What the fake!

This is a thread where we make a mockery of the rockery, acknowledge the foliage, and honour the polymer.

To be clearer, a place where the best and the worst of anything fake from the Zoochat gallery, such as fake trees, mock rock, fake termite mounds, plastic plants, river banks, themed buildings, enclosure boundaries etc. etc., can be posted and scored out of five based on how real they look.

Now not everything fake is trying to look real/naturalistic. This may be debateable based on how bad the outcome is, but in general a climbing frame isn't meant to look like a tree, a water dish isn't meant to look like a natural pond, an enclosure wall isn't supposed to be cliff face, and a basic wooden/metal shelter isn't trying to look like a small cave or burrow. Those things are all about functionality, whereas this thread is purely for comparing intentional mimicry.

Enclosures as a whole may also be included based on how close they look to the animal's natural habitat, but only if significant obvious effort and expense has been made to make the enclosure look that way. For example, a basic grass paddock isn't trying hard to look exactly like the African savannah, so wouldn't count.

I'd prefer for this to stay as a light-hearted thread and not turn into a huge heated debate, especially the naturalistic vs non-naturalistic argument. Additionally, if you agree with someone's scoring then by all means like their post if you wish, but if you disagree with someone's scoring then don't worry about it; it's just their opinion.

Template
What is it supposed to be?
Where is it (what zoo/ collection)?
Which enclosure (if applicable)?
What year was the photo taken?
Your score out of 5.

(Link to photo on ZooChat)

Additional comments (optional): (be brief).


Examples

What is it: Tree
Where is it: London zoo, UK
Which enclosure: Gorilla kingdom
What year: 2009
Score: 2 out of 5

Gorilla Kingdom | ZooChat

Additional comments: An entry point for colobus to access the gorilla enclosure.

What is it: Baobab tree
Where is it: Fuengirola Zoo, Spain
Which enclosure: Lemur enclosure
What year: 2009
Score: 4.5 out of 5

Fake Baobab tree in lemur enclosure at Fuengirola Zoo, 30 April 2009 | ZooChat



What is it: Termite mound
Where is it: Dudley zoo, UK
Which enclosure: Giant anteater
What year: 2017
Score: 2 out of 5

Giant anteater | ZooChat

Additional comments: Odd texture and colour.



What is it: Rock shelter
Where is it: Colchester zoo, UK
Which enclosure: Striped Hyena
What year: 2009
Score: 2 out of 5

Striped Hyaenas at Colchester 29/11/09 | ZooChat​

 

If something is truly awful does it get a 5 out of 5, or 1 out of 5?

 

If you want to see bad...


What is it?: A coral reef
Where it it: NEW Zoo, Suamico, Wisconsin, USA
Which enclosure: A FRESHWATER cichlid tank
Year: This took like, three or four years to set up. And this was the best they could do
Score: 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001/5

 

And I just got the thread title.

 

I posted this set of images soon after the opening of Islands at Chester in 2015, showing some examples of the fake geology of the exhibits. I think most of them look pretty good, and as I argued at the time, to use natural stone in a set of exhibits covering such a large area would have been ruinously expensive. I think an average score of 4/5 might be fair.
Click on the image below to see the large version and the location of each example.

The Mock Rock Geology of Islands by gentle lemur posted 31 Aug 2015 at 11:19 PM

 

5 out of 5 is the best score i.e. the most real looking.

 

What is it: Rock for climbing
Where is it: Washington Park Zoo, USA
Which enclosure: Domestic goat paddock
What year: 2018
Score: 1.5 out of 5

Goat Mock-Rock Blob | ZooChat

Additional comments: Looks like a blob of plasticine that's melted in the sun. However, appears to suit the goats very well and no doubt improved their paddock for them.

 

I think Bronx has a fake Rafflesia in their rainforest building, I'll have to double check next time I go.

Surely more photos of Colchester's mock rock are warranted, particularly from that girdled lizard enclosure.

~Thylo

 

What? a rock
Where? West Midlands
Species? Lion
Score 0 out of 5


Realm of the Lions | ZooChat

 

I agree, not naturalistic at all, but the lions certainly would disagree, I’ve never not seen one member of the pride on it. Shows how much the animals care about the fake features in their exhibits.

 

But the point of this lighthearted thread is to highlight some of the extraordinarily bad examples of fake features in some zoo enclosures.

 

I'm glad you featured the fake tree in ZSL's gorilla kingdom. It is still there though its years since the plan to get the Colobus using the enclosure was dropped. But despite its uselessness its never been removed. Too much bother...

 

but @Azubaa is just stating how humans view things so differently to animals and saying that functionality comes before any appearance.

 

This thread is just to compare how realistic these fake things look to humans, but I agree that most animals couldn't care less and such man-made additions work perfectly well for them.

… and the better/best i.e. more realistic looking examples too

 

I'd argue that the Lion rock doesn't actually look too bad apart from the waterfall.

~Thylo

 

I just checked, neither seem to be photographed on ZooChat. The latter surprises me, as it seems pretty infamous in the UK zoo world.

~Thylo

 

but I can't ignore that huge lion head. I think they should of gone all out and had the waterfall coming of the lions mouth, I would of given it one point then for sheer wackiness

 

It is certainly a great vantage point for the lions. Reminds me rather of an African 'Kopje' and they are using it as a lookout the same way they would in the wild. Certainly it works for them despite the rather bizarre appearance.