ZOOM - Barrow Tunnel

The Barrow Tunnel in the polar-region biotope of the of the Alaska theme in ZOOM Erlebniswelt, Germany. From this glass tunnel visitors can view Californian sea lions underwater with viewings for polar bears further along the path.

ZOOM Erlebniswelt is a brand new zoo built completely from scratch on the site of the old Ruhr Zoo. It is divided into three large themes: Alaska (2005), Africa (2006) and Asia (2010).

July 2009

I've seen pictures on Copenhagen Zoos homepage, that they are planning to build a new polar bear exhibit, with a tunnel like this! Could you tell me if this is true, please?

Would they post it on the zoo's own website if it wasn't true? Besides, I have already posted info about the polar bear exhibit in Copenhagen in the Arctic Ring thread.

The tunnel in Copenhagen won't be exactly like this but rather a 360 degree tunnel meaning that the polar bears will be able to go both under and above it.

This 9-meter glass tunnel takes viewers through what the zoo claims is Europe's largest sea lion exhibit. Is that an accurate description? The entire Alaskan zone of ZOOM seems to be brilliant from photos and reviews that I've read over the years, but I suppose that is what can happen when a brand-new modern facility was only begun in 2005 (from the ashes of an older establishment).

The tunnel at Colchester claims 24 metres (I've not measured it) but as I remember the surface area at Zoom might be larger, so I suppose it depends how you want to measure "the largest"

To be honest I take most claims of superlatives in zoos with a pinch of salt -you could go mad trying to get to the bottom of competing claims for the biggest XXXXXX exhibit in UK/Europe/The World.