Sunday, May 22, 2011
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A Blog designed for discussion of topics related to, but not limited to, Circus, Zoos, Animal Training, and Animal Welfare/Husbandry. Sometimes opening up the dialog is the best starting point of all. And if for nothing else when people who agree and don't agree, get together and start discussing it, it will open up a lot of peoples minds. Debate and discussion even amongst themselves opens a window where there wasn't one before.
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4 comments:
A lot more "furniture" in this exhibit than the recently discussed National Zoo. Are there two yards divided or is it all one?
What are those platforms inside the moat?
Radar,
It is one yard, with an adjoining giraffe/antelope exhibit. The asphalt is the "guest viewing" area. I was "told" that the platforms were so that the keepers had someplace to walk/stand outside the exhibit to work with the elephants. San Antonio Zoo is a strange institution, with some incredible old moated(many from the WPA program) exhibits(particularly the hoof stock)that they have attempted to "modernize" with planted terraces. They have a number of unique, granted barbaric buildings(monkey house and Aquarium in particular) that are pictured with an "graphic" on the guide map, but are not given a name, and the "arrows" suggest you go around them.
Wade
Wade,
Are these WPA building you describe still in use?
Radar,
The Reptile house is still in use. The WPA hippo/tapir complex appears to be an infirmary on a temporary basis as it had one injured crane the day I was there. San Antonio Zoo history is hard to come by, but I think the majority of the WPA work was in the amazing moat system around the feline and bear grotto's which originally were barred over from old photo's I have seen. Given San Antonio's ability to flood there is a moat system all through the zoo sometimes filled with water and at other times dry. Because the majority of construction was with limestone(the bear,feline, elephant exhibits are back by the massive tall wall's of an old quarry) it is probably one of the most distinctive zoo's in North America. Even in pictures you instantly know what facility it is by the architecture and material used, which is often what happens with "moated" zoo's; every exhibit looks the same, Africa looks like Asia, which looks like North America. A number of years ago the toy model company Airfix put out of series of zoo/diorama kit's, moated exhibits which you could place on a board and make your own "fantasy" zoo. San Antonio brings me to mind of an "Airfix" zoo in it's design. Most unusual and outstanding, in my opinion, but now so very antiquated is their amazing rhinoceros complex, with connection moats, paddocks, gates, shifting chutes, and and small limestone what would be called "loafing sheds" in a horse operation, all viewable by looking down and across. Also the terraced hoof stock exhibits are so very unique and "old zoo" with the limestone "loafing sheds". Designed that way given I assume San Antonio's proclivity to flooding. They have attempted to utilize them with different species such a Warthog, Barbarossa which makes a sticking mud hole in the bottom 3/4 of the exhibits. Not a whole lot you can do with most of the old exhibits, but they are unique from a historical perspective and deserving of being museum exhibits.
I believe San Antonio had an elephant accident in 1993 which lead to the death of a keeper.
Wade
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