Hippo Pool - Calgary Zoo

Hippo pool inside the Destination Africa building. August, 2006.

The giraffe exhibit (both indoor and outdoor) can be viewed in the background.

The underwater viewing of the hippos is simply spectacular, as the pool is clear and large enough for lots of visitors to be able to see the mammals beneath the surface of the water. There are rows of tiered seating, and it is common for people to sit and relax as the hippos go through their "underwater ballet" routine. However, the hippo exhibit overall is simply average, as the indoor area is quite tiny and due to Calgary's weather the hippos do spend a lot of time inside throughout the year. The good news is that the summer's are gorgeous, and there is a dirt patch for the hippos to roll in when the sun is shining.

In the background the giraffes have a large outdoor paddock, but again due to the poor weather in winter those animals also spend a great deal of time in the fairly barren indoor area.

I was impressed with all of the amphitheater style seating that is found throughout the Calgary Zoo. It's really nice to be able to just sit and watch the animals.

A Short Critique

I feel rather ambiguous about this exhibit and Destination Africa in general. It certainly fulfills some design objectives, but comes up short in others. Ultimately, it drove attendance and annual revenues up dramatically. However, I think it falls short of being good immersion design. The successes and failures can be attributed, in part, to the decision of which design firm to hire.

The Destination Africa complex was designed by PCL Maxim with help from the firm BKDI architects. PCL Maxim also constructed the complex, which resulted in significant savings. Destination Africa cost the Calgary Zoo 31.5 million dollars and consists of a 21,000 square foot African Savanna building, a 31,500 square foot TransAlta Rainforest, a large separate conference facility, a large cafeteria/restaurant with an attached volunteer center, and numerous outdoor exhibits. If the Calgary Zoo had hired separate design and construction firms the total project may have cost them 10 million dollars more.

Calgary Zoo zookeepers played a prominent role in the design process. This involvement resulted in such designs as the sunken zookeeper pathway between the hippo pool and giraffes. There are numerous zookeeper influenced (I assume) features of the hippo/giraffe enclosure that warrant closer investigation. In the middle of the hippo pool there is a mock rock formation that the hippos can sit atop with their faces slightly above the water line. From this point the hippos can launch themselves into other sections of the pool. The large metal posts separating the giraffes almost always have large Caragana branches attached to them via bungie cords or similar devices. The fake trees have mechanically lifted hay baskets incorporated into them. Enrichment devices are also hung from the artificial trees. All of these features make the zookeeper’s jobs easier. Greater activity levels from the hippos and decreased stereotypical licking from the giraffes suggest that the animals have benefited from their new homes in this exhibit.

From a visitors standpoint this exhibit has an excellent seating area for well over a hundred people and a separate walkway. Visitors love to sit down and watch the engaging hippos underwater! Numerous televisions overhang the viewing windows and show segments of the Calgary Zoo’s Wechiau Hippo Conservation Project, baby giraffes being born, and other relevant videos.

This hippo/giraffe exhibit and the Destination Africa complex at large were well received by the public. Attendance jumped from approximately 840,000 in 2002 to about 1.2 million in 2003. Visitor numbers have remained relatively stable since that time. Annual revenues increased from about 20 million (based on my poor memory) to 28 million (from the 2004 annual report). Annual revenues now eclipse 30 million. It is difficult for me to think of other zoos that have seen similar attendance and revenue increases from a single exhibit complex opening.


Not all the public was impressed with Destination Africa. ZooCheck Canada criticized the artificiality of Destination Africa and includes pictures of the giraffe exhibit on their website to illustrate how unnatural zoo environments can be.

I can appreciate some of Zoocheck’s perspective (I certainly don’t appreciate all of their opinions). The indoor giraffe/hippo exhibit is not very natural or immersive. I think one problem is that the Calgary Zoo hired architectural firms to do a job that should have been awarded to landscape architecture firms. This exhibit, together with the rest of the African Savanna building, creates a sense of openness and vastness as would be experienced on the African Savanna- without really looking like one. This has been achieved partially through a huge airplane hanger door, high ceilings, and long sightlines. These effects aid the theme, but cost a lot of money. The airplane hanger door also looks hideous when it’s closed. Meanwhile, the African savanna building (housing the giraffe/hippo enclosure) lets in insufficient light for plants to thrive. Maintenance, animal damage and temperature control may also be at fault for poor plant performance. It seems like the only plants they can keep alive in this building are a sausage tree (underneath a skylight in another enclosure), some small palms (in front of the terrestrial hippo area), a fig tree (has barely grown in 6 years), Sansevieria, and a few others. Just before this building opened there was a much better variety of plants, including 3 impressive palms between the giraffes and hippos, all of which have since died. The regular rhythm of many elements also looks unnatural. Some details are missing, like a textured hippo pool bottom to match either the mudbank backdrop or mock rock formation. Even with some changes the hippo/giraffe exhibit would not look as natural or aesthetically pleasing as the hippo exhibits at Berlin Zoo.

From an animal welfare perspective I would like to see the following in the Calgary Zoo’s hippo/giraffe exhibits: larger areas; a soft substrate indoor area, in public view, for the hippos to lie on; more natural light (the hippos seem to love sunbathing in the summer); acacia trees that can be pruned to supply winter leaf browse; and a bit of screening for the giraffes. I think that at least some of these features would have been possible if less money was spent on the elaborate building entrance and other building features.

The hippo/giraffe enclosure may be popular with the public and it may have improved the welfare of its animals, but with better landscaping, more space, and more welfare features, the exhibit could have done even more for the animals and created a better visitor experience !

@Taccachantrieri: Wow! What a fabulous critique of the Calgary Zoo's most expensive set of exhibits. I truly appreciated reading your comments.