What is your Favorite Indoor rainforest?

I Like the Idea of Indoor rainforests and think its great to See small mammals birds and reptiles in the Indoor rainforests.

My Favorite Indoor rainforest is the gondwanaland in Leipzig Zoo, because of many rare Zoo animals Like komodo dragon and quoll. I Like the amazon House of my local Zoo Wilhelma in Stuttgart too because they have a huge amazon Tank with caimans, turtles, Catfish and even Giant arapaima.

Now i want to know what is your Favorite Indoor rainforest?

 

Masoala at Zurich for sure.

 

I will try to rate the bigger ones I have seen :

1. Masoala - Zurich zoo
2. Bush - Burgers zoo
3. Gondwanaland - Leipzig zoo
4. Rainforest House - Vienna zoo
5. ABH - TP Berlin
6. Jungle World - Bronx zoo
7. Amazon-Guyana Biozone - Paris zoo
8. Tropical Realm - Chester zoo
9. Tropicalia - Pairi Daiza
10. Tropical House - Cologne zoo
11. Asian Tropical House - Planckendael zoo
12. Indonezian Jungle - Prague zoo
13. Amazonica - Rotterdam zoo

Missed Manatee house on my visit at Nuremberg, unfortunately

 

I haven't seen too many of these at zoos and honestly I much prefer real rainforests, but I think the "rainforest life" exhibit at ZSL London is quite interesting.

I don't normally liked mixed-species exhibits with species from different biogeographic regions but I did find the London zoo exhibit intriguing to see for example a Rodrigues fruit bat alongside a golden headed lion tamarin and a sloth alongside the enclosure of a narrow striped mongoose. I also like the fact that just downstairs you have the nocturnal species like the slender loris, Malagasy giant jumping rats etc.

In terms of "indoor rainforests" that I haven't seen yet I think the one that I would most like to see would be the Livingstone's / Rodrigues fruitbat roost at the Jersey zoo as I have read a lot about the design of this exhibit and the benefits it has for the bats in both wellbeing and conservation terms.

 

Lied Jungle is pretty cool, But I honestly am more interested in seeing the Smaller life of rain forests such as Unique insect species and Stream fish, but sure. My home zoo has a rainforest that is the Definition of "Fine" but with some good parts, I like the open-topped reef tank which is a pretty cool Idea. But honestly wish the Tapirs could have a better habitat or an outdoor area as well.
Como zoo also has a small but pleasant Rainforest wing along with a superb Botanical gardens, but has some great free-flight species and Caecilians, which is a plus.
Honestly I would have to go to more to actually choose my favorite, but I'm pretty set on the Lied Jungle being the most wondrous experience for me. (Wish they wouldn't have tapirs and hippos only indoors but whatever)

 

Masoala first, never been to Burgers but I'm pretty sure both Masoala in Zürich and the Bush in Burgers are faar away from all the other indoor jungles for one reason, I don't know who formulated it that way but I really liked it when I saw it : in Masoala and in the Bush you feel like you're in a jungle or at least close, in the others you're in a zoo in a jungle.
Gondwanaland was a disapointment because of that.

When it comes to species held inside these indoor rainforests, if we're only talking about the free-ranging ones then I think the top 3 made by @twilighter is still relevant, maybe even the top 4 and I would suggest the Amazonia house in Stuttgart for its very nice bird selection.
If we're considering the exhibits within these houses, Cologne has a crazy collection and I believe Chester also does have very interesting species.

 

Unlike Brazil, we don't have any of those closeby in Europe and North America...

 

Did you see ABH after the renovation?

 

Yes

 

I know, hahaha .... But the terrible truth is that over here it really won't be too long before there aren't any left.

 

The monsoon forest at Chester zoo, which has recently reopened (only for the zoo to be closed ), is a very good rainforest building

 

Is that the one that caught fire? If it is, Im glad to see that they’ve recovered

 

It is, after a few years of rebuilding it was reopened before Christmas and all of the species have now been moved back in. I think they also added some new features such as the indoor rain system.

 

The Dallas Word Aquarium is essentially one giant indoor rainforest with a few aquariums sprinkled around, and although I haven’t been, my family is planning on going on a cruise and possibly visiting the Moody Gardens, and they have an aquarium, rainforest, and museum pyramid there.

 

Masaola in Zurich is the only good one I have seen in person. The few I have seen in the United States I do not like (and even the ones I haven't seen like Omaha don't look very good based on photos).

 

I love the one in the California Academy of Sciences. It's a giant dome containing many small rainforest critters, from butterflies to birds to tropical fish.

 

I’ve never been to any of these, but the ones at Bronx, Sedgwick, and Omaha look really good. I might get a chance to go to the latter two before I move, since I live relatively near them.

 

Based on size and design it seems unlikely any of the American rainforests can compete with the big four in Europe: Masoala in Zurich, the Bush in Burgers' Zoo, Gondwanaland in Leipzig and Jungola in Wildlands. All are 2-3 times bigger than the largest hall in the Americas, with the first two focusing on showing a replicate of a real rainforest, while the other two show a zoo in a rainforest setting.

For me the Bush and Masoala trump all others by a big margin and while Masoala is more impressive in design (greater height; 30 vs 20 meters), the Bush is better for actually exploring and leaves more to be discovered for regular visitors as it has a network of trails, where Masoala only has one and overall a better animal collection.

 

Masoala has a non-accessible to the regular visitor path that goes in the jungly areas. I believe it is only accessible by guests on a guides tour, which is a shame but the path is not large enough for a constant visitor transit.
Never been on it but it does look much more immersive than the regular paths.
Maybe you have?

 

That path is only accessible on weekends through guided tours that usually start at (if I remember correctly) 10:00 or 11:00. The tours are free of charge and there is no need register, you just have to wait at the right time and place for the start of the tour (as indicated on the zoo app or on the free zoo map). The guided tour path definitely has a (much) more 'jungly' feel to it.