I think Belfast's breeding of Spectacled Bear was due to having a compatible pair long before Chester ever did, and not related with the enclosure design. So a long period elapsed before they(Chester) were in a position to breed them.
Chester Zoo Chester Zoo Discussion, Speculation & Questions 2018
- Thread starter JoeDK14
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I agree- I don't think that statement can ever be true at Chester..
Its a common general critisism from the average zoo-go-er on Tripadvisor/Facebook etc who have had a bad experience on a zoo visit for whatever reason and then add that observation to their general complaint. Of course a family encumbered with prams, small children etc will probably only manage to go around the zoo once, maybe not all of it either and consequently will no doubt miss a lot of animals. Unlike a keen zooophile who will cover more ground and can revisit chosen exhibits. Also there's another (hidden) handicap for them- in my experience average family style visitors are often amazingly unobservant (!)- 'there's nothing in here' they'll say and move on, when the animal/s is actually perfectly visible but stationary or not in an obvious position. So for them, that's another animal not seen. Hence the complaint they 'didn't see many animals'. But however many no-shows they experience, I don't think that could ever be a situation levelled at Chester, the collection is just too big and varied.
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Welsh Zootographer
Well-Known Member
Then healthservicediscounts.com will be your friend.
(It doesn't mention the Chester Zoo discount but a nurse confirmed to me this morning she used it just before Christmas.)
I like the Malayan sun bear enclosures, I'd go as far to say that they are the best I've ever seen. One drawback has been discovered since the bears moved in. Near the back of the enclosure is a small hillock. The bears like to sit or lie behind it as it acts as both a sun trap and a windbreak. Consequently when they are in that area they are not visible to visitors.
Unobservant and lacking in patience. Anything which requires an adjustment of the eyes (bats, aye-ayes) underlines this. We always sit for a few minutes with the bats before even thinking of watching them seriously. While our eyes are adjusting families will come in, walk through and exit saying "not much in there" ...
There were 200 bats you ********s ! ! ! we yell at them.
(We don't.)
(Well, not always.)
I liked the Malayan sun Bear exhibit- I saw a sunbear easily too. Problems like that only emerge after the inhabitants have started using the exhibit. I wonder if the frequent non-appearance of the Andean bears(in the past) is for a similar reason...
I like it, too. It’s definitely within the top five sun bear enclosures I’ve seen so far.
Then healthservicediscounts.com will be your friend.
Thank you so much! This is very useful to know!
I didn’t really think Franka was that old, as far as spectacled bears go?
Of course, the only way to find those sort of problems it to put the animals in. You may be right about the spectacled bears
Yes, I meant the wealthiest 67%, potentially excluding poorest 33%.
...But will you still like it when the foliage in the foreground has grown to virtually obscure the viewing windows? It's fantastic at the moment but just wait and see.
Yes, my point exactly, Thank You FunkyGibbon. By excluding lower income families, there is tremendous lost Conservation Education opportunity, and who knows amongst the lost generation may have been the next 'Jane Goodall' ?
On the subject of pricing I refer Zoochatters back to my earlier post in this forum.... Chester Zoo Discussion, Speculation & Questions I Thank You
Soon find out, I guess! Although viewing ability itself isn’t actually my top criterion for a great enclosure - if it were, I’d probably rate Madrid in first place, with their sun bears locked outdoors almost permanently on show on their concrete pit where they can’t escape from view.
Although, the opportunity would still be lost if their parents didn’t earn enough to be able to fund them through university . . .
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I am not a great fan of the themed approach which can get in the way in the Monsoon Forest and I agree about the problems with the croc and turtle viewing; indeed I pointed them out and illustrated them shortly after it opened. However I think complaints about the orang viewing are partly misconceived. The big problem that used to occur in RotRA was that the hand-raised females, Emma and Subis, used to be able to sit beside the viewing windows with their infants which made visitors crowd around those windows, obstructing passage and eventually damaging some of the windows. I have no inside information but I am convinced that the indoor orang accommodation was designed to prevent this. I think the outdoor viewing in the oak tree enclosure is very good. It is not so good in the enclosure beside the exit from the building because it is compromised by the 'Lazy River' - but you can get excellent brief views from the boats, if the orangs are using that enclosure. If you want better views, take binoculars and watch from the path past the aviary like the students observing the orang's behaviour.
We all have to accept that some species are harder to see than others - I have yet to see the binturogs at Chester and many carnivores are similar - I am haunted by the image of TLD waiting for a marbled polecat to appear. You could spend hours waiting to see a tuatara move, but I don't think a ZooChatter would complain about that
I agree that's what has happened on the Monkey Island- totally obscuring the depth of view and hope they don't let it happen with the bears. Its very easy to rectify- if they feel like doing it that is...
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Actually my critisim of the Orangutan(indoor) viewing goes right back to the old Orangutan house too- I thought the viewing windows in there were rather too small also. They roughly followed that scale with the ROTRA design and on busy days with large crowds of people there simply isn't enough floorspace at the windows, even with the animals being further back and not window-sitting. I'm sure the Monsoon Forest viewing area was designed so Emma and Subis can't come up close to the window anymore, but the total floorspace/window length is ridiculously small for that large main indoor enclosure. Then you go past the Sulawesi macaques with a nice big full length window...daft IMO.
Not sure about the outsides either- there were Orangs(Emma or Subis & Puloh) in the enclosure with the Oak tree when I went recently but the end furthest from the indoors has a large blind corner and the hill means the whole back half is hidden from public view also. My other critism is you have to be in several different places long distances apart to have a chance of seeing them. Indoors- outside at a window- on the Boats( briefly as they go past) and all these different enclosures/viewing points are widely spaced so there's a lot of walking around just to try and locate the Orangutans. In that respect I think the Bornean/ROTRA outdoor enclosures are far more 'visitor friendly'. Of course the old 'islands' both in the original Tropical House enclosures and Orangutan house were far more primitive- but they were at least easily visible. I think they've tried to get too clever with the designs now, at the expense of 'viewability'.
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A further issue with the orang viewing in Monsoon Forest: since the orangs still tend to spend a significant amount of time on the ground, it's often only possible to glimpse them when stood right up at the window - those stood further back see nothing (this is one area where I feel the indoor orang accommodation at Jersey succeeds, even though it is not of the same overall calibre as Chester).
That said, I still think Monsoon Forest is a world-class exhibit - and the Great Ape viewing is considerably better than several other expensively-built facilities in the UK, most notably Gorilla Kingdom at Regent's Park.
That said, I still think Monsoon Forest is a world-class exhibit - and the Great Ape viewing is considerably better than several other expensively-built facilities in the UK, most notably Gorilla Kingdom at Regent's Park.
I don't know her exact age and she probably wasn't geriatric but I'd have termed her elderly, at least during her latter time at Chester. The main difference was she didn't have cubs etc so maybe lacked the same stimulation and slept a lot more or stayed hidden. The original males Chester had in that enclosure were perfectly visible, or at least they were to me on a couple of visits.