Ok, so I thought I would expand the polls to other European countries/regions and look at some of the larger ABC animals. I thought I would look at Beneleux (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg) first as this I an area with good representation of members who have visited/live there. I'm not sure if this is the best place to post the threads so if moderators need to move them please do. In terms of the UK contests I thought I would have a break from them for a while as I was pleased with the large range of species we had covered. This is just a bit of fun to judge the general consensus on the best enclosure for Orangutans in Benelux I have added a few photos from the gallery to make it easier for members to compare the different exhibits. If anyone wants to make an argument for a particular enclosure, please feel free to do so. Also, I would encourage people to perhaps list the enclosures in order of what they determine to be the best. Apenheul (Bornean) Ouwehands (Bornean) Pairi Daiza (Sumatran) Monde Sauvage (Sumatran)
It may be personal but the one at Apenheul is IMO the best. 2 of the others ( Ouwehands and Pairi Daiza ) are - I guess - complety fine for the animals and have enough space and climbing-stuf but I find the one at Ouwehands a little to 'sterile' and I totaly dislike the marble palace - indoor enclosure at Pairi Daiza. The one at Monde Sauvage I've not seen personaly, so no opinion about that one.
Apenheul is the only one here that provides living conditions that resemble the wild situation. They have four separate outdoor + indoor enclosures. Behind the scenes animals can be moved between all these enclosures and they have the opportunity to choose with whom the want to spend the day. This resembles the fission-fusion of the wild. In addition both indoors and outdoors are well-structured with a high number of enrichment opportunities. Pairi Daiza is not bad mostly, but in terms of management it is just 2 separated pairs and especially the larger outdoor enclosure is somewhat bare.
There is no question here; there is a reason EAZA use Apenheul as one of the main template exhibits for the best practice guidelines for orangutan husbandry. Apenheul wins here, based on their enclosure design and fission-fusion capability. Monde Sauvage seems too open, Ouwehands has a nice O-Line outdoors but the indoors is pretty dire, and Pairi Daiza may look pretty but it doesn’t hold a candle to Apenheul.
I visited all 4 of these zoos last summer and in my opinion Apenheul easily wins. The intricate setup that involves multiple indoor and outdoor areas gives the orangutans choice and allows for effective management of the apes. Ouwehands has the great O-Line option, but most of the exhibit is not very impressive. Monde Sauvage is very poor and while I'm more of a fan of Pairi Daiza's orangutan complex than other zoo enthusiasts, it still cannot compare to Apenheul.
Apenheul, but I haven’t seen Monde Sauvage in real life. However, Apenheul is (imo) the only enclosure that is really great for me, Pairi Daiza is ok as well, I just don’t really like the one in Ouwehands (old indoor enclosures, very small outdoor)
Score update. Apenheul currently have a large lead with 90% of the vote. As others have said it is an excellent exhibit with the ability to move the animals between high quality indoor and outdoor enclosures.
Poll closed. Congratulations to Apenheul on winning the vote for Best Orangutan enclosure in Benelux. It was a fairly straight forward win as appears to be the case in the other ape polls so far. Apenheul: 91.7% Pairi Daiza: 8.3%
