Jungle Fever

Zurich is about the last place in the world you'd expect to see a red-ruffed lemur or panther chameleon — in the middle of the alpine winter, no less. But the city's zoo on Zurichbergstrasse is a tropical jungle all year round. The 10,000-sq-m greenhouse is one of the world's largest man-made rain forests: its humidity and temperature faithfully re-create the climate and ecosystem of the endangered rain forest on Madagascar's Masoala Peninsula.

After the initial climatic shock — it helps to remove as much clothing as you decently can — you find yourself surrounded by giant trees...