The new gorilla exbith

News gorilla exbith Kolmarden Zoo 2008

Sad to see that this goes totally against all those things we constantly discuss here at zoochat. This is of course an absolutely disastrous gorilla enclosure and I am amazed that it has been contructed in a Swedish zoo that from its beginning in the 1960s has been a forerunner in the field of animal welfare at zoos. Crazy!
A total disaster.....
The only apologize I could think of is if this pityful island is an EXTENSION of an already existing outdoor exibit. Then it might not be such a disaster.
Anybody who knows anything about this? I have only visited this zoo when I was a kid and that was 40 years ago so... anybody?

Is there more to this gorilla exhibit than meets the eye? If this is all the apes have than the enclosure appears to be some type of cruel joke.

What you see its the whole outdoor area.

Yes... I am totally dumbstruck and I can´t understand anything at all...especially since this zoo has been so much of a forerunner ever since it was created in 1965.

I have written to the zoo about it but I did not recieve an answer.

I also wrote to Dan Koehl about it (elephant expert with the great site Elephants Encyclopedia - facts and information about elephants since 1995 , employed at Kolmården for a while and also a member for a short while here at ZooChat) but did not get an answer from him either.

I believe that this is the only outdoor space for gorillas at Kolmården. Such a disappointment!

See this comment, though, made a few minutes ago from forumster rillekolmard:

http://www.zoochat.com/182/some-great-new-web-cams-kolm-119461/#post270387

Oh, posted at the same time, rillekolmard....

A final comment:

In an otherwise very nice television series on Swedish TV ("Animal hospital"), featuring zoo and pet veterinary practise, a joke was made of the fact that it took the ("cowardly") silverback half a year or so to dare to go out on this island. I felt like puking...

It appears that the budget for this exhibit was very low!

It may be said than-god they now have an outdoor area. I wonder how many days it will be used if gorillas are given a choice to use it or are locked out!!!

Another disaster gorilla exhibit in 2009!!! How and why does this continue to happen? We [man] obviously let it happen.... lack of education or still a huge indifferance

zooman, I can only agree with your post!

This is such a big disappointment to me, especially since I have constantly been pushing the Swedish legislation on animal welfare in zoos here at ZooChat. It is possible that the combined size of the indoor and outdoor areas for the apes just about fulfills the legal requirements, but even if so, this is obviously not good enough.

I am very disappointed!

terrible. Is that playgorund equipment for adult silverbacks?