Having been to Omaha and reading what is said here, I am leaning towards a 2-1 vote for Chester. I'm looking through the gallery and my major question is, does Chester have an ungulate exhibit anyone considers bad? We have brought them up for Omaha, but it appears Chester has none. At least they haven't been used as a counter argument like Omaha's have. Maybe I missed it. The second thing I want to say is that someone said that Chester's Elephant Habitat is always dirt, because the elephants have free range of the entire habitat. As someone that went to Omaha 2 or 3 times a year when I was living in Southern Minnesota, I have never seen Omaha's habitat green either. I was there within 3 months of when the African section opened. I've been in August, October, May and even January. Of course, I don't expect it to be green in January, but again I feel like I've gone at varying points of the year and always have the same result. It has always been dirt and no grass every time I went, which always leaves me very disappointed. This goes for the big yard and the small one. I looked in the gallery and am pleased to see it is green in many pictures, but I question how often it does look like that as I have never seen it.
Any particular reason why you value the enclosure having a lot of grass? Elephants spend plenty of time walking on other substrates in the wild... and it wouldn't surprise me if the frequented parts of the enclosure are incapable of sustaining grass anyhow.
You're absolutely correct. Overall, I was just trying to point out that Omaha's is normally mostly dirt from what I can tell like Chester's is, because someone said that above about Chester. I honestly don't value it having grass that much, beyond the minimum fact that grass looks better. I understand that it is normally very hard to maintain in elephant enclosures unless they are absolutely immense. I did not mean my words to come off as I was disappointed in the enclosure for that reason. I think Omaha has an excellent habitat. I also really liked St. Louis' which was also barren of any grass. Like I said, mainly from a visitor standpoint grass just better to look at. My 2-1 vote for Chester honestly has nothing to do with the elephant enclosure though. Its more to do with the point others brought up about a few of the enclosures in Omaha, but its a very hesitant 2-1 for Chester and I have been waiting for someone to convince me otherwise. I'm on the fence about some of the enclosures in the Lied Jungle being inside only. Yes, the one is clearly to small, but the others I wonder how much the animals care about it just because of the environment that the jungle creates. Right now, I've only heard the argument that it isn't good and I am voting on those lines as we haven't really heard anything about bad ungulate exhibits at Chester with similar issues. However, like I said, I've placed my votes with Chester as that seems to be where the stronger argument lies to me currently, but could be swayed to switch.
I went with 2-1 Chester - better collection overall and going through the photo gallery, I like most of Chester's exhibit more as well. Omaha gets point for some of the species I really like.
I certainly can't think of any hoofstock enclosures at Chester which I found bad or even questionable, which even the Omaha supporters here have to admit isn't the case for their champion. No matter the size of the enclosure, it's hard to get grass to consistently grow in elephant habitats because they constantly trample it and probably eat it from time to time as well. Omaha's elephant habitat was very green on my visit, which is actually further indication that the animals haven't been getting a lot of access to the main yard as of late (although tbf I visited during tornado season and it was raining nearly every day of my trip so this will accelerate the growth rate). Preferably you'd probably want a situation like Sedgwick and (I think) Tampa where you have multiple large yards the elephants can be shifted between to allow the vegetation to recuperate from time to time. ~Thylo
