Lion enclosure, 1981

Taken from the northwest corner looking toward the southeast. The base of the southern wall on the right is where the public currently view the lions through a large curved glass window. The cave-like areas on the left can still be seen in the enclosure today.

Currently the enclosure is far too small for the big cats, but at least it is far more naturalistic than the mock-rock in this photo.

While I don´t know the size of the exibit (but if snowleopard says it is too small, I certainly believe him), this is still a very interesting set of pictures, showing the tranformation of a horrible "lion grotto" into a properly designed exhibit for big cats. Fantastically interesting to the change between "then and now"!

I should point out that the transformed enclosure doesn't look like that anymore - the hillside has been removed and it has reverted to a pit but is viewed from below and is full of vegetation. I suppose I should take an overview of what it looks like now to finish off the sequence.