Best Exhibit for this Species

What does everyone think for Andean bears. For me Nashville’s comes to mind.

 

Agreed on Nashville. Of the ones I’m aware of, San Diego’s is fine, though a bit small, and most in the UK really aren’t anything special, visually speaking, although Chester’s is pretty good.

 

Yea San Diego’s is nice but it has a lot concrete. I also like the exhibit at queens zoo.

 

I would think Chester or Zurich are the best in the world.

 

I'm very sorry to interrupt here (I don't wanna be impolite), but I thought it was the best thread for this:

Which zoo gives gorillas the best opportunity to climb/use LIVING trees (= not protected by wire etc.) and is this something that should recommended even when it could bring (safety) problems allong?

 

I'd suspect La Vallee des Singes is the best in this regard, and probably quite far up on the list in general otherwise, I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned on this thread yet.







Photo creds to lintworm and Maxime.

 

This looks indeed awesome! Thanks for your reply and the pictures!

 

Apenheul also has a lot of large, live trees in their enclosure, though I haven't visited it and can't say for sure how much or how well they use them

 

Definitely gonna have to say Nashville, the complex itself is fabulous, and the bear exhibit is just incredible. I even had the pleasure to see some bear feet up close.

 

How on earth do they keep those trees alive?

 

@Dhole dude: That is exactly what I try to figure out with my question. And I hope I can count on the knowledge we have here...

 

There was a lot more at the opening of the zoo. Adults have mainly destroyed some ground vegetation while successful breeding meant more destruction of higher branches in the few years following.
Now, I think that some trees and bushes are partially protected. Still the enclosure is now 20 years old and I have seen several times yougers climbing high in the trees. I do not know if the vegetation will be able to recover properly or if the pressure is too high. Maybe that removing folivorous guereza monkeys would help as well.

 

Which zoos have the great exhibit for Cheetah?

Here is the Cheetah exhibit of Toronto Zoo, it is quite large and allows cheetahs to run for distances, but visitors often can't find the cheetahs if they stay at back. The cheetah enclosure of Omaha Henry Doorly and Beauval looks very nice.

 

I'd say the enclosures in Montpellier zoo are also big contenders
Fourth cheetah exhibit - ZooChat
Second cheetah exhibit - ZooChat
First cheetah exhibit - ZooChat

"This complex entirely devoted to cheetahs was built a few years ago - they now have 10 cheetahs, with a few more due to be born soon if I remember correctly. The 8 exhibits are all quite large and natural and are squished together into an oval shape, covering an area of over 12,000 sqm in total. It is my understanding that the cheetahs are rotated regularly."

 

For cheetahs Living Desert has one of the best natural exhibits.
Cheetah Exhibit - ZooChat
Cheetahs (w/ backdrop) - ZooChat
Cheetah Exhibit - ZooChat
Cheetah - ZooChat
It’s one of the few that doesn’t use grass and looks a lot like the real African Bush.

 

Personally I've always been a fan of the cheetah exhibit at Planckendael. They house two males.

Search Results for Query: cheetah exhibit - ZooChat

 

This is definitely the best cheetah complex I have seen, and that is above both Beauval and Chester, two other zoos with fantastic exhibits for the species.

The environment of the zoo does resemble a dry forest environment but the zoo has done a great job of using this to their advantage to make an exhibit that not only more or less guarantees great viewing of the cheetahs (I have seen at least three cheetahs upon every visit to the zoo) while also granting them privacy if they do wish, thus meaning that the cheetahs that do show themselves do so out of choice and not because the enclosure provides them with no other option. In far too many zoos cheetah exhibits are barren grassy paddocks with hardly any hiding places.

I suspect that @TinoPup would be best placed to answer the original question however.- she is somewhat of a specialist in the field .

 

What zoo has the best enclosure for gharials? More broadly I’m also interested in any standout exhibits for crocodilian species in general

 

Thanks

Is it weird that I don't have a favorite? Maybe I've looked at too many. I've been working on personal documents with photos of every exhibit in the world. They're organized by country/area/state, depending on amount of places. Some I finished (based on photos I could find, anyway). Some I haven't, especially the places with tons of photos (Chester, cough cough).

A few I really like:

Austria - Herberstein, Salzburg.

Canada - Toronto. Huge, lots of viewing spots.

Czechia - Olomouc, Plzen.

Denmark - Ebeltoft.

France - Africaine de Sigean, but not from a viewer/photographer perspective Barben and Beauval are fantastic. Boissiere's is wonderful, as is Bordeaux's. Fontaine's is outstanding, of course, but doesn't look very deep, just long. Natur'zoo and Palmyre deserve mentions, as does Parc des Felins.

Germany - Berlin, Leipzig and Cologne. I need to look up photos of Wilhelma's new exhibit.

Italy - Falconara, Natura Viva.

Japan - Has a lot of cheetahs! It's difficult to find photos for most, though, given the language barrier and lack of zoochatters. Many are safari exhibits, which aren't really fair to rank. Zoorasia is probably the winner, despite having them on exhibit with ungulates. They have safe areas, and trees to climb. There's glass windows for public viewing.

Netherlands - Beekse Bergen, Overloon, Kristiansand.

Oceania - There's a lot of really large exhibits here. Billabong has more of a US-like exhibit, with lots of mock rock, but still nice. Most of the rest are large rectangles with out much going on. Monarto is my favorite based on what I've seen.

Poland - Gdansk.

Spain - Cabarceno, of course.

Switzerland - Basel.

UK, which I haven't looked at much - I'd put Wild Place as the winner here, with ZSLW in second. I'd love to see more of Dartmoor and Exmoor. Fota looks really large. Hamerton has huge yards but not much going on in them. Marwell's is also very large and with some different things, but the indoor sort of area looks barely larger than a dog kennel.

USA - I haven't really looked at the ones with tons of photos/in cheetah-heavy states yet, but ones I'd like to see in person are Living Desert, Busch Gardens, Phoenix, Jacksonville, Indianapolis, Kansas City. Of ones I've been to, I might have to give it to Pittsburgh. Lots of viewing spots, both fencing (all along one long side) and a glass window, and viewing into their indoor area. Smithsonian's is nice, as well. Omaha is an example of one that looks great in photos, and is nice for the cats, but in person looks very different because of awful viewing spots.

 

Why already asking another question instead of giving zoochatters the time to write a descent answer?

I like this topic, could be one for a long time, but in this way it's confusing (because responses are mixed up and time frame is non-existent) and imo not very appealing to participate because I would like to think before writing anything down.