Odense Zoo 1998. The Camel gets a new neighbor
The Tiger exhibit in the old part of the zoo was too small for such a big Cat and it was decided to make a new exhibit next to the camel. The big cats are…
The Tiger exhibit in the old part of the zoo was too small for such a big Cat and it was decided to make a new exhibit next to the camel. The big cats are animals, visitors want to see. In contrast to lions living in smaller or big groups in the wild, the tiger is living alone. And the lack of social activity and food delivered at its doorstep, so no need for hunting, makes the Tiger less cooperative in relation to visitors. So the excitement to visitors is to find the Tiger at all and the enclosure is designed for that purpose.
There is a lot of running streams making the Tiger area nice to look at and the streams end up in a little lake where the Tiger on a hot day will show visitors that this cat likes to swim.
The still growing number of visitors led to a dream of getting Asian Elephants – the animal everybody likes to see. Gaia design made a model showing the possibilities and the tiger exhibit was built as a part of big Asian area. It was uneasy planning but still possible to divide the zoo into clear separated different parts of the World and maybe even possible to establish a main visitor flow. With the growing number of visitors the main flow seems more needed than 2 years ago.