An overview of the current state of Irish zoos.

dublinlion

dublinlion

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
In the last few weeks I have visited both Fota and Tayto park and was quite impressed with the quality and progress of both. As I regularly visit Tayto i'll start with Fota which I had'nt seen for about 10 years. After catching a train to Cork and a quick connection to Fota station which stops at the back entrance to the park. I headed straight to the new Asian section as time was short and this was my priority. It is still a work in progress but I loved it. The enclosures are really big and heavily wooded, esp. Tigers and Lions and the Monkey Islands are big and again full of natural vegetation. As it matures and attains some more expected animals I imagine it will be really outstanding.

There is lots of work (needed) going on elsewhere in the park such as improvement and enlargement of the old monkey islands. A brand new South American exhibit for Tapirs (5) Capybara and Darwins Rhea and other general upgrading. The 15 Sudan Cheetahs (cubs expected soon) are by far my favorites in about 6 or seven well designed but simple enclosures and the hunting display with ziplines is some spectacle. I would recommend any new visitors to this zoo to catch at either entrance the small park train (2e round trip) which does a full circle of the park, where you can get a good overview of most exhibits and it helps you to cherrypick and navigate when walking around.

Overall I loved my recent visit to this park and there is a newly found drive and feel good factor about everything, friendly knowledgeable staff, decent catering and a beautiful wooded large and flat site.
I could write a lot more but its probably best to keep it somewhat short for now and if anyone has questions feel free to ask. I will write about Tayto Park later on.
 
The next stage is Takin and Markhor and possibly some gazelles (blackbuck?) adjacent to the Rhinos. That is fairly certain and then either sun or more probably sloth bears.There was supposed to be cranes on view near the Rhinos but I did'nt see them and forgot to ask. Finance is the only thing holding things back a little but visitor numbers are up and there is a new found freshness about everything. The new Lion Tailed Macaque enclosure is also great. There are loads of them in a large well planted site.
 
On a recent visit to Tayto park I was pleasantly surprised with the improved appearance and general upgrading of most exhibits. Tayra and Cranes have bred and there are (new) Bushdogs in a big wooded enclosure. Other added species are Silvery Marmosets and Toucan. The Aardwolves have been moved to a more secluded exhibit and there are high hopes for breeding. All the animals are looking well in refurbished housing and there is a nice run of enclosures for Pheasant, including Blue and White eared, Monal and Edwards.

By far the best new addition is a run of nice big netted exhibits for Birds of Prey including, Griffons, American Black and King Vultures, Striated Caracara, Stellers Sea Eagle, Great Grey Owl etc. and best of all a Secretary bird. An arena for flying these birds is being built and due to open this Month. A big advantage for this zoo is that they open for only six months and this creates an offshow period which encourages good breeding conditions. There is an impression of ample money combined with great ambition, and there are plans to expand and add more exotic species. As Dublin Zoo concentrates on the big ABC animals and does them very well Tayto cleverly concentrates on the the more unusual species, with Tiger being the only really large animal here. Of course the large herd of Bison are here too.

The catering here is among the best I've experienced (in a Zoo) re. decent quality, quantity and fair pricing and the staff are particularly pleasant and helpful. The Dinosaur and ancient Mammal display is quite good and then there is always the Rollercoaster (its great) if your feeling brave.
 
As far as I can read on Tayto Park's website, going on the amusement rides requires a wristband, and the entry price is much lower if you don't want a wristband (15 euro for normal entry, 30 euro for entry with wristband)? Now, that's a business model that more combined zoo/theme parks should try - instead of ripping off those who only go there to see the animals (or for that matter, those who only go there to try rollercoasters and don't care about animals).
 
@Hvedekorn. That pricing information is correct and there is also a small discount if booked online. Also tokens can be purchased for individual rides, such as the Rollercoaster, so buying the wristband would be for people intending to go on lots of these rides. There are also some free playground type stuff for smaller kids.
There is so much to see and do that I would consider this park to be great value.
 
This is interesting. From the Derry Daily Newspaper. Could'nt share the link so had to copy and paste. Its not as surprising as it sounds as it's probably a shorter journey from Derry and Fermanagh etc. to Ashbourne using the Derry road, than it is to get to Belfast and all the City traffic.

TAYTO PARK, Ireland’s only theme park and zoo, has launched its new 2017 season with the news that a whopping 25 per cent of visitors to the County Meath park now travel from Northern Ireland.

As one of the most popular attractions on the island of Ireland, Tayto Park visitor numbers have risen year on year from 330,000 in 2011 to 762,351 in 2016, which means that almost 200,000 thrill seekers from Northern Ireland visited the park last year.

Now Tayto Park is gearing up for its biggest season yet as it opens its gates again on Friday April 7, with the promise of exciting new rides and attractions.

Speaking at an event in Belfast, Tayto Park founder Raymond Coyle said: “Since we first opened our doors in November 2010, the Northern Ireland market has become increasingly important to us with almost 200,000 visitors travelling from the north last year alone.

“Last year was a record year for Tayto Park which is very encouraging as we get ready to open our gates to the public once again next Friday(April 7).

“We are confident that this season will be our biggest and best yet and have invested heavily in new rides and attractions that we’re sure will be a big hit with customers from across Ireland.”

Mr Coyle said that the company was investing €9 million (approx. £7.7 million) in the park this year, with a further €17 million (approx. £14.7 million) already ear-marked for 2018.

New attractions for 2016 will include the Viking Voyage at the Parkwater flume ride and the World of Raptors birds of prey demonstration, which will both open in the summer.
 
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I'll keep going with this while i'm in the mood. The two city zoos Dublin and Belfast will be reviewed later but at this point I will just give an overview of all four.
Dublin is the best attended and the walk around a flat site is suitable for old and young as well as the fit. The exhibits are mostly modern and refurbished but the paucity of species is alarming for such a large site.
The Elephants and Gorillas, the Bongos and Sealions are in top class enclosures, but every time a new exhibit is built they lose a few species.
Belfast has the biggest and most unusual animal collection, highlights for me being rare primates and the beautiful Sifaka and lovely exotic Pheasants. All exhibits look fine to me, but the hilly site is severe and backtracking difficult. It is also the least well attended and I would guess that the tough climb is a factor here.
Tayto is the rising star with its interesting ever growing collection and theme park. and has ever increasing attendance numbers. The site is flat and even non zoo fans will find something of interest here.
Fota after years in the doldrums is starting to show more of its potential and the visitor numbers are starting to grow. Again this is a lovely site with lots of water and woods with the sound of the sea along one side of the park. Besides the new Asian section and cheetahs there are good sized groups of Giraffe, Zebra, Leche and Wisent along with free ranging Mara, Kangaroos and others.
It is noticeable that Tayto Park always seems to have lots of groups of schoolchildren and I can imagine the teachers are happy to ramble around this site, whereas Belfast and its hills would not have many of them so keen.
I would hope to sound positive about all these Zoos and I love them all.
To close I would just say that Dublin's huge visitor numbers is proving that numbers of species is not a factor to the general public. These figures would probably influence Marwell and others.
 
I've been to Dublin, Fota and Belfast in past 9 months. Going through each of them, Dublin needs to do up the old artic fox cage with recently housed the tigers before they and along with the empty old otter cage this could be home to a interesting species like bear! I think an island should be built in the African plains for the lemurs and their two islands could be used for two new Asian monkey species to fit in with that area. Zoorasic world is opening soon so be interesting to see how that turns out and the future of the reptile house as most of its inhabitants are moving there. Another idea to put out there would be the reptile house and area beside it which always seems to store construction equipment could be transformed to hold Komodo dragons maybe ....
Fota: last time I was there construction work was going on at the old lion tails macaque island houses and glass viewing was being put into the howler monkey house. Is this completed and have the howler monkeys moved back from the old lad gibbon island. And have these empty islands been filled?
Belfast had many species I had never seen before. The hill doesn't help. A revamp would help and floral hall should definitely be turned into something. Could be a cool walk through exhibit
 
Hi Arbolowe, all of your suggestions sound good and some of them may well happen. With modern Zoo marketing the practice is to release very little actual information (a few teasers) prior to opening a new attraction. This allows a big Media and public interest for the actual opening. Most zoos have large off show holding and quarantine areas with animals for future exhibition, and before the rise of social media it was easy to gain access on request. It can still be possible though, so if you requested they might give you a quick peek. Avoid any mention of social media though, as the keepers just don't want the hassle.
My comments on the other points you raised are, the Reptile house and some others are preserved buildings, which greatly limits change or expansion, so it is probable they will just house more reptiles or small mammals, which are generally easier to acquire and keep. Zoorasic World opens in mid July and will house Dinosaurs!, Reptiles and probably some Fish and Birds. Monkey Islands can be difficult to maintain and secure,and as the water is not very deep there is the chance of escapees ( the monkeys) or intruders such as foxes, otters, mink, rats etc. and even human drunks, thieves or wild kids.
The unused Tiger/Otter area is next for development and there are several options such as Bears or Tapirs.
Fota is still working on the Island upgrades (should be ready soon) and the Grey cheeks are to be switched to a large new island, with the Colobus replacing them near the entrance. I saw the Howlers, Lemurs, Spiders and loads of Sakis, but did not notice the glass viewing you mention, Squirrel monkeys and more Lemurs/Marmosets are likely the expected newcomers.
The Belfast Floral Hall is also a listed building (I think) so that and finance is probably holding things back there. But as they have such a great animal collection they will always attract the zoo fans (such as you and I) but the families and tourists are the bigger spenders.
 
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In the last few days, writing up these reviews/opinions and reading through various other threads has been quite enjoyable but it also strengthens my concern that traditional Zoos will soon struggle to cover costs and will be forced into radical reduction of species and the addition of even more playgrounds, food outlets and animatronics. Dublin Zoo visitor numbers are up from half a million to 1.2 million in the last few years.They have improved and upgraded most exhibits to high standards and demolished others and replaced them with planting. The number of species has been reduced by more than half but most groups such as Elephant, Flamingo and Gorrilla have been greatly enlarged. Dublin Zoo is now very sanitised and modern with good pathways and spotless toilets and modern fast food outlets.
The public and the news media love it and the families and tourists flock there in increasing numbers, so its hard to argue against this model and it might be fair to say that other beleaguered zoos are taking note and planning for a similar future.
 
Great thread! Also every year there's always big births to announce in Dublin. I'm sure they've species to fill the reptile house with already. One more Dublin question do you've any idea if the zoo plan to keep Kuno?
Interesting to hear the monkey island updates with Fota. My last time in fota the keeper said colobus always wrecked their island so hopefully the entrance exhibit will be colobus proof. Also the rhino house has indoor viewing but hasn't been opened to public. Shows the three bedrooms which have heated pools.
And a belfast question I've asked before, when did the lion tailed macaques leave and where abouts where they In the zoo? Thanks
 
ArboLowe said:
One more Dublin question do you've any idea if the zoo plan to keep Kuno?
Interesting to hear the monkey island updates with Fota. My last time in fota the keeper said colobus always wrecked their island so hopefully the entrance exhibit will be colobus proof. Also the rhino house has indoor viewing but hasn't been opened to public. Shows the three bedrooms which have heated pools.
And a belfast question I've asked before, when did the lion tailed macaques leave and where abouts where they In the zoo? Thanks
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hi, no idea what kuno are, is this a typo?
Yes the Rhino house and the enclosure look very good but then everything being built in this area appears to be a real step up in quality.
I was'nt aware that the lion tails had left Belfast but there were several escapes from their enclosure and this caused bad publicity, so they may have them off show till a more secure exhibit can be built.

You should make a point of getting to Tayto Park before it gets too busy. I would strongly recommend it esp. if you like raptors and/or the less commonly kept species of small carnivores. The keepers here are very approachable and would appreciate your strong interest in the animals which they are so proud and fond of.
 
dublinlion said:
To close I would just say that Dublin's huge visitor numbers is proving that numbers of species is not a factor to the general public. These figures would probably influence Marwell and others.
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Sorry, I've only just seen this comment and fail to understand what it implies? How can Marwell be compared to a major zoo in a popular tourist capital city. Marwell's collection has been destroyed over the last 10 years, Dublin is a much better zoo anyway and probably better than London. Unlike the other 2 mentioned, Marwell is not in a capital city & a bit away from tourist areas, if it's collection declines further it will suffer eventually I'm sure, but it has no local rivals so perhaps not! If there was another decent large zoo within 40-50 miles it would have suffered already!
 
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Visited Tayto park last week and I have to say I was impressed. Got few new species I'd never seen before and the standard of enclosures was good! Was lucky enough to part of first public audience to view world of raptors which was good and its cut into the bison enclosure which was quite small when I visited.
 
ArboLowe said:
Great thread! Also every year there's always big births to announce in Dublin. I'm sure they've species to fill the reptile house with already. One more Dublin question do you've any idea if the zoo plan to keep Kuno?
Interesting to hear the monkey island updates with Fota. My last time in fota the keeper said colobus always wrecked their island so hopefully the entrance exhibit will be colobus proof. Also the rhino house has indoor viewing but hasn't been opened to public. Shows the three bedrooms which have heated pools.
And a belfast question I've asked before, when did the lion tailed macaques leave and where abouts where they In the zoo? Thanks
Click to expand...
The entrance exhibit for colobus will mean they'll be mixed with meerkats and it isn't that densly planted so theres not much to wreck
 
The 70 acre Dublin zoo has a very small and ever decreasing collection, which Zootierliste lists as 62 species. Excluding farm and pet animals this drops to 50ish, 30 mammal, 10 birds and a dozen reptiles. The last mammal addition was the Okapi several years ago, while otter, arctic fox, Mara and Sumatran tigers etc.have gone. The already small bird collection halved when the new sanitised reptile house opened on the site of the old roberts house. It is a 8km walk around the zoo and on my last visit (cold and wet) I had good views of a dozen species. The zoo's popularity and high visitor numbers should see this trend continue unless the paying public demand more.
Although this post might read as a bad review of Dublin, it is just a statement of some facts, and I would still recommend a visit, to what is a very good zoo with no bad exhibits, and the animals are mostly in large groups in nice surroundings.
 
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The reptile house for its size certainly does not hold very many reptiles. I was actually quite disappointed with Zoorasic World when I first saw it as I realised it was the exact same reptile collection as before.
Now the Roberts House is gone, I do feel that even a row of aviaries would greatly help Dublin's rubbish bird collection. An African themed aviary would also be a nice addition to the African Plains.
As much as I would love for Dublin Zoo to build an exciting new exhibit, I don't see any new species being brought in til after the Wolves and Hippo enclosures have been redeveloped. Will definitely be interesting to see what will happen as the Zoo has plenty of money with its visitor numbers. If Dublin was in the UK, it would be the third highest visited Zoo after Chester and London.
Also other animals that have left recently without being replaced are Snowy Owls and Spider Monkeys.
 
Last year I visited Tayto park six times, Fota zoo twice and Dublin zoo twice. Tayto and Fota have built new exhibits and added several new species and Dublin built a very expensive but somewhat underwhelming wolf exhibit and did have good breeding success with Gorilla, Amur tiger, Okapi, Elephant and Giraffe.
Tayto added a nice Ring tailed Lemur walk through area plus Rock Hyrax, Kirks Dik Dik, Azaras Agouti, Bateleur eagle, Crested Acara, Macaws and several other Raptors. They also paired up Stellers eagle, King Vulture and Secretary birds and enlarged other groups such as Griffons and White stork.
Fota built a new Drill house and island and created a new Madagascan complex for four lemur species and other species of reptiles etc.
New species include Red bellied and blue eyed black lemurs, a group of five Drills, Two toed Sloth and reptiles, fish and amphibians.
Each zoo has its merits and demerits.
My hopes for the new year is for Fota and Tayto to continue to grow and improve and Dublin (under new management) to stop leaking species and add at least a dozen species of birds and a few small mammals. There is currently a large building project going on between the Wolf and Tiger enclosures, which I assume will be the Himalaya exhibit.(snow leopard, red panda?)
From what I have heard, the three Zoos have some interesting improvements planned.
Tayto is closed till March but I intend to visit Fota next week and Belfast and the new Donegal park in February.
 
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