Hippo aviary

@antonmuster This looks magnificent and it is sometimes hailed as one of the best hippo exhibits anywhere, but in your mini-review on the Beauval Zoo thread you said this: "an excellent concept that works really well for the visitor, though its implementation has too much of a theme park flavor". What theme park elements are at the hippo exhibit? From this photo it appears to be an amazing habitat and much better than most of the hippo enclosures I've come across on my zoo travels.

To clarify: I liked the enclosure a lot. It's a very convincing concept, well executed.


Why do I liken it to a theme park? Take a look at my panorama shot of the main viewing area (above) or follow street view through the enclosure. The main viewing area offers excellent views of the enclosure with a massive wide underwater viewing panel no less. Furthermore, for once Beauval provided adequate shading for their viewing panels and reflections are not an issue. However, human rather than natural features completely dominate the viewing area unfortunately - both visually and accoustically. Furthermore, the viewing area might as well be an alien spaceship as it does not in any way relate to the enclosure in front of it. San Diego's hippo viewing area for example, imo does a much better job at immersing the viewer in the hippos' habitat/enclosure. Furthermore, the mock rock and mock wood in the visitor areas, to me, have a distinctly fake feel to them and the planting in the visitor areas feels like a suburban garden landscape rather than a natural landscape.