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It is startling to see moat after moat as one tours around the Miami Metrozoo, as after a visit many of the enclosures end up looking vaguely similar. However, I think that the moat system is effective, as all of the enclosures are quite large and visitors have a completely unobstructed view of the animals.

Don't forget, the zoo was build completly in one piece. Would you prefer fences and cages instead of the moats ?

Not Cages, but we can be a little creative, can't we not?, the moat system works but after a couple of visits to this zoo, it becomes extremely repetitive to see the same style of exhibit, one after another, the little area of the Asian River Life exhibit, where they house the Komodo Dragon, Clouded Leopard, Asian otters and more is excellent, and if the whole zoo was design like this, with the average moat and open field exhibit every now and then, it would make for one excellent park.

The problem is that after Hurricane Andrew most of those moats exhibits were trown in a hurry to built the zoo back up, and thousands of trees were planted, but very little sence of landscape architecture, the design process was below average at its best.
That is why there is a masterplan in place to built the zoo back up from scratch, the only areas currently in the zoo that would not get touch are:
Amazon and Beyond (new exhibit under master plan)
Wings of Asia (new aviary under master plan)
Asian River Experience
Asian Elephants enclosure
part of the tiger enclosure would be left intact as well, but additional viewing areas would be included thru an Asian Forest trail.

But with the poor state of the economy and the current crisis in Dade county, (800 county jobs to be eliminated/5% pay deduction) everything is now on soft ground.

@Zebraduiker: I personally love Miami's moats, even if there is a ton of them. I'll take anything over outdated cages and steel bars, and moats allow for unobstructed viewing and huge enclosures at the Metrozoo.