Last fall, I made a trip to Arizona to pick out doors and cage mesh for our chimp building. This is perhaps the most important part of an animal building because the right choices will make a building safe for staff and comfortable for animals. Chimpanzees are large, potentially dangerous animals, so all of their doors must be operated remotely by keepers from outside the animal area. Fortunately the contractor providing the doors and mesh had working mock-ups of all the doors at their shop so I could see everything in person and test it out.
Because the building is so large and complex it contains a total of 33 animal doors. Depending on the location, the door may open horizontally or vertically. Some handles are removable so they don’t get in the keepers’ way and others operate by turning a wheel or pulling a handle. Each door gets inspected and tested by the staff after installation. All of the caging is carefully inspected for rough edges.
cage mesh in the process of being installed
The mesh is fabricated in Arizona galvanized to prevent rusting, and then the panels shipped here for assembly and installation. This involves a lot of drilling and welding – every bolt inside the animal are must be welded so that the strong, dexterous chimps can’t undo them.
Safe for chimps? Check.
Safe for keepers? Check.
Functional? Check.
Soon it will be time to add the comforts of home.
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