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The landscape of Congo Gorilla Forest exhibit evokes the look and the feel of the lowland tropical rain forest of equatorial Africa.
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Horticulture
Horticulture in the Congo Gorilla Forest
 The Bronx Zoo's new Congo Gorilla Forest exhibit is the next evolution of zoo exhibitry and zoo horticulture. Many new designs and techniques are being tried. Visitors can explore a tropical African forest consisting of hardy non-African plants. A variety of animal species live in habitats similar to their African homes, joined seamlessly with the forest where visitors can view them. Okapi, who prefer dense brush areas but are often exhibited in open pastures at zoos, now live in a forest glade with bamboo and ferns. Colorful mandrills roam the Judy and Michael Steinhardt Mandrill Forest, the first lushly planted mandrill exhibit in a northern zoo (mandrills can be very hard on plants). Meanwhile, two family gorilla groups (19 in all) live in a forest that is the largest gorilla exhibit ever created. The landscape of the Congo Gorilla Forest has been ten years in the planning and has taken three years to plant.
The landscape of Congo Gorilla Forest exhibit evokes the look and the feel of the lowland tropical rain forest of equatorial Africa while featuring the unique plants upon which gorillas, mandrills, okapi and other animals depend. Over 15,000 plants of nearly 400 species have been planted, many of which have never before been grown in the New York area. These range from 50-foot-tall trees to delicate orchids. Many African plant genera, including Celtis, Diospyros and Vitex can be seen. Visitors pass plants commonly found in the African forest: African tulip trees with garish yellow flowers; African oil palms which are of great commercial value but whose fruit gorillas avoid precisely because of the high oil content; Ensete, a wild species of banana; and Draceanas, which many of us grow as houseplants, are among the plants used for this exhibit.
 Both the forest and marsh habitats frequented by lowland gorillas are represented. Gorillas are able to forage for food in their exhibit as they would in the wild. The complex plant adaptations to tropical rain forest conditions are represented. The great variety of unusual fruiting trees and shrubs highlight the role of primates as seed dispersers. Adaptations to the low light of the forest floor can be seen in leaves that are red in color, or spotted, or oversized. The predominance of trees with large simple leaves having elongated tips or with compound leaves obscures the great species diversity of this forest.
To create the feeling of the dark forest, giant artificial trees and miles of artificial vines have been built and the living landscape has been carefully planned to complement the artificial one. Visitors leave the forest trail and enter the exhibit building through "Fern Canyon," twelve foot high eroded mud banks (artificial) clothed in a variety of living ferns. A new vertical planting system was developed and tested to create this feature. The experience of the forest is heightened by rolling mist and the forest sounds of insects, bird calls, frogs, and other ambient sounds.
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