Twycross Zoo Twycross Zoo news 2017 #1

Shorts said:
*Having recently visited Howletts again I can't understand why all zoos don't keep their Gorillas like them.
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I think it comes down to the look of the thing, which is of course a real pity.

I haven't actually been to Chessington, but I think their enclosure might be a better model; keep the straw, but spend more money making the rest of the cage more 'natural'. Howletts' cages are almost egregiously utiliarian!
 
FunkyGibbon said:
I haven't actually been to Chessington, but I think their enclosure might be a better model; keep the straw, but spend more money making the rest of the cage more 'natural'. Howletts' cages are almost egregiously utiliarian!
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You may be right re Chessington though I understand that, historically at least, the enclosures were not that spacious -I'm unsure of the present situation. Like yourself, I've never visited* so can't really comment/conclude too much -I'd like to think there's ways of being like Howletts but with improved public viewing.

*For me, it's one of those geographically awkward (to visit) areas -not really doable in a day but not attractive enough in itself (or nearby other zoos) to merit an overnight/longer stay when compared to other areas in the UK.
 
Shorts said:
You may be right re Chessington though I understand that, historically at least, the enclosures were not that spacious -I'm unsure of the present situation. Like yourself, I've never visited* so can't really comment/conclude too much -I'd like to think there's ways of being like Howletts but with improved public viewing.
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I've not been to Howletts (yet!), but I'm pretty familiar with the on-show enclosure at Chessington, and whilst not large, it does give a decent amount of space, although I wouldn't want many more gorillas in there. Floor-area-wise, I would guess it is around three times the size of Blackpool's indoor space, with lots of ropes and the sides to climb on, giving good additional height space. The viewing at Chessington is restricted to two large windows (much like Blackpool), which prevents the public seeing too much of the cage structure, instead mostly seeing the more 'natural' mock-rock. The problem with the window viewing is that it gets horrendously busy, especially during the scatter feeds, but if viewing wasn't restricted it was be much more obvious that the gorillas are in a big cage, which might not go down so well with the public (personally, from watching gorillas at London, Chessington, Bristol and Blackpool, they generally seem happier and more relaxed in cage-style or indoors, than on islands, so I have no problems with cage-type enclosures if they are done very well)
 
Crowthorne said:
I've not been to Howletts (yet!)

personally, from watching gorillas at London, Chessington, Bristol and Blackpool, they generally seem happier and more relaxed in cage-style or indoors, than on islands, so I have no problems with cage-type enclosures if they are done very well)
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Go to Howletts!! It's fantastic, they have 28 gorillas, making their gorilla population the largest in Europe!

And yeah, having seen gorillas at Twycross, Port Lympne, Howletts and Longleat as well as Bristol and London I can safely say that in almost all of those the gorillas prefer the indoors or remaining in a caged environment than the island habitats. However, the bachelor group of three at Longleat seem to spend more time outdoors, and this certainly isn't the case for the gorillas at Burgers' Zoo, Apenheul, GaiaZOO, Beekse Bergen and Blijdorp in the Netherlands (the ones at Artis do prefer the indoors and I have yet to see the group at Ouwehands to safely comment on their preferred area)!
 
ShonenJake13 said:
Go to Howletts!! It's fantastic, they have 28 gorillas, making their gorilla population the largest in Europe!

And yeah, having seen gorillas at Twycross, Port Lympne, Howletts and Longleat as well as Bristol and London I can safely say that in almost all of those the gorillas prefer the indoors or remaining in a caged environment than the island habitats. However, the bachelor group of three at Longleat seem to spend more time outdoors, and this certainly isn't the case for the gorillas at Burgers' Zoo, Apenheul, GaiaZOO, Beekse Bergen and Blijdorp in the Netherlands (the ones at Artis do prefer the indoors and I have yet to see the group at Ouwehands to safely comment on their preferred area)!
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The Paignton males definitely spend more time indoors than on their island which is frustrating as it appears to us humans that it's a 'nice' outside area?
 
ShonenJake13 said:
However, the bachelor group of three at Longleat seem to spend more time outdoors
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Almost certainly I imagine this is because they are shut outside in good or reasonable weather so visitors can see them from the boats- if given free choice they'd no doubt be inside a lot like everywhere else.
 
TriUK said:
The Paignton males definitely spend more time indoors than on their island which is frustrating as it appears to us humans that it's a 'nice' outside area?
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Par for the course with groups that have free choice between indoor and outdoor areas. Frequently they only emerge at scatterfeed/public talk times. Adult males also often noticeably more reticent about going outside at other times than females/younger members of the group.
 
Shorts said:
I think the current Gorilla enclosure is pretty good compared to quite a few others in UK and Europe* (that's not to ignore there's many better but it's also above average and better than many). The Orang-utan exhibit remains poor overall though recent changes have considerably improved the indoor parts.

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I agree- the current Gorilla house at Twycross is perfectly adequate for the small group they have and which isn't likely to grow significantly any time soon. Its ugly maybe
but otherwise okay. Even with the alterations I think the Orangutan enclosure is badly in need of replacement though- IMO that's the one they need to address sooner if the complex idea has been shelved.
 
gentle lemur said:
I don't see how they cannot complete the deal with an EU zoo in 23 months and 3 weeks - unless the recipients are building a new elephant house from scratch.
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Haha, anyone would think it was impossible to travel outside of the EU today. Marginally harder (for most places), but not impossible.

That said, I do hope our zoos are able to continue to gain access to the shared resources of the European Association. If not, I wonder how many species would disappear from UK zoos to better funded EU counterparts.

Update
Just thinking if they are going to Europe. Is a species swap out of the question? Is there anywhere that currently houses Rhino that might want to get rid in favour of more elephants?
 
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haydn said:
Haha, anyone would think it was impossible to travel outside of the EU today. Marginally harder (for most places), but not impossible.

That said, I do hope our zoos are able to continue to gain access to the shared resources of the European Association. If not, I wonder how many species would disappear from UK zoos to better funded EU counterparts.

Update
Just thinking if they are going to Europe. Is a species swap out of the question? Is there anywhere that currently houses Rhino that might want to get rid in favour of more elephants?
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Right first off even if things become harder to deal with the EU,it will still be a damn site easier than trying to get something out of a third world country like the USA,which is one of the worst places to deal with in the world when it comes to animal exchanges!

As for the second question I highly doubt it and any way they couldn't do a straight swap as it will still need some altering which takes time!
 
zoogiraffe said:
Right first off even if things become harder to deal with the EU,it will still be a damn site easier than trying to get something out of a third world country like the USA,which is one of the worst places to deal with in the world when it comes to animal exchanges!

As for the second question I highly doubt it and any way they couldn't do a straight swap as it will still need some altering which takes time!
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Well that's me told.
 
stu_y said:
http://www.theguardian.com/environm...how-to-move-an-elephant-to-europe-post-brexit

In this article, the Twycross registrar talks about the potential difficulties of moving animals to Europe post-Brexit, specifically mentioning their Elephants. Looks like they might not be going to Blackpool then...

[Edited to rectify some dodgy autocorrect, stupid phone]
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Reading this article it states that the elephants are to be moved to somewhere in Europe,Blackpool is in Europe is it not?
 
Blackpool is in Europe - however the Twycross Elephants wouldn't be affected by Brexit and its implications if they were staying in the UK...
 
I think the article and what is said by zoo staff in it would suggest a prospective move to the Continent for the Twycross elephants is likely.

Also, I do think that both BIAZA and EAZA will apply realism both inward and outbound to reciprocal moves in the interest of the European cooperative breeding programs.

Perhaps more so than the current UK Govt. seems to think ... on Brexit vs. EU arrangements prior to and after exiting the EU.
 
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