The new enclosure

At the end of 2008 finally started the preparations of the long waited for elephant house. Now the females and offspring also will get a housing with a sandfloor. The large room, filled with a thick layer of sand, measures 600 sq. meters. Three boxes with 'normal' floors will complete the stables. The boxes are for training sessions and separation of ill animals.

The building has solid concrete walls but a roof made of glass. The room for the public is totally made of glas, like a green house. The elephants will have much daylight inside, and for the visitors it will look very open.

Sitting on a stand, the visitors can look through a large cut-away into the large room of the animals. Public and elephants separated by a dry ditch. One box has windows where the public can have a look on the training sessions.

After the erection of the new barn, the old one will be demolished, and the outside enclosure shall be renovated. A grand stand will give the public an exciting view on a road which starts near the stand and ends inside the barn. Thanks to large windows it will looks like the road will lead you through the walls of the barn. It will passes a pond, the public area, and ends in the large room of the elephants. When looking through the large windows the visitors will see some kind of road where occasionally an elephant is passing.

The outside area can be separated into three parts; the large one for the herd, the smaller one for the bull. The bulls' area shall have a small part for training sessions. Normally, when the bull will join the herd, all parts of the enclosre can be entered by all elephants.

After finishing the new enclosure it will be possible to let the animals stay outside during the nights. The elephants will have the free choice to go inside in the evening or to stay outside. Of course the animals are forced to go inside when the weather is to bad. Only for a short period a day the elephants must go inside to give the caregivers the opportunity to clean the area.

Photos of the new inside enclosure

Letters between brackets referes to the drawing at the top this page.

January 2, 2009

The old grand stand is demolished, the ditch filled with sand, and the fences are removed. Let's build a new barn.

The elephants have temporarely a smaller outside enclosure because the fences are placed closer to the old barn. But this is necessary to give the builders enough room to work.

The foundations are made.

The wall are being erected. From the Japanes Garden the wall are also visible. Later these walls will painted white and coverd with the typical Japanese rooftiles. On top of the building bushes of bamboo will be planted.

The large fences of the boxes are placed and the building itselfs is more and more a building. Recognizible are the large room (a), the public area (d), and the viewing point marked with "n" (photo on the right). On top of it you can see where the bamboo bushes will be planted.

The photo underneath shows the roof of the boxes. At the right hand sight there will be also planted some bamboo bushes.

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