Giants of the Galapagos is a new Galapagos tortoise exhibit at London Zoo that opened in 2021. The enclosure was developed to relocate the zoo's three Galapagos tortoises (Chelonoidis spp.) into a 322 m² purpose-built space to address welfare issues in the existing facility and to improve visitor engagement.
The key landscaping objectives were providing essential animal welfare benefits and an engaging planting scheme based on a visual habitat representation. The landscaping concept and design were developed in horticulture workshops with the animal and interpretation teams by identifying functional animal welfare requirements and using ecological descriptions as theming guidance. Each shortlisted plant species underwent a toxicity assessment, the findings of which were documented on ZooPlants.Net. Two tropical plant nurseries with internationally recognised sustainability accreditations in The Netherlands supplied the final selection of 77 plants consisting of 20 species.
The London Zoo horticulture team was tasked with implementing the scheme, installing plant protection in the form of boma-style fencing, and maintaining both. The result is a tropical vegetation matrix dominated by multi-stemmed shrubs and trees. Two studies undertaken following the tortoises' introduction show that the planting provides essential animal welfare benefits through screening, cover, shade, foraging opportunities, and choice of multiple resources. In addition, the observed and anecdotal visitor feedback has been highly positive, although it would be desirable to apply more advanced methods for assessing the engagement impact of planting schemes in future developments.
This project won Gold in the BIAZA Horticulture Awards category in 2023.
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