I've actually been wondering about this for a while; I saw a miner's camp in one exhibit at Henry Doorly for rattlesnakes last time I was there. Does anybody know of any cool human structures (even something as simple as road signs) or human traces placed deliberately in animal exhibits to show impact on the natural world/world-building purposes? Also, what are your takes on those kinds of exhibits?
There are a few exhibits in NA that have vehicles halfway in exhibits. Columbus Zoo has a bush plane that the lions can lounge on. Henry Doorly also has a Jeep halfway in their lion exhibit. Louisville has a truck halfway in their indoor grizzly/polar bear exhibit. While not in the exhibit technically, Cheyenne Mountain has a crashed bush plane that partly goes over the black rhino habitat. There are probably a bunch more that I can’t think of. I think they are a neat way to educate guests and provide a novel viewing experience.
At Wildplace the lemur walkthrough enters through a Madagascar village display, and the surroundings also feature a miners camp. Part of the African Savannah section has an African village with various examples of food grown and sold.
It could be a good concept, but is usually very badly done. Few zoos put actually faithful native works of art in zoo exhibits, which would be educational in their own right. Usually it is "how an European imagines Australia". I only hope that somebody in Australia makes a zoo exhibit with similarly grotesque mock German or French things. One example where it actually makes sense (although is among the oldest) was Bird House in Bronx. In the curassow exhibit, there is a chainsaw and a rifle. In the parrot exhibit, there is a mock tree hole cut open by bird trappers, with a ladder going to it. And in American bird exhibit, there is a sign that this lot was sold for housing development.
London's Asiatic Lion enclosure includes a Gujurati village complete with railway line, Chester's Bermuda Killifish exhibit contains golf balls (the only remaining wild habitats for species are water features on a golf course), and the British Wildlife Centre's wonderful Barn habitat features Brown and Black rats, Red Foxes, and House Mice in (separate) barn-themed enclosures containing a range of domestic and agricultural clutter.
The Seneca Park Zoo's Lion exhibit has a Safari bus in it that visitors can watch from and the Lions can climb on top of The Maryland Zoo also has a Tundra Buggy that sticks out into the Polar/Brown Bear exhibits that visitors can watch from.
The San Diego Zoo Safari Park used to have a vehicle inside the lion exhibit. They used to have a separate vehicle acting as a barrier for the flamingo exhibit. I think they were removed due to complaints, as they addressed the existence of the vehicles in some edition of Zoonooz in a way that made it seem like they were frequently asked about. It's a shame, the lions really enjoyed the vehicle in their exhibit. It was a favorite resting place, and it was almost a guarantee to see Izu on it, which was an excellent viewing opportunity. I don't think the flamingos had any feelings about them one way or the other, though.
There are also those zoo exhibits that center around trash. I've heard of a few aquarium tanks with those.
