By enhancing orangutans' natural arboreal lifestyle, the Red Ape Rain Forest will result in more active, and thus healthier orangutans. The exhibit will give the orangutans 6,000 square feet of open space. Their 1,920 square feet of indoor quarters will consist of six individual bedrooms and a day room. Their keepers will have 1,280 square feet for an examination room, kitchen, bathroom, shower, and lounge area. On the viewing decks, visitors can get within 12 feet of the apes.
Plans also call for an outdoor storytelling area.
Visitors will leave the habitat through an exit pagoda. They can follow the path to the bongo antelope exhibit and up toward the Chimpanzees of Mahale Mountain exhibit. The exhibit is designed by CLR Design Inc., based in Philadelphia.