Wildlife hide

Contemplating and gathering

Wildlife hide

Modernbird hide · observation tower · machan (Hindi) · observatorio de fauna (Spanish)

wetland national park private reserve farm or garden school

A hide, tower or platform from which wildlife is watched without noticing the person. It can be a hut with slots next to a wetland, a tower rising to the forest canopy or a timber screen beside the trail.

Solves

What it solves

It allows birds and other animals to be seen up close without scaring them or changing their behavior. In the tropics it also gives shade and shelter from the rain during long waits. It also gathers visitors at one point instead of scattering them across the habitat.

Today

Reach it by a covered path or one with plant screens so people are not seen before entering. Put slots at two heights, one for those standing and another for wheelchair users, with a ledge and knee space.

Common mistake

Opening large windows that show moving silhouettes, or building it in the middle of the nesting site and scaring away exactly what people come to see.

Tomorrow

It can also be a refuge for wildlife, with a green roof, nest boxes and local timber without toxic treatments. Schools and neighbors can use it to count birds each season and keep a shared record of the neighborhood or wetland.

Fact Costa Rica records more than 935 bird species. 12.3% of visitors arriving by air go birdwatching with specialized equipment.

Where it comes from

  • 1Indian machan India, 19th and 20th centuries
    A bamboo platform tied with coconut rope high in a tree, used first for hunting and today for photographing wildlife and watching over the forest.
  • 2Slimbridge Wetland Reserve Gloucestershire, England, 1946
    The naturalist Peter Scott opened a waterfowl reserve that today has sixteen hides and an observation tower.
  • 3Costa Rican nature tourism Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica, 2017
    In this wetland, important for more than 500 bird species, an 18-meter tower was built for watching birds over the floodplain.

Appears in the routes

Sources

See also

Also in Contemplating and gathering

Diagrams and texts by LDB Arquitectura. They are shared under the CC BY 4.0 license, which allows them to be used and adapted with credit to the source.