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Himalayan Highlands
Topic Started: May 1 2010, 08:56 PM (552 Views)
mikek21
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Inspired by Holdens Himalayan mini pack, I have created a new exhibit area named Himalayan Highlands.

Species exhibited are .....

Yak
Snow Leopard
Pallas Cat
Himalayan Blood Pheasant
Markhor
Red Panda

Guests enter the exhibit area by following a steep path lined with tall rocks, bamboo and colorful Himalayan prayer flags. Climbing the steep path helps give guests the impression they are climbing up into the highlands to view wildlife.

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mikek21
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Once guests reach the top of the path, if they look to their left, they will see the zoos yak herd grazing in their mountain meadow.

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On their right, guests will see a covered observation area.

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Entering the observation area, guests can see the zoo Pallas Cats through a large viewing window

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Closer view of one of the Pallas Cats

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On the other side of the observation area, guests can look out into the snow leopard habitat through another viewing window.

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mikek21
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Heading back outside, guests get another view of the snow leopards.

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Closer look at one of the leopards resting under a tree at the back of his exhibit.

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And sometimes, guests may also notice the markhor roaming their mountain habitat up behind the snow leopard. Both species are securely separated from each other, but from the guest path it looks like the markhor are dangerously close to the snow leopards.

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charteg


Your zoo is remarkable. The animals look wild and free.
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KumariKat
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Animal Lover :3
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I'm really liking your zoo Mikek, your foliage placement is awesome, and your choice of foliage. I really like the snow leopard exhibit, great job. :D
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mikek21
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Here is an overview of the cat exhibits. The guest area is the part under the skylight. The smaller building in back is the keeper service area and off exhibit holding cages.

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Keepers entrance behind the exhibits. Keepers can access the outdoor enclosures from inside this building.

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One of the snow leopards in its off-exhibit holding cage.

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mikek21
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Further down the path, guests come to the Himalayan Blood Pheasant exhibit. These are the only Blood Pheasants in an American zoo. Our birds came from a private breeder in Belgium. In addition to the birds on exhibit, we also maintain several pairs in off exhibit breeding pens. We hope to be able to increase the number of this beautiful species in American zoos.

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Closer look at the handsome male bird.

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Iben
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Looks great !

I hope you'll use some more Himalayan animals ! :D If you ever need more Himalayan animals, you can always PM me at Tesara, I have quite some animals few people know of. :P
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mikek21
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Thanks for the comments. Glad you folks like my exhibits.

Now on to more animals. Further along the path, guests come to the mountain habitat of the markhor.

What do you guys think about the foliage in this exhibit. It looks empty, but markhor live high in the mountains where there is little foliage. Do you think I should have used more rock terrain than grass, to make it look like a real rocky habitat. I don't know what other kind of foliage I could have used. Just wondering what you think since I'm not really satisfied with this exhibit.

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animalguy
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Fennec Fox Crazy

Thiis looks great I think though maybey a bit less grass where the hills are ending off and maybey just a smal amount of foliage on the hills but overall this is quite an amazing area :)
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mikek21
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Glad you like the pics animalguy.

I added a few more rocks, some dead trees and clumps of tall grass, as well as more bamboo and shrubs. Now I think it looks a little better.

Some of you guys are sooooo good at placing foliage, I try to pick up tips from other S&Ts.

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One part I did not show of the markhor exhibit is that there is a whole stable, feed and keeper access area off to the left of this exhibit, just to make it a more complete and actual zoo exhibit.
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mikek21
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The last exhibit in the zoos Himalayan Highlands area is the red panda exhibit. There are both indoor and outdoor exhibits.

Here is a view of the Red Panda House as guests approach it along the path.

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Here is an overview of the Red Panda House and the adjoining outdoor exhibit.

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mikek21
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Before we take a closer look at the pandas, here is another overview pic showing the Red Panda House again, and also the off-exhibit holding cages for the Himalayan Blood Pheasants. This is where the zoo can keep their extra breeding pairs.

The smaller section of the Red Panda House is the keepers area and off exhibit holding cages for the pandas.

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Another pair of Blood Pheasants.

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Thom
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Coder

looks great, i like how you use downloads :D
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- If something is too hard to do, then it's not worth doing
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Do you need a coder ? PM me ;)
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mikek21
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here is a pic of two of the red pandas indoors

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from another angle

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indoor and outdoor pandas

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one of the pandas takes a drink from the pond at the bottom of its hillside exhibit

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