One thing that seems to be really hard to do is to build an outstanding pinniped (i.e. sea lion, fur seal, harbour seal, grey seal etc.) enclosure - especially in Europe. While North America already has had some truly amazing pinniped enclosures for decades, Europe is really trailing behind. Even recently built enclosures have lots of problems, both aesthetically (for the visitors) as well as regarding animal husbandry and management. There are plenty problems, especially with space, water quality and general design. So what do you think is the best pinniped enclosure in Europe and why ?
The ones that spring to mind are Hannovers northern fur-seal/californian sea lion exhibit in Yukon Bay, mainly because it's rather large, has decent underwater viewing and has a wave-system Harderwijk's huge walrus exhibit with it's chrystal clear water is the second that springs to mind. AquaZoo Frieslands' southern fur seal exhibit is a quite large natural looking pond and to me is a fine example of a rather low-cost seal exhibit that works. From photo's I've seen, ZOOM Erlebniswelt and Bremerhaven also might deserve a mention...
. Considering the large number of zoos with pinnipeds, there is really not too much worth mentioning - or is there ? Zoom has lots of problems with water clarity and some of the fake rock work is already starting to break down. Personally, I also don't like their whole setup. Other enclosures at zoom turned out much better.
I also heared about their filter problems a few years ago, but i thought they might have fixed it by now. Many people I've seen and/or spoken to are not too enthousiastic about ZOOM... I've seen quite a few pinniped exhibits, quite a few are decent enough (Blijdorp, Emmen, Prague) but many are not worth mentioning or even rather bad (Rhenen, Osnabrück, Amsterdam, Harderwijks Steller sea lion exhibit, Liberec, Cologne, Dortmund).
Hannover is by far the best I've seen. Zoom is huge and long, which promotes swimming activity, but the rockwork is atrocious (and apparently dysfunctional as well), and the water quality is as bad as I've seen in a modern exhibit. Perhaps the new walrus/seal exhibits in Hamburg will be good?
