Taronga Zoo in New South Wales, Australia, has opened its AUS$38m (£15m, US$29.6m, 22.6m euro) Asian elephant enclosure.

The Wild Asia exhibit is home to more than 630 individual animals – including fish, birds and mammals as well as five Asian elephants – living in a man-made forest of 17,500 plants, set along a forest river.

Taronga Zoo is part of Zoological Parks Board of New South Wales (ZPB) – as is Western Plains Zoo – and the project is part of its 12-year, AUS$225m (£90m, US$175m, 134m euro) redevelopment plan for both sites.

Len Bleasel, ZPB chair, said: “The official opening of this exhibit has set another benchmark for excellence in wildlife care and conservation education, vindicating the zoo’s vision that led to the commencement of the redevelopment plan with the New South Wales’ government support in 2000.”

Wild Asia is principally sponsored by ANZ bank.