PLANS FOR a gorilla rainforest to replace the almost 40-year-old existing enclosure were unveiled by Dublin Zoo yesterday.
The facility will recreate the natural African tropical forest habitat for the zoo’s five western lowland gorillas.
The rainforest would be regarded as “one of the world’s best homes for gorillas”, said Leo Oosterweghel, director of Dublin Zoo. When completed it would be “the envy of zoos everywhere”, he claimed.
The project is due to begin in September 2011 and to take up to a year to complete.
The 12,000sq m area will comprise rocky outcrops, streams, dense vegetation and undulating topography.
This will allow the herbivores to forage for food and will also give them a resting place which is private from fellow primates and tourists.
However, visitors will be able to see the animals in their natural habitat at observation points hidden along the forest paths.
It will provide an “unrivalled example of visitors in their [gorillas’] natural habitat”, Mr Oosterweghel said.
The new enclosure would give the zoo an opportunity to expand the group, and the habitat would allow the healthy primates to “continue breeding” and encourage natural behaviours, he said.
However, there were “no concrete plans” to expand the group, a zoo spokeswoman said.
The oldest gorilla, Lena, was born in 1984 and is the mother of the youngest gorilla, Evindi, born four years ago.
Dublin Zoo’s gorillas are part of a breeding population of some 400 in European zoos.
The €2 million project will be funded from the annual income of the gate takings, savings and reserves but the zoo is open to sponsorship.
It is part of the zoo’s development plans, which include the African savannah and family farm.
