have an excellent zoo too, one among my favourites.

BlackRhino, the way you interpret my posts is beyond me to understand. I fully realise and know that zoos need visitors but visitors will not come to the zoos if the animals are not attractive and not doing attractive things like playing.

The animals will not play if they are not given the chance to play, or feel too bad to play. If zoos prevent playing by filling exhibits with hot wire to protect all the fancy fake and expensive infrastructure, the animals will not feel good there and not play because they can feel the presence of an invisible enemy in the exhibit with them (i.e. the electricity) but if other means are used to surround the exhibit, the animal will be more comfortable as then it realises it is their zone, with no hidden enemies in it.

The gorillas at Howletts and Columbus are lively and playful because they realise it is their zone. They feel comfortable and secure there.

One more thing: if you can tell me where I have suggested that gorillas should be kept in tiny cages, I will eat my shorts.

How do you know that the gorillas in other exhibit with hotwire are not as lively and playful as the gorillas in Howletts, Port Lympe, and Columbus? I have not been to the Bronx Zoo, so I can't comment on the exhibit there, but I have seen the gorilla exhibits at the San Diego Zoo and the Los Angeles Zoo. Both of these exhibits have hotwire protecting most of the plants, yet the gorillas are lively and playful.

This contradicts my experience and observations. At the Bronx Zoo's Congo, the young gorillas loved to jump through the hot-wire fences, moving in and out of the protected plantings (very annoying to me but fun to see). The animals are smarter than you give them credit for. They sit within inches of the active hot wire, even carefully reaching between active lines to pluck leaves to eat. If anything, this increases activity and mental stimulation rather than creating the inactivity you describe. I have observed the same behavior while I worked at the Cincinnati Zoo.

Perhaps you have watched animals that were not used to hot wire come into a hot wired exhibit and it repressed their activity. But where hot wire is standard, the animals use it to their advantage.

Yeah, I've seen that also at the LA Zoo. The baby goes under the hot wire and plays inside the protected areas. She actually destroyed a couple of trees and bushes. The silverback also completely destroyed banana trees that were protected by hot wire by just reaching inside.

Melbourne Zoos exhibit is the best I've seen personally (only two so that's not saying much) and is in my opinion a perfect habitat for gorillas. One side of it (about 2/3 is completley shaded, has thick mulch and a lot of ground covering plants. The other side (about 1/3) doesn't have the shade that the first half does and up until recentley it was pretty open but has now been planted with lots of palms and other low shrubs. The only things that are hot-wired are the big trees (two large fig trees, a plane tree and some huge palms) but the gorillas seem to completely ignore it. When I was younger and Yakini and his half brother were still small I saw one of them climb a tree in their exhibit while expertly avoiding the hot wire. There are other dead trees and things for them to climb as well.

This sort of exhibit has the best of both worlds when it comes to gorilla exhibits. a) It provides an excellent habitat for the gorillas and b) visitors go away with an understanding of gorillas in the wild and what their habitat would look like.