That's hilarious...I don't think that Planckendael has been moved yet. Haha. Darn, still in Belgium. Wildlands Adventure Zoo Emmen has a superb indoor elephant exhibit and here are some photos of it:
That looks fantastic, I had heard of the new emmen elephant complex but the pictures I found were sub-par and I have never visited. Definitely one of the best judging by these pics though!
Whilst this looks aesthetically pleasing, there doesn't seem to be a whole amount of usable space for the elephants? To those that have visited, would I be right in making this assumption?
Yes absolutely. I am surprised so many members here praise the Emmen elephant house. I think it is pretty much a misconstruction. There is way too much water which is a waste of space. And dangerous for young calves. The useable space for the elehants is rather small and lacks structure.
Although if you look at it in comparison to Schoenbrunn and Hellabrunn the elephants still clearly have considerably more space. Is there water in the outdoor exhibit in Emmen?
Yeah, too me it also looks like Emmen focused more on letting visitors see the elephants in rainforest surroundings rather than the elephant exhibit itself. It still looks better than average, though, it just doesn't look as good as it could be considering the resources Emmen must have had to build the house.
The indoor space for elephants at Wildlands is one of the best I've ever seen and I was there with a Dutch zoo enthusiast (@jwer ) who also is a big fan of the habitat. Certainly @Yassa has a good point that "there is way too much water", but if you look at the three photos of the indoor area that I posted on this thread then you can see that there is still a significant amount of usable land. The weird rocky areas are utilized by elephants and the rock-work is already worn from the heavy walking of the animals. This photo shows a sandy area for elephants that is almost certainly larger than 90% of all the indoor elephant enclosures anywhere in the world...and that's just a portion of the indoor area at Emmen. Take a look: It's not perfect by any means, but Emmen's elephant accommodation is superior to just about every other zoo with elephants anywhere. Even the outdoor zone is so much better than many small and sterile elephant exhibits that I saw last summer in Europe. I've visited hundreds of zoos in North America and last summer I went on my first big European zoo trip. Here is an accumulation of the elephant facilities that I saw, although as you can see Emmen did not crack my personal Top 3 elephant exhibits...although it was close! I'd probably place Emmen in the #4 position. The zoos are listed in the order that I visited them. 19 zoos with Asian Elephants: Artis Royal Zoo (Amsterdam, NL), Diergaarde Blijdorp (Rotterdam, NL), Zoo Maubeuge (Maubeuge, FR), Zoo Antwerp (Antwerp, BE), Planckendael Zoo (Mechelen, BE), Pairi Daiza (Brugelette, BE), Cologne Zoo (Cologne, DE), Krefeld Zoo (Krefeld, DE), Dierenrijk (Animal Kingdom) (Nuenen, NL), Burgers' Zoo (Arnhem, NL), Tierpark Hagenbeck (Hamburg, DE), Berlin Zoo (Berlin, DE), Berlin Tierpark (Berlin, DE), Erlebnis Zoo Hannover (Hannover, DE), Tierpark Strohen (Wagenfeld, DE), Osnabruck Zoo (Osnabruck, DE), Allwetterzoo Munster (Munster, DE), Wildlands Adventure Zoo Emmen (Emmen, NL) and Dierenpark Amersfoort (Amersfoort, NL). 3 best Asian Elephant exhibits: Cologne Zoo (Cologne, DE) is easily #1, Planckendael Zoo (Mechelen, BE) is second and Diergaarde Blijdorp (Rotterdam, NL) third. There are, unfortunately, a number of fairly small, disappointing Asian Elephant exhibits that I saw on my trip. ___________________________________________________________________________ 10 zoos with African Elephants: Pakawi Park (Olmen, BE), Pairi Daiza (Brugelette, BE), Safari Parc Monde Sauvage (Aywaille, BE), Opel Zoo (Kronberg, DE), Wuppertal Zoo (Wuppertal, DE), Duisburg Zoo (Duisburg, DE), Safaripark Beekse Bergen (Hilvarenbeek, NL), Ouwehands Dierenpark (Rhenen, NL), Berlin Tierpark (Berlin, DE) and Serengeti-Park (Hodenhagen, DE). 3 best African Elephant exhibits: Opel Zoo (Kronberg, DE) is #1, Safaripark Beekse Bergen (Hilvarenbeek, NL) is #2 with a troop of Hamadryas Baboons in with the elephant herd, and Pairi Daiza (Brugelette, BE) third.
The interesting thing for me about the Emmen elephant exhibit is just how similar the outdoor and indoor habitats look. If the huge dome was edited out of images of the indoor enclosure I’d think it was an outdoor enclosure!
Does anyone know the architectural style of Zoo Leipzig's elephant house? It looks like brick combined with another style. It's one of my favorites alongside the Cincinnati zoo's elephant house.
While not aesthetically pleasing, one feature of both the Noah's Ark house and Oregon's new barn not seen frequently is the catwalk system. I was fortunate to go through Oregon's, and I could see many advantages this design offers. Perhaps most obviously, observing and researching elephant behavior from this angle is very special, unique, although regular visitors wouldn't benefit. If also allows a much larger and more novel array of vertical enrichment and feeding devices, and even opens up training possibilities from above. Perhaps as importantly, the catwalks offer a wider range of movement possible to get a hoist directly over a fallen elephant.
Klinkerstil or Bachsteinexpressionismus. Tremendous zoo in terms of architectural highlights, both old and new. Klein Paris - Zoo Both Klinkerstil and Jugendstill are well presented on the zoo grounds. I like particularly the large free flight aviaries on both sides of the path to the Elephant house.
In Budapest Zoo, there's a monument elephant house and a new elephant hall. I think there aren't good. The new hall is average, the old house is a sh_t for elephants.
Forgive me if this is taking it a bit off topic, but are they many zoos that have large indoor enclosures for other warm weather species like giraffes, zebras, etc.?
Yes @elefante in Budapest there's a large indoor enclosure for african ungulates, elephants, aardvarks and african insects: the Savanna House.
@elefante giraffes are often given a bit more space, other species is rather rare on show. However I do know that in Burger's the indoor exhibits for their African hoofstock are definitively spacious, but off-show at the moment. In the past they were visible I thought, but now the entrance is fenced off.
