Do any of you know of zoos with "animal trails" where the animals can run around outside their exhibit (like the Zoo360 at the Philly Zoo).
Wroclaw have a surprising number of animal trails, e.g. for yellow-throated martens, red pandas, and cloud rats. The coolest is a water tunnel out of the new European otter exhibit, presumably inspired by similar features in Japan. New otter enclosure almost finished - ZooChat
Louisville has one for just snow leopards in their newly-opened snow leopard exhibit. It is simply a trail, it does not connect the exhibit to any other enclosure (although it can be sectioned off).
Philly really missed out when they redid their otter exhibit recently! I'd love to see the cloud rats, too.
The trails at Philly: Treetop Trail - this is the main one, and biggest. It creates a loop from one end of the rare mammal center to the other, going out and around the big eating area and fountain. It includes sizeable areas of trees for the animals to climb. It then goes south along the pathway, past the reptile house and along the children's zoo, over to PECO primate reserve and around the orangutan area. It is used by a host of animals - tamarins, fossa, lemurs, saki, mangabey, and others. Big Cats - primarily tigers and lions, but also cougar, jaguar, snow leopard, and leopard. It goes over the main walkway in front of the Tiger Terrace eatery, down along the glass wall of the indoor eating area, and then under the gorilla trail. Gorillas - Gorillas. Goes out from the eastern PECO entrance, across the walkway and west along the pond before making a loop. In the winter this trail is occasionally used by the big cats, as well. Great Apes - Orangutans and gibbons. Similar to the gorilla trail, but it goes out from the orang yard near the western PECO entrance. Meerkats - this one goes out from their formerly indoor-only enclosure and includes a winding trail next to the small mammal house. There's climbing tours, a big sand pit for digging, a statue that's half in and half out of the trail, and several other different ways for the animals to explore. Red Pandas - their trail is primarily overhead, with lots of hidden spots for the pandas to nap. It can also be used by the lynx. Otters - this one isn't much of a trail. One part is a little babbling waterfall type thing that then goes under a bridge to connect the two otter areas (their former exhibit and the area that used to be for the pelicans across from it), and another that goes up and over and ends with a slide. Goats - I'm not sure if this is considered a trail? But it's part natural, part metal, and gives them a climbing area, then up to bridges and walkways, then back down to the ground and up to more bridges. There's several gates to allow keepers to separate animals and there's a climbing area for children that mimics part of it. The treetrop trail goes right along part of it.
Meerkats Digging area, climbing areas at the other end, meerkats using both. The last photo is a little tunnel kids can use that parallels the meerkat trail.
Gorilla trail. In the first photo, you can see the cat trail that goes under it. In the second one, a keeper had just put peanut butter and carrots throughout the trail.
Otters & Pandas. First photo, you can see some of the trail behind the statue thing. Second photo is the slide. Third is the little waterfall that goes under the human walkway. Fourth is the entrance/exit from a trail into the third, smaller otter area. Fifth is a red panda.
Cats. Photo one is one of the entrances, there's several from each different cat exhibit. Second photo is the trail going over the walkway. Third is under the trail. Fourth is taken from the dining area.
Treetop... Photo 1 is the first view you see of the trail when walking into the zoo. Two is the first entrance to it, with two golden lion tamarins. Three is an example of the tree climbing areas that go around the water feature/dining area. Four is black and white ruffed lemurs playing above the goat trail. Fifth, you can see bits of the trail at each end of this photo of the orang area.
There are very few real trail systems similar to Philadelphia's Philadelphia has made a big commitment to this concept. Others have taken the idea and adapted it to create linked enclosures: Trails: Jacksonville Zoo's Tiger exhibit Jacksonville Zoo's new-ish gorilla (etc) exhibit The Cleveland Museum of Natural History's Perkins Wildlife Center is all trails for the native mammals Linked by enclosed bridges: Cleveland Zoo has connected their tiger enclosures with short "trails" (really more bridges) San Diego Zoo "Tiger Trails" - although again more bridges connecting enclosures than real trails Louisville Zoo's Glacier Run also has bridges connecting enclosures
Wroclaw has Black Howlers walking on a rope ladder over a visitor path. It is not a mesh tunnel, but monkeys do not jump down. I saw a similar design for orangutans elsewhere. I wonder, if other primates can be kept this way, too? One book writes that primates generally climb down the trees very cautiously, and are unwilling to jump down. Presumably for fear of breaking bones and predators hiding somewhere around.
It depends upon the species. Several zoos have aerial cable trails for orangutans (Indianapolis Zoo, Dublin Zoo, The Smithsonian National Zoo, one or two in Australia) but there are controls to stop the orangs from coming down poles in the wrong places. And then one need to think of smaller primates that are likely to leap to any nearby structure.
Cheyenne Mountain has about a quarter-mile trail for their African elephants that connects the north end of the barn to the south show yard. It goes right next to the bull giraffe yard and lion building. Elephants will rotate through the yards using it or will even just be given access to it to spend time there.
From what I've seen, Roosevelt Park Zoo in Minot, North Dakota does this with their ring-tailed lemurs, something I think is a good twist which elevates their corn crib cages above any other ones.
Howler monkeys in Wroclaw, too, are prevented from walking down by an electric wire. I wonder if the same can be used for other species. For example coatis and binturongs are agile climbers but do not jump. They could walk around on bridges made of level branches without the wire tunnel. Coatis in Zoo Hannover have access to a crown of an old hybrid plane tree. They are hesitant to jump or climb down on the smooth bark. There is no special protection whatsoever. Gibbons or lemurs would probably also not jump if they had no obvious close landing sites. Such design would be significantly cheaper and visually more friendly. For me these wire tunnels recall wire corridors in American prisons. And would recall them even more in a few years time, when the metal will start corroding.
