NEW MONKEY HOUSE AT FRANKFURT ZOO

Abstract

SummaryThe Frankfurt Zoo Monkey House incorporates certain new technical features. Where cages are fronted with glass, reflections have been avoided by angling the glass sharply towards the public. As the result, it has been possible to have glass windows in the wall opposite and thus achieve a good growth of plants in the indoor public area and prevent the house from having a gloomy atmosphere. For reasons of animal psychology, short screening walls have been built into the cages: these split up the space visually for the monkeys but at the same time permit the visitor to see all the animals. Inferior animals in a group can withdraw to a peaceful corner. Great stress has been laid on equipping the inside cages to prevent parasites. Tiled walls, stainless steel climbing poles and plastic floor covering have been used. Another advance is the use of plastic material for the animals' door flaps: the plastic cannot injure the animals and they enable them to have a free choice, even in cold winter weather, between the inside and outside cage. Information is given to the public by means of a globe showing the threatened animal species of the world and by two display boards. Threatened species are also helped by a fountain, from which, each year, a considerable sum of money is collected for conservation purposes.