My Zoo ~ East Africa Savanna Orb: The Design

The East Africa Savanna Orb is the ninth eco-system to be presented and it is the largest of all of the orbs in the zoo. It has a diameter of 790 meters. And opens with a total of 63 species of mammal, bird, reptile and amphibian. There is one principle water feature that flows into a "river" system designed to define two non-continguous portions of the orb for the cheetah and black rhinoceros.

The East Africa Savanna orb is a binary orb with the smaller Great Karoo/Cape of Good Hope orb inset slicing into it's NNE perimeter.

To accommodate the width the cover is triple tiered and rises to a height of 194 meters.

The main area of the orb is designed to replicate the tall grass savanna common to large areas of eastern and southern Africa. The positioning of acacia trees in the mainly open area will provide habitat for birds. Scrub forests will line the increasingly rocky perimeters to approximate the same terrain found in piedmont regions.

As the river widens it calms into a large area to accommodate the Hippopotamus and its marshy banks draw inspiration from the iSimangaliso Wetlands Park in South Africa.




The area designed to provide habitat for the Black Rhinoceros will take this theme a step further and mimic the topography of the Motopa region of southern Zimbabwe featuring replicas of the stacked rock formations common there.

A portion of the rocky perimeter is designed to provide breeding "caves" for the colony of White-Fronted Bee-Eaters. The example is from the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania.





The water feature is wide and falls into a gorge similar in appearance to Africa's most spectacular waterfall, Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River between Zambia and Zimbabwe. It in no way approximates the scale of this natural wonder.

The East Africa Savanna Orb is located in the middle of the Zoo. Besides the Great Karoo/Cape of Good Hope Orb, it also hosts three research institutes. One dedicated to each of the following, the Rhinoceros, the Hippopotamus, and the Cheetah.