Materials now being used in skylight systems (ETFE, or "Foiltec") allow UV transmission at a far greater level than glass or other traditional glazing systems do. This application can be seen in numerous facilities, ranging from the Eden Project, Zurich's Masoala, Bronx Zoo's Madagascar, and most recently Gondwanaland in Leipzig. There are certainly benefits to having completely outdoor facilities, but the differential is far less today in these modern buildings than it was in traditional indoor animal housing.
@reduakari: you forgot to mention Tierpark Hellabrunn's Jungle Tent and Giant Tortoise House as older examples of such foils used in zoos...However, next to elaborate price, somehow questionable weatherability at extreme weather conditions, heat loss, overheating etc., one should not lose sight of the fact that even though such foils allow more of light spectrum in than glass, they do still filter a certain extent of it out...so no 100% "natural light" is achieved.
Sun Wukong no exhibit will be perfuct. For the space gondwanaland occupies it was they could only have fit a large indoor exhibit for the animals or a large outdoor exhibit. The weather would allow the animals to use an outdoor exhibit april through november but an indoor exhibit could be used 24-7 every day of the year. A rainforest would be hard to replicate outdoors so a indoor exhibit would actually be better for the animals. If zoo leipzig had much more land two use they would probabaly have indoor and outdoor exhbits for its large mammals.
While I agree with this, I believe the original plans for Gondwanaland included an adjacent outdoor tapir exhibit, which would be located in the Zoo's "Asia" area, near the elephant exhibit. From one of the messages in this thread, it sounds like there are still plans to add it in the future.
Neither is orthography, is it? No exhibit might be "perfect"-after all, we're talking about the manmade confinement of a wild animal. Trying to replicate a rainforest, or rather, the original habitat 100% is doomed right from the start, as we cannot and even don't want to replicate every aspect of it(including predators, parasites, diseases etc.). However, modern animal husbandry tries to meet the needs of the animal as comprehensively as possible. And for an animal, a real, yet non-native tree may be more useful than an artificial one just made to resemble the ones in the native habitat just to please the human eye. The same can be said about "natural light" in an indoor exhibit, and natural light aka unfiltered, real sunlight. Even if the animal can only use the outdoor exhibit a limited time a year, then this is better than no outdoor excess at all. I don't like to anthropomorphise, but just as most of us can't stand being indoors for a longer period of time, many animals in captivity do show a clear preference for being outdoors at apt weather conditions. Of course, the occasional "couch potato" (due to various reasons, including intrasocial aggression, bad experiences, age etc.) does exist, but the majority obviously frolics when being let out after a longer time of having to stay indoors. Therefore, both assumptions: "an indoor exhibit would actually be better for the animals" and "This exhibit is evidence that large animals can be kept indoors in large enclousures" lack a factual basis. If there's indeed a plan at Leipzig to add outdoor exhibits, even better.
Perhaps, but do we know why they prefer the outdoors? It could be due to any number of factors not simply "in" vs. "out"
"Heidi" and her sister "Naira" appeared at the Leipzig Zoo TV series (Elephant Tiger and Co.) in summer 2010 for the first time (their arrival at the zoo from Denmark), the german yellow press noticed her and the run began.
Another one of her sisters still lived in Copenhagen Zoo until she died earlier this year. I can't help but noticing the cultural difference from Germany to Denmark. In Denmark we attempt to draw focus away from deformed and behaviourally disturbed animals (such as Knut and Hedi) while in Germany the press are all over them and the zoos only to happy to make stars of them for the public. The little Heidi created some stir in Denmark as well and a lot of people thought she look adorable. However, Copenhagen Zoo never played on the fact that they had her sister at the same time.
Three Malaysian giant pond turtles arrived vom Tiergarten Schönbrunn, Vienna. @Toddy Heidi became deformed in Denmark, they attempted to draw focus on fatten her ((--:
Already? That's insane. There are probably some small zoos that haven't ever had that number of visitors.
