Elephant enclosure

March 2012

How would you rate the elephant exhibit? It took the zoo many years to raise the $12 million for the new habitat (which opened in 2011) but at 1.5 acres it is actually a bit on the small side considering the mega-paddocks that now are becoming common in the major American and European zoos. Also, are Malayan tapirs in the old elephant exhibit yet?

For the two elephants it's actually quite large (this photo shows you less than half of it, and you can't get a feeling of the depth of the the exhibit from this angle). There are two pools with waterfalls, and those silly mounds with plants growing on top and surrounded by hotwires.

From the photos I've seen this is certainly an improvment on the old exhibit, but it's bare. It was also hot, and some of the landscaping looked like they used volcanic rock which just reinforced the feeling of hot and bare. I don't know if the ground was turfed before putting the elephants in, but it doesn't look like it.

Ik this is ancient but incase anybody sees this, I measured the exhibit is less than an acre..

Out of curiosity, how did you come to measure it?

@Hix Google Earth (desktop version) has an option by which you can draw your own polygons and measure their size, which is very handy for enclosures.