When people go to the zoo they expect to see animals in natural settings – monkeys swinging from trees and cougars pacing rocky outcrops. What they don’t expect to see are the animals in more urban settings – a crocodile sunning itself on a discarded bathtub and bison grazing beside a train track. But that’s exactly what they’ll get at Vienna’s Schonbrunn Zoo.

 

The zoo has a new exhibit, “Trouble in Paradise,” which populates its animal enclosures with conspicuous manmade objects. Penguins sit atop an oil rig. Fish swim around a barrel of faux toxic waste. Rhinos share a pond with a wrecked Mercedes.

 

The exhibit, which runs from June until October, doesn’t harm the animals, but it reminds visitors that natural habitats are disappearing due to mankind’s abuse. 

 

“Trouble in Paradise” was created by installation artists Christophe Steinbrenner and Reiner Dempf. The artists hope the exhibit will encourage visitors to live more environmentally responsible lives. By including installation art in the approximated natural settings, the exhibit creates a new zoo experience that is memorable and emotionally striking.