First visit to Twycross for 5 years.
I went to Twycross yesterday as I was interested to see the progress that has been made since my last visit, when the zoo was at a low ebb.
The weather was pleasant, provided that you were out of the southerly breeze which was sending some clouds across the blue sky. The zoo was busy, as expected on a nice day in August. Unfortunately the animals were not awfully active and I noticed how the visitors were clustering around the exhibits where the animals were doing something.
For example, the gibbons all stayed inside their new house, except for the siamangs which sat on the ground of their island, eating grass. The islands are very exposed, and very ugly, each with some stunted palm trees between the telegraph poles and webbing strips. Why didn't someone think of planting some Lawson cypress and large bamboos to screen and shelter the islands as soon as the plans were drawn up? Why didn't they start growing some willow and alder saplings to plant on the islands? The indoor gibbon section is much better. My only criticism is that it is quite dimly lit, which applies to most of the other houses at Twycross too. Skylights are a good idea.
The biggest disappointment was the Lorikeet Landing. I know it is just designed as a visitor experience, but it's horrible. It's a square commercial barn, with wire mesh sides and a solid roof. The wind was going straight through it, so the interior was dark, dry and dusty. The planting is basically more stunted palm trees, apparently struggling to survive in the environment and it bears no resemblance to a tropical forest. One lorikeet was sipping nectar, until a child reached out to stroke it and so father and the keeper had to intervene. About ten other lorikeets were perched high up on the steel rafters, I don't know how many were in the shelter (but I suspect they were the more intelligent ones).
The gorillas mostly stayed indoors, although Ozala and the youngsters came out for a scatter feed. The wind and the loud noises next door - from the building site and inside the current chimp house were part of the problem. Some of the chimps did come outside for a while. The orangs did not have the choice, they were locked out. I think I have been spoiled by watching the orangs at Chester and Paignton, I know how active orangs can be in a spacious, stimulating environment and with good management. The extra height in the modified orang house is a step forward, and I suppose that the chimp development has priority at the moment, but with a little extra furniture I think they could give the orangs scatter feeds above ground level and so stimulate extra activity. The outdoor group of bonobos had chosen sheltered spots and gone to sleep when I first looked for them. Although they were all much more active in the afternoon.
I quite liked the lemur walk-through, which has been attached to the old lemur house. Although the thickets of young pine trees did not exactly match my mental image of a Malagasy landscape, the ring-tailed and red ruffed lemurs seemed to be making good use of it. On the other hand, I did not see the De Brazza's monkeys or the Emperor tamarins using their allotted extramural areas: but after years of seeing only pairs of guenons at Twycross, it was nice to see larger groups of De Brazza's and Dianas. It was also nice to see the tufted deer with their fawn, and the buck was taking a keen interest in the doe: the keeper told me that they had mated the previous day.
Overall it was mixed experience, parts of the zoo are getting shabby and several enclosures were empty. But work is in progress and nowhere is this more obvious than in the signage: visitors can never complain that they can't see the signs – they are huge and eye-catching. I think the biggest one advertised the capybara in the enclosure they share with the tapirs and a vicugna, I guess it is over 2 metres long
Unfortunately I couldn't actually see the animals
My final stopping place was Himalaya. The leaf-cutting ants in the Gents were as industrious as ever, and the snow leopard were charming. The female was licking her cubs so hard that she got quite out of breath and lay panting beside them.
