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It's interesting, because we seem to be transitioning from the 'oldschool' style of zoo where you have dancing bears, and you can pet the lions, and the monkeys eat all the popcorn you can throw at them INTO a new sort of 'savanah' style zoo..
The San Diego Wild Animal Park is a good example of this. I was down there recently, and it was pretty cool. HUGE wide open spaces for the animals to roam, and to intermingle with each other. It was as close to 'wild' as you can get. The big differences I think are that they didn't intermingle predators with prey (IE: no lions and antelopes together, but rhinos and antelopes are ok) and each 'area' is not big enough for an annual migration pattern, which must still suck for highly migratory species.
The other cool thing about it was the level of detail... Some animals like a very barren landscape, some like tons of trees and bushes to hide in and shade themselves with, etc, etc.
I guess another example of this style of park is the new Disney one in florida, although I have not been there....
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