Even though this trend is sadly decreasing, plenty of zoos have exhibits themed around bears, cats, and pinnipeds. With these groups represented, I have often wondered if there were any zoos that had exhibits themed around canids. Are there any? Why or why not?
When I visited Oklahoma City Zoo in 2008, there was an area called Wild Dog Drive. Here is the species list: Cheetah, Spotted Hyena, Maned Wolf, Mexican Gray Wolf, African Wild Dog, Black-backed Jackal, Bat-eared Fox and Bush Dog. Impressive! Sadly, that entire area has now been condensed into 'Predator Pass', with Cheetahs and African Wild Dogs the only inhabitants. These photos are all from 2008: Maned Wolf exhibit: Bush Dog exhibit: Spotted Hyena exhibit (extremely large!):
This is something I have often wondered about as well -- there are indeed, as @birdsandbats said, tons of zoos that will have a 'Wolf Woods' which is often a single exhibit for a pack of wolves of a particular subspecies, or dhole, and while many zoos may hold exotic foxes or painted dogs in recent years, they are often part of biogeographic complexes. I've never heard of any kind of 'Canid House' or 'Dog House' which has the potential to be a fun exhibit theme, imo
Zoo Osnabrück had a "Wolfswald" as well. It was the main wolf enclosure and next to it was a small polar fox enclosure and a paddock for Sika Deer. The dhole enclosure was almost next to it but I don't know if you could count this as a real complex. Here is the link to the old map (wolfs on the right side). When I think about it, I've probably never seen wolves in any kind of indoor facility.
The general need for larger canids to have spacious exhibits probably dissuade this to an extent. Well wolves are quite hardy and can generally be kept outdoors yearround just about anywhere, so there's really no need for indoor exhibtry.
While I agree there's no real need for wolves to have indoor exhibits, I am surprised that I'm not aware of any wolf exhibits that include a small, indoor den component. I've seen bear exhibits with small dens that provide shelter (e.g. Buffalo Zoo's Arctic's Edge), I'd expect that to be a style of exhibitry that would work rather well with wolves too.
That makes a ton of sense and answers perfectly as to the present day, setting aside bio geography. Is this something that was well understood fairly early in zoo history? I know bears and cats were often held in smaller taxonomic exhibits not only recently but a century ago - did we already know they were more demanding then, perhaps because of pack dynamics?
That I'm not sure on, but it has been recognized they need more space for quite awhile now. There are members better qualified to answer that question than I am.
