Worst Enclosures You Have Ever Seen

I've been lucky, most of the Zoo enclosures I have seen have been pretty good, at least given the situation in other parts of the world. That said I have seen some animal exhibits where I think the way it was constructed was a really bad idea. I know that my fellow ZooChatters have traveled all over the world, can anyone tell me about the most memorably bad enclosure they have ever seen? Also, what constitutes a good habitat for that species?

I'll go first. Frankly if this is the worst thing I have ever seen in terms of animal housing I am lucky. I saw a canary in a cage that appeared to be made of some kind of wood. All I could think was "it's a good thing that this is an canary and not a member of the parrot family because a parrot will instinctively want to chew and inevitably the first thing it will chew through is the cage." and also "How do you keep something like that clean? What it you need to sterilize it ? (I have had to sterilize the cages of my own birds several times.)

Full disclosure: this was at a library, not a zoo, however it is a public animal exhibit so I'm counting it. I've seen some pretty depressing farm fields, but we are sticking to zoo's here.

 

Bear canyon at Henry Doorly is very outdated. It has a nice collection of bears Like polar, brown, black, Andean, and sun bears. However the exhibits are terribly cramped and all concrete just look at this video.

 

The bear grottos at Little Rock are the worst I've ever seen. The bears and otters should not be allowed anywhere near these spaces.

 

The Polar Bear Exhibit at the Ecotarium in Worcester MA was rather spare, but their only specimen has since passed away and while she was alive she actually seemed pretty healthy and well adjusted. And besides she had lived her whole life there, why disrupt her? The museum (it is a combination Zoo/Natural History Museum with a strong bent towards children unfortunately for us grown ups who don't have them, you will be in the minority if you don't have children with you) no longer has Polar Bears though, and was planning to phase them out before Kenda died of old age a few years ago.

 

Oh DEAR GOD. I just saw these awful concrete abominations of enclosures. This is the worst I have ever seen. I have one more though.

Lincoln park zoo Kolver lion house- Should be renamed Kolver lion prison. This building is from a over a century ago and The mane (see what I did their) problem is that they cram way to many cats into this ugly building. The best exhibits are 2 small grassy grottos for African Lions and Amur tigers. The other side has 5 outdated cages for pumas, snow leopards, Amur leopard, red pandas, and Eurasian lynx. The real problem is the inside. It is loud, most likely thanks to kids screaming, this is not any good for the cats. Their is also a ugly gift shop taking up space that the cats can use. That side has indoor lion and tiger prison cells with just a log and a den for enrichment. Across from that are 5 narrow, cramped, unrealistic cells. The first 2 are for a lone jaguar who spends his time pacing back and forth. The last 3 are for a elderly serval who isn't out much.

 

You guys didn't see the worst.China.Lots of bad enclosure.Worst one(in many zoo):1*1 or 2*2 meter cages for bear and lion and more . .Also,absolutely nothing in the cage except like two lions.

 

The worst exhibit I have seen was the old big cat row at Edinburgh zoo. Don't get me wrong, I love Edinburgh zoo. But the cats had an area about the size of a good sized bedroom.

 

Also, bear in mind that it's not just the size of the enclosure but how stimulating the enclosure is. You can have a very large exhibit for an animal and still have it bored out of its mind. For example I know of an African Grey (living a farm supply store) who had a large cage and was allowed out all day that still ripped half of the feathers out of her breast because she otherwise had nothing to do. Supposedly she "threw her toys on the floor" but seriously? There has got to be some way.

 

The baboon enclosure at Krefeld is pretty horrible as well.

 

I would love a bedroom the size of the old Big Cat Row at Edinburgh. Also, for golden cats and Wolverines I suspect they weren't small at all.

~Thylo

 

I was thinking that there would be an example from China, I understand that a lot of the facilities keeping exotic animals located in that part of the world are horrible.

 

I'm really not a fan of these posts, especially from people who've never worked in the zoo industry. The visitor's perspective is usually not the best place to judge an exhibit from.

 

We are just sharing are opinions on what we think its a bad exhibit. Plus Do really think the mentioned exhibits are good at all?

 

I've never seen a large carnivore cage that is so small and I doubt you have either. That's not to say there aren't lots of terrible enclosures in China, because there are, but this is just hyperbole.

 

I haven't taken a look at those questioned. I'm merely trying to state that unless you yourself have been in and worked in the exhibit - or any exhibit - your judgment will be flawed.

 

That may be true but I think we can all tell that a small concrete grotto or loud cramped big house is a bad exhibit.

 

Can we?

 

Uh yes.

 

How can you tell? What criteria are you using?