San Diego Zoo - Absolutely Apes

August 2008. Siamangs and orangutans.

My favorite Orangutan exhibit. Lots of climbing structures, excellent visitor viewing, mixed species, lots of natural plants year-round.

Very efective climbing structure. Obviously not naturalistic. It does however look very functional. Reminds me of a Hills Hoist clothes line.

I wonder what the $ was compared to a naturalistic tree?

What animals are in with the orangs?

Just a family of Siamangs.

Does this photo show a lot or most of the exhibit because if it does then I'm not a fan if it is. For one all of the climbing structures are right at the back so that is where the orang-utans would spend a lot of their time and secondley there isn't enough climbing structures for a some orang-utans and a family of Siamangs.

This is an excellent Orangutan exhibit because it is lush with foliage, and the climbing structure is larger than it looks. The Orangs like to come by the glass all the time to sit on the cushiony surface that is right there and they make beds. The exhibit is about 6000 square feet.

By the way this photo does not show more than half of the exhibit. The ropes connect to whole other climbing structure in another part of the habitat.

Part of the reason for the distance between the climbing structures and viewing may be to keep siamangs from flying out ... I believe the "bamboo" posts are sway-poles.
Personally I do not consider grass to be lush foliage, and in looking at the photos am a bit surprised by the lack of shade.

There is quite a bit of shade near the viewing windows and around the soft, cushiony surface. However, the row of trees in the background are not actually in the exhibit, and so the climbing structures are almost all fake. It is definitely not a naturalistic habitat and therefore not my favourite, but I find that orangutans are the most difficult great ape to showcase in a zoo. There are many world class gibbon, gorilla, chimpanzee and bonobo enclosures that I've seen in my life, but I'm always picky with orangs because they are supposedly arboreal and spend 85% of their lives in trees while in zoos frequently they can be found sitting on the ground.

Absolutely Apes is a large exhibit that stretches beyond this photo and even outside the field of vision for zoo visitors and down a hill. There is no problem with the size of the enclosure, but I bet that the climbing strucutures make up maybe 20% of the exhibit while the other 80% is ground area. How is that great for orangutans? For a completely naturalistic, spacious habitat for orangs (which still lacks climbing structures) check out photos of Woodland Park Zoo's pair of orangutan habitats. The trees are what are used for climbing there, rather than metal poles that we could hang our dirty laundry on. Absolutely Apes is a good exhibit but definitely not a classic like Leipzig Zoo in Germany, Singapore Zoo or a few others, and there are not that many truly great orangutan habitats anywhere in the world.

They have a lot of shade. It is where the viewing windows are. You Orangs spend a lot of time under shade making beds.


I really like the climbing structure, and would not call it a pole for dirty laundry. Absolutely Apes is a great exhibit in my opinion. Many people praise the O-Line at National Zoo, but the Orangs are only given access to it 4 hours a day and the Orang exhibits themselves are below average.
To me the best Orangutan exhibits are the ones at the Woodland Park Zoo, and the San Diego Zoo.