Best Elephant Park in Europe?

26-01-2008

Funny, Warsaw also has hyrax in elephant house. They first wanted a pool with elephant seals, but scaled down their plan a little!

Yes, exhibits often look different on pictures than in real life.

@snowleopard: EU regulations demand to keep elephants in groups. Some old ones stay alone, but most animals will be in herds.

26-01-2008

@Jurek7: you bring up a good point with your reference to EU regulations. Here in North America there are also laws forbidding zoos from keeping only a single elephant, and yet many organizations flaunt those rules and do as they please. The Alaska Zoo finally moved Maggie last year, who lived for years all alone in freezing temperatures. Edmonton's Valley Zoo in Canada currently has a single elephant named Lucy, and there are at least two more zoos in the U.S. (San Antonio might be one of them) that only have a solitary elephant. No wonder there are so many reports of animal rights groups complaning about poor treatment of these animals.

With the death of a pregnant female elephant, as well as her unborn baby, at the Fort Worth Zoo in Texas yesterday that means more ammunition for people against elephants in captivity.

06-02-2008

Enclosure in beauval zoo 5Ha

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06-02-2008

Enclosure in beauval zoo has a surface of 5Ha
There is one grassy enclosure and one sand enclosure

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06-02-2008

is Zoo Beauval the zoo where Longleat's Elephants went to?

The enclosure looks similar to the one that was shown on 'Animal Park' (The TV series)...

06-02-2008

Wow, that look's like a really cool enclosure

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I am Toddy, the zoo-enthusiast from Denmark!
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06-02-2008

Yes the eles in the pcis are the former Longleat elephants!

06-02-2008

Size does matter when it comes to elephant exhibits, as the larger the enclosure the more room they have to explore. With so many pachyderms suffering from foot ailments in captivity, it is terrific to see the Beauval Zoo's large enclosure. Of course enrichment is crucial to the success of captive elephants, but being able to roam a decent-sized exhibit cuts back on the number of arthritic and degenerative foot disorders.

07-02-2008

I think they usually look exactly the same- but sometimes a lot smaller in real life!

07-02-2008

It's wonderful to see the animals in a large enclosure on grass, but it is not an attractive scene to me. There is no need to forsake good design. The bolder lines may be a problem waiting to happen as well as hideous. (sorry)

07-02-2008

Yes it's wonderful and see an elephant running, it's cool. The elephant house is both especially for security

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07-02-2008

Would you say more about the security issues, please?

07-02-2008

Sorry, for the zookeepers

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07-02-2008

Of course, merci!

07-02-2008

The problem with Elephant exhibits everywhere is that the animals are so big and powerful that everything used to contain them has to be done on a massive scale- ditches, fences, boulders to protect and vegetation/plantings, or whatever. Massive doesn't usually equal attractive so Elephant exhibits are bound to always look a bit 'ugly' and rather open and bare- I don't know how you can overcome this. The most important ingredient is space, I believe, and the larger the area of the enclosure, the less obvious the 'fortification' aspect seems to be.