Project goal
Our current orangutan house does not meet the latest standards for modern and innovative animal accommodation. Despite the significant breeding successes that have been achieved with these endangered great apes and the devoted care of our keepers, urgent action is required to bring our enclosures up to current animal accommodation standards.
The new Orangutan House is being built not just for our older current residents, but primarily for future generations of orangutans. The most important innovation is in making the spatial design match the orangutans’ natural social structure. Enclosures will therefore be built to accommodate female orangutans and their young, with separate enclosures for solitary males.
Outdoor enclosures
Orangutans are native to South East Asia, where they dwell in the safety of the trees of the tropical rainforests. It was important to incorporate the orangutans’ native habitat into the design of their new facility, and the idea thus emerged to create an “indoor” outdoor enclosure. By building a circular protective structure around the outdoor enclosure, the animals will be better protected both against harsh weather conditions and noise. This will also enable the orangutans to make use of the outdoor enclosures for a greater proportion of the year. Despite being covered, priority was given to providing the possibility for the orangutans to see far and wide from within the enclosure. There was therefore an additional planning focus on the vertical design of the enclosure. With an overall height of 10 metres, the orangutans will be able to look out across the Zoo and Grand Garden from their observation points.
Three tropical landscape areas
The natural habitat of Dresden Zoo’s resident Sumatran orangutans is the tropical rainforest of Sumatra.
Besides the rainforest, tropical habitats also incorporate a variety of other landscapes. Different biotopes of the tropics will be presented in and around the new orangutan house. Visitors will be guided through three themed areas representing the different biotopes:
- the “Green jungle” with a view into the binturong enclosure, the “Green mountains and valleys beneath giant trees”
- the hilly outdoor enclosure of the orangutans and the river valley of the smooth-coated otters
- and the “Tropical beach” with a view into the giant tortoise enclosure.
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Our animals
Dresden Zoo is home to around 1,400 animals representing 243 species. In addition to visitor favourites ...
Our animals
Our zoo
Dresden Zoo is the fourth oldest zoo in Germany and has a long, rich history and tradition. Traces of ...
Our zoo