Best UK Baboon enclosure

Best UK Baboon enclosure?

  • Total voters
    43
  • Poll closed .
B

britishzoofan

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
This is just a bit of fun to judge the general consensus on the best enclosure for Baboons in the UK. I have added a few photos from the gallery to make it easier for members to compare the different exhibits. If anyone wants to make an argument for a particular enclosure, please feel free to do so. Also, I would encourage people to perhaps list the enclosures in order of what they determine to be the best.

I haven't included the exhibit at Knowsley as it is a drive through. I will however mention it is an excellent enclosure and would have had a good chance of winning. Furthermore, I'm unsure if the Baboons are still kept in the enclosure shown for South Lakes, which is the one in the background not foreground.

South Lakes (Hamadryas)

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Combe Martin (Hamadryas)

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Flamingo Land (Hamadryas)

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Paignton (Hamadryas)

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YWP (Guinea)

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Port Lympne (Guinea)

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Voted Paignton. The off-show facilities may not be the best but, for me, this and the Gibbon island are THE abiding memories I have of the place. I believe they’ve also bred like rabbits over the years so the zoo must be doing something right.
 
Panthera1981 said:
Voted Paignton. The off-show facilities may not be the best but, for me, this and the Gibbon island are THE abiding memories I have of the place. I believe they’ve also bred like rabbits over the years so the zoo must be doing something right.
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Visually I think Paignton's is best as you see them at eyelevel and the enclosure provides good climbing environment for them. Its a shame there are flowerbeds keeping people back from looking over the wall as a large part of the enclosure is not visible, but no doubt its more accident-proof as a result. As to breeding, they are very productive almost anywhere with enough females.

My favourite baboon enclosure overall is probably Howletts' Geladas, but that species is not included in this vote(I know... they aren't true baboons...;)).
 
Voted YWP, looks pretty big and also just looks nice. Maybe not the best reason to vote but to me it looks like a fine enclosure.
 
This is a tough one... I'm swinging towards Yorkshire right now, but Paignton holds a lot of affection for me and is a really great exhibit considering its age.

As an aside, what the heck is that thing in the foreground of the South Lakes picture? It looks like a cross between a large cat enclosure and a building site!
 
Sand Cat said:
As an aside, what the heck is that thing in the foreground of the South Lakes picture? It looks like a cross between a large cat enclosure and a building site!
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I believe its the Snow Leopard enclosure... I think I commented once before it looks like they have just dumped a huge pile of rock into a grass paddock.
 
I'm not sure why people are voting for YWP's enclosure as I always thought it was rather small and bare with very little climbing opportunities. That's why, for now, I've gone for Flamingo Land, which I believe is larger and has many more climbing opportunities.
 
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Pertinax said:
I believe its the Snow Leopard enclosure... I think I commented once before it looks like they have just dumped a huge pile of rock into a grass paddock.
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Not defending or commenting directly in ANY way - but, I would say that natural rock which can be purchased and delivered by lorry, does look like this. Of course it can be left dumped in a pile, or cemented together to make a wall - neither of which will look very natural. Large pieces, say one per lorry, weighing 4 or 5 tons are desperately expensive (the lorry itself will cost upwards of around £1000 per day) and very often will need a huge crane to place them, even if this has access and can be maneuvered - and will look disappointingly small in situ. The alternative is 'fake' rock, a concrete sprayer the size of a wheelbarrow and small bags of ready mixed powder.
 
Benosaurus said:
New I'm not sure why people are voting for YWP's enclosure as I always thought it was rather small and bare with very little climbing opportunities. That's why, for now, I've gone for Flamingo Land, which I believe is larger and has many more climbing opportunities.
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They're almost exactly of a size, actually - the YWP one may even be larger, as the exhibit footplan isn't partially taken up by a wide moat!
 
I have seen all apart from South Lakes, which looks comfortably the worst anyway! I think they are all OK (even Combe Martin is surprisingly good), but can't see a stand out one at the moment. I'm surprised Port Lympne doesn't have a single vote though!
 
TeaLovingDave said:
They're almost exactly of a size, actually - the YWP one may even be larger, as the exhibit footplan isn't partially taken up by a wide moat!
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I'm not at all convinced that YWP's is larger or even the same size. YWP's enclosure also has a large pond within its perimeter.

Annoyingly, YWP can't be seen overhead on Google Maps, but there is a street view;
Google Maps

...whereas Flamingo Land can be seen overhead and it really does not look smaller than YWP's;
Google Maps

However, what can't be debated is that FL's has way more climbing structures.
 
It shouldn't really make any difference which is the bigger out of Flamingoland's and YWP, because size is a factor then Port Lympne is significantly bigger than both!
 
pipaluk said:
I'm surprised Port Lympne doesn't have a single vote though!
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I'm not entirely sure the baboons are still in that (mixed with rhinoceros) exhibit, as a matter of fact. When I last visited, I recall them being limited to a large cage exhibit near the main entrance.

Benosaurus said:
Annoyingly, YWP can't be seen overhead on Google Maps, but there is a street view;
Click to expand...

Even more annoyingly, Google Maps has updated to the point that much of the car park for YWP is present :P which rather adds insult to injury!

That said, I've found another site with more up-to-date satellite images of the relevant areas of Yorkshire - the distance calculation tool doesn't allow for area calculation, but the perimeter of the two exhibits in question seems to be 210 metres (Flamingo Land) and 170 metres (YWP) - so the former is indeed larger as you said, but I wouldn't exactly call the latter small.

Either way, assuming my recollection about Port Lympne is correct, the two Yorkshire collections are still the two largest exhibits in contention - and IMO even if my recollections are incorrect these two collections still have the edge over PL.
 
The perimeter of the PL exhibit is well over 300m, they have been in the rhino paddock (without rhino) for at least 5 years.
Not that it matters that much!
 
I remember being excited to see the baboons at YWP (tbh was excited about see the whole park) as it looked impressive in the photos but time has not been kind and much like most of the rest of the park came away disappointed by it.

The baboons have done a lovely job of making it look barren.

An interesting idea is if you could combine features from all of these to make something that would truly stand out amongst them all.
1) South lakes space they provide is fantastic but its just a field and indoors is truly atrocious.
2) YWP use of rocks to give vertical separation is nice.
3) Paigntons view at eye level.
 
littleRedPanda said:
I think Andrew posted a good alternative to google maps a while ago that does have more up to date views of YWP. I can't remember the site name though
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Yep, think that was the one I linked upthread :)
 
TeaLovingDave said:
I'm not entirely sure the baboons are still in that (mixed with rhinoceros) exhibit, as a matter of fact. When I last visited, I recall them being limited to a large cage exhibit near the main entrance.
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The cage near the entrance- actually outside it, only houses a few spare adult males. The main group is very large these days and has a 'tower'-type enclosure as well as (usually) access to the large ex-rhino paddock- at least that's how it was my last visit.
 
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