 LOCATION:
1100 Trevilian Way
, Louisville, KY 40213, USA
Phone: 001-502-459-2181
Fax: 459-2196
URL: http://www.louisvillezoo.org
 KEY WORDS:
breeding, conservation action, sanctuary model
 ANIMALS:
| Family: | Species: | Common Name: | Capacity: |
| Hippopotamidae | Hexaprotodon liberiensis | Pygmy Hippopotamus | 1.1 |
| Pongidae | Gorilla gorilla gorilla | Western Lowland Gorillas | 4.8 |
 AWARDS:
2003 AZA Exhibit Award
 DESCRIPTION:
Gorilla Forest was designed to create quality multi-habitat space conducive to the husbandry and management of two or more gorilla groups; to assist North American captive population management needs; to motivate conservation action through a sanctuary model that effectively educates visitors about the factors causing endangerment of the western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and pygmy hippopotamus (Hexaprotodon liberiensis); to provide visitors with immediate opportunities to directly support conservation initiatives, and to increase zoo attendance and revenue.
A team approach design includes educational, conservation, and economic elements enhanced and supported by animal enrichment to promote an optimum lifestyle for the inhabitants.
Gorilla Forest utilizes the natural landscape and thousands of plants to create the illusion of an African forest. Architectural and decorative elements help submerge visitors into the world of the African forest and its inhabitants. Extensive interpretive graphics enlighten visitors to the plight facing wildlife and our ecosystem at large.
The epicenter of the exhibit is a multi-room gorilla sanctuary flanked by two outdoor habitats. The two-story, rotunda-shaped sanctuary allows visitors, gorillas, and staff continual views of each other thus enhancing the immersion of all into the life of the other. Each outdoor habitat provides the gorillas with a naturalistic outdoor environment similar to what they would experience in the wild.
The essence of the Gorilla Forest is an appreciation for the intricacies of our ecosystem and the necessity of its preservation. The remarkable work of Dian Fossey is highlighted throughout the exhibit. Extensive graphics educate visitors about the tremendous difference that can be made by an individual. An opportunity for visitors to directly support various conservation programs is adjacent to the sanctuary. Gorilla Forest educates visitors to the negative and positive effects humans have on our environment.
 SIZE:
The two outdoor gorilla habitats measure about 0.2 hectares (one-half acre) each and are modeled after the bai micro-ecosystem. Visitors may also view gorillas indoors, surrounded 360 degrees by three dayrooms in the Sanctuary -- a 1080 m (12,000-square-foot) area equally divided into interpretive, service, and animal exhibit and off-exhibit spaces. Staff has access to the gorilla dayrooms at two levels via a service mezzanine. The front side Training Tower gives guests a clear view of staff at work with gorillas. The Sanctuary with its associated service, guest, and botanical areas totals 0,62 hectares (one-and-one-half acres). Beyond the Sanctuary, a 0.2 hectar (one-half acre) treetop canopy boardwalk leads to the Research Station and continues to the Bomassa Curio Gift Shop. Another 0.2 hectar (one-half acre) is devoted to forest conservation and features the Logging Road and the Elder Tree. Space allocation in square meters:
| use | indoors | outdoors | total exhibit |
| accessible | total | accessible | total |
| animals | | | | | |
| visitors | | | | | |
| others | | | | | |
| total | | 1,000 | | 15,500 | 16,500 |
 COSTS:
US$ 12,026,400 including 13 % for design.
 OPENING DATE:
23 May 2002
 DESIGN:
Beginning: July 1999
- Design: CLRdesign inc., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
- Architecture: Arrasmith Judd Rapp Chovan, Louisville, Kentucky, USA
 CONSTRUCTION:
Beginning: October 2000
- Bronze Sculpture: Bill Weiger, Louisville, Kentucky, USA
- General Contractor: Whittenberg Construction Company, Louisville, Kentucky, USA
 LOCAL CONDITIONS:
 PLANTS:
The plant list specifies the Latin names of the plants used for this exhibit.
 FEATURES DEDICATED TO ANIMALS:
The two large outdoor exhibits, three dayrooms, four bedrooms, and three-bedroom quarantine facilities are associated with 45 m² (500-square-foot) outdoor holding spaces. These are designed as overlapping circles, providing great flexibility for rotation and management. The quarantine facilities meet CDC (United States Center of Disease Control and Prevention) standards. The flexible design facilitates various techniques of behavioral management. Incorporated on a daily basis are training sessions, exhibit rotation, variety in food items and presentation, browse collected from zoo grounds, straw and mulch bedding, and other enrichment techniques. The design also provides staff much accessibility to the gorillas from many locations throughout the service area. Skylights and large windows at high elevations adjacent to resting shelves provide natural light and panoramic views for the gorillas. Dayroom furnishings include natural Osage orange tree trunks, deep mulch bedding, and cargo nets that traverse into the guest space. From any of the three two-story dayrooms that surround them, guests may observe the aforementioned techniques from a 360-degree perspective, as well as examine the gorillas nose-to-nose through the large panes of glass that surround them.
The hippos’ indoor holding includes four stalls, a holding chute for medical exams, a 11,000 liter (3,000-gallon) pool, two push-button showers that the hippos activate themselves, and a series of skylights. The floors have subsurface radiant heat, and the showers and pools are heated.
 FEATURES DEDICATED TO KEEPERS:
All gorilla areas have at least two exit/entry doors to make rotation as flexible as possible and to provide the gorillas with escape routes and “runaround” systems. Double containment exists in every service area. The open grate mezzanine floor and door ports provide spaces to easily enact immobilizations if gorillas escape their primary containment. Staff has views to both sides of the gorilla shift doors, and there are windows and peepholes at all service area doors. All service areas have telephones. From video controls located in the offices, the staff operates a system of pan-tilt zoom cameras to monitor outdoor exhibits, dayrooms, and holding areas. The manual shift doors operate with a wheel-gear system immune to power failures or fluid leaks, and they possess multi-stop operation.
 FEATURES DEDICATED TO VISITORS:
see Interpretation
 INTERPRETATION:
As during the entire design process, a multidisciplinary zoo team worked with the design team and copywriter to develop the interpretive plan. The storyline of an African ecotour is introduced prior to entering the Gorilla Forest. Guests refresh at the African Outpost restaurant modeled after a tourist lodge located alongside the indigenous village of Bomassa. Visitors travel Sembagare Trace — the interpretive bush trail winding through the forest — toward the gorilla sanctuary. The path provides glimpses into Mudi Bai, a forest clearing where travelers may first encounter gorillas. Along the trail, guests explore this diverse ecosystem through discovery clues, hands-on interpretives, and reproductions set in the landscape. A montage of African bai images and text interpret this significant forest-clearing habitat. Misting systems and sound effects enhance the experience.
The trail leads to the shamba, the indigenous nomadic farm that demonstrates how people have lived in balance with the ecosystem for hundreds of years. Actors utilize this area as a theater for living history. Leaving the shamba, guests find a flatbed truck mired on a logging road. Graphic panels explicate the threats of the logging industry, including the bushmeat trade.
Confronted with these conservation crises, visitors then find themselves in the Sanctuary, where gorillas are protected. The observation shelter and underwater viewing for the pygmy hippo are outfitted as the dormitory for the Sanctuary workers. Within the Sanctuary, gorillas surround visitors. Two-way microphones throughout animal viewing areas facilitate question-and-answer dialogue between Gorilla Forest staff and guests. Information about the current gorilla collection is posted on the “Tracker Updates” board. Upon exiting the Sanctuary, visitors traverse the canopy walk on their way to the Arundo Bai Research Station, where they may learn about gorilla behavioral research while observing the gorillas in the second bai habitat.
Visitors end their journey of Gorilla Forest at the 200-year-old bur oak “Elder Tree,” where their personal responsibility for the future of our forests is reaffirmed. They are reminded not only of the magnificence and longevity of the forest, but also of the uncertainty and change that forests face.
 MANAGEMENT:
One supervisor, one lead keeper, three keepers, one maintenance mechanic, one horticulturist, and one guest services associate are maintaining the exhibit on a daily basis. Working together as a cohesive unit, Gorilla Forest staff follows a team concept of management. The team includes a supervisor — who worked previously at the gorilla facilities of Dallas Zoo, Lincoln Park Zoo, and Riverbanks Zoo — and four additional members of animal care staff, a horticulturist, a maintenance mechanic, and a guest services representative.
The hotwiring system surrounding the outdoor exhibits’ perimeter walls triggers an alarm if compromised. Separate HVAC (heating, ventilating and air conditioning) systems serve the public, hippo, gorilla, and gorilla quarantine areas. Duplicate boilers, pumps, and emergency power ensure consistent environmental conditions. The fire suppression system features sprinklers, smoke detection, and the VESDA (Very Early Smoke Detection Alert) system. The hippo filtration system has a separate ozone room equipped with an alarm. Power-assisted, doublewide sliding doors, audio graphics, gentle grades, and other accommodations surpass ADA guidelines. Surveillance cameras monitor entry to the zoo’s first family restrooms at Gorilla Forest for guest safety.
 RESEARCH:
According to a summative evaluation conducted in 2003, visitors' impressions of the interpretives and the exhibit design have been very favorable.
The facility’s design and the behavioral management techniques employed are conducive to many behavioral research opportunities, and several projects are currently underway.
 CONSERVATION:
By focusing on two SSP species rather than a lengthy species list, more resources could be allocated toward the gorilla and pygmy hippo. The design of the gorilla facility permits potential housing of several gorilla groups.
To place the lessons of stewardship at the heart of the experience, a Sanctuary was chosen as the theme for Gorilla Forest. This Sanctuary theme, along with the widely publicized planned return of gorillas to the Lincoln Park Zoo, has educated guests about the necessity of partnerships in conservation and captive management.
Visitors encounter the powerful conservation messages of logging, the bushmeat crisis, and forest preservation as they journey through Gorilla Forest. They also learn the story of former Louisvillian, Dian Fossey. After recognizing the “Power of One” in her story, guests may contribute immediately to conservation efforts by inserting up to twenty dollars in the Conservation Donation Machine and designating one of three organizations. In addition, to funds collected at the Conservation Donation Machine, the substantial regional interest generated by the new Gorilla Forest exhibit has enabled the Louisville Zoological Garden to secure a $1.5 million federal grant to support the conservation projects of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International. These projects include the Tayna Reserve and Karisoke, the research center that Dr. Fossey founded in Rwanda.
 LOCAL RESOURCES:
Facilities conservation goals were established early in the planning process. The landscape plan incorporates many existing mature trees. Trees that did not survive construction were used to simulate natural deadfall. Sustainable wood products, recycled plastic lumber benches, and other recycled objects were selected wherever possible. Local artist Bill Weiger created bronze sculptures of gorillas. |
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| 44K | 54K |
| Site Plan |
| ©Louisville Zoo, 2003 |
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| 44K | 65K |
| Gorillas (1) |
| ©Louisville Zoological Garden, 2003 |
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| 55K | 84K |
| Pygmy Hippopotamus (13) |
| ©Louisville Zoological Garden, 2003 |
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| 51K | 69K |
| Adventurous (16) |
| ©Louisville Zoological Garden, 2003 |
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| 75K | 104K |
| Personality (16) |
| ©Louisville Zoological Garden, 2003 |
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| 67K | 98K |
| Communication between Species (18) |
| ©Louisville Zoological Garden, 2003 |
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| 55K | 73K |
| Size Up (22) |
| ©Louisville Zoological Garden, 2003 |
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