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Holly Becker-Intern- Designing a Habitat |
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 Have you ever been to a zoo and looked into the tiger's habitat, and not been able to see the tiger? All you can see is few of trees, and tall grass and something that looks like a pool in the corner. Well, there are a few reasons for this. The first possible reason could be that the tiger isn't in the habitat at all and is inside cooling off. Or another reason could be a poorly planed habitat. Hopefully this isn't the first thing on your mind when you see the habitat, but never the less, some habitats just don't seem to work for both the tiger's needs and the viewer's needs. These two things are all you need to keep in mind when planning a habitat.
First, before anything else, you must be sure that your designs are safe for both the tiger and viewers. Also, a holding area is necessary, so that the experienced personnel can go into the habitat to clean and feed with out being in any danger of the animal. Thick glass or chain link fencing will do for the perimeter. The viewing area must be, at the very least, 3 feet from the perimeter of the habitat. The proper locks need to be installed as well.
Once the safety is taken care of, you can worry about the inside of the habitat. Now, you must think about where the tiger would be found in the wild. This will be your inspiration. Then you must plan out the habitat based on how its natural habitat would look. For instance, tigers in Asia, China, and Russia live in swamps, grasslands, and rain forests. So when planning out this particular tigers habitat, you could imitate the grasslands with a small water fall leading into a semi-deep pool. This is all assuming that you can afford to imitate the climate as well. Otherwise, it's not as crucial that their habitats be as similar to the wild. After you've decided the best setting for the tiger to live, planning needs to be made to figure out what kinds of plants and grasses can be used. Some plants are toxic to animals so you want to be careful with what you put in the habitat. You should preferably stick with the plants you would find in the tigers natural habitat. The whole goal of this project is to make it seem like the tiger and its habitat belong together. That is what will be most appealing to the viewers eye.
Once you have all of your materials, you can start to figure out the floor plan or the layout of the habitat. In this part of the project you will be satisfying the needs of both the tiger and the viewer. So in other words you want to plan out a great looking habitat, but you also want the tiger to be happy.
Make sure to plant a variety of different plants. This also keeps the viewer happy as well as keeping the tiger interested in its home. The taller grasses, shrubs and tress should be towards the back wall of the habitat so the wall gets covered. Or another option (for the bigger habitats) could be to build the back wall up to look like rock, then you could have a rock ledge for sleeping / playing, and you could put your waterfall in the rock as well. Or even another idea( for the smaller habitats), could be to paint the walls to look like trees or grassland. The more real and natural the habitat looks, the more the viewer will want to stay and look, so if you paint the walls, make sure to use dark and/or pastel colors. Nothing that will distract the viewer from the tiger. After the walls has been mostly covered then you can move into the rest of the habitat.
The tiger needs space to play, sleep, and eat, so the more room the better, but the tigers safety needs to come first. Make sure you plant big items, like tress toward the center of the habitat so the tiger does not try to climb out of the habitat and hurt itself or someone or something as a result. This may prevent the tiger from being with in sight of the viewer, but this will give the tiger some privacy, plus it's safer for everybody. There should be short grasses and/or dirt in the rest of the habitat. This gives the tiger something to do its business on, plus it's comfortable under foot. Big cats never lose their natural instincts, so make sure to plant a few tall grasses around the habitat so they can hide and stalk.
The next thing and one of the most important things is shelter. It's even more important if you have an outdoor facility. Shelter is so important to a tiger because tigers are sensitive to the heat. So if funding for a pool is not available make sure you give the tiger a good place to sleep in the shade. Shelter is also very important because it protects the animal from all of the other weather conditions. So if you built a rock wall in the back you could also incorporate a cave of some kind. Or if your going with a grasslands theme, you could make a box out of ply wood. This way the tigers could also play on it if they wanted to. Just make sure that it's strong enough to hold up to 700 lbs. The tiger must be safe.
Tigers love water, so be sure to make plans for a pool. It only needs to be about 2-3 feet deep and about 6-8 feet wide. Make sure that the pool is built in an area so the viewers can still see the tiger when it's in the pool. One of the last things you should do is add toys to the habitat. Natural toys like big logs are always fun. A big boomer ball is also a great toy. Make sure to place the logs and balls where the tiger can play with them and the viewers can see the tiger playing with them.
So now you have this beautiful habitat with a very happy tiger living in it. The only thing left to do is make sure that the waterfall is kept in good condition, and the short grasses are cut when it gets too long, other wise, the habitat starts to look sloppy and messy. Also make sure the pool isn't cracked and that the rest of the habitat is kept clean. Above all, make sure that the tiger is safe, happy, and healthy.
Holly Hunt
Intern at Tigers For Tomorrow
Interior Design major |
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