I went this morning (for about an hour's visit) to Call of the Wild Zoo in South Woodham Ferrer, Essex (on the former site of Tropical Wings Zoo) for one of their open days. These are some of my thoughts on the place, along with a full list of the species visible today:
First, my thoughts:
Now onto the species list - I have decided to sort the animals out roughly in the order I saw them in. The species marked with an asterisk (*) were signed but not visible while species marked in italics were visible but not signed:
Africa
Into Africa (two enclosures with indoor viewing)
- Black-and-white ruffed lemur
- Common genet
Small standalone aviary
- Congo grey parrot
Walkthrough enclosure (formerly for lemurs)
- African pygmy goat
Medium-sized outdoor enclosure
- Meerkat
Open-topped pit display
- African crested porcupine *
- Yellow mongoose *
Two small enclosures on opposite sides of the path
- African civet
Two small roofed enclosures along the main path near entrance to 'The Americas'
- Serval
Two aviaries behind the display lawn
- Barn owl *
- Tawny owl *
Australia
Walkthrough enclosure that makes up half of the former wallaby walkthrough
- Bennett's wallaby
Paddock that originally made up the other half of the wallaby walkthrough
- Llama
Small annex to the aforementioned paddock
- Kunekune pig
The Americas
Two aviaries along aviary row
- Bengal eagle owl
- Asian brown wood owl
Small standalone cage
- American red squirrel
Medium-sized standalone cage
- Laughing kookaburra
Larger aviary
- Harris's hawk
Petting corner (indoors)
- Guinea pig
- Domestic rabbit
Small semicircular aviary
- White cockatoo
Small paddock
- Domestic donkey
Open-topped enclosure
- Striped skunk *
Large aviary
- Domestic helmeted guineafowl
Two small adjoined aviaries
- Striated caracara
There are also several species listed, either on the top or on labels around the park, as 'coming soon', including:
- Ring-tailed lemur (a bit ironic, as it's the only animal listed as being at the zoo on their website)
- Common marmoset
- South American coati
- Asian small-clawed otter
- Macaws (the biggest aviary in the aviary row in the Americas; species not listed but the poster depicted a blue-and-yellow macaw)
First, my thoughts:
- The place looks exactly how you would expect a place to look that is reopening after being closed for four years; some of the empty enclosures look quite damaged, the paths are in a bit of a state and the wood on some of the structures is on the point of rotting away. The main new structure, a refreshments hut, is the best-quality thing there at the moment.
- The enclosures range from being halfway decent (the Into Africa building, formerly a recently-opened Amazonia house at Tropical Wings) to godawful (one of the African civet enclosures was, I think, a chicken enclosure when Tropical Wings was open - it is a mesh tube with literally nothing inside it apart from the civet itself, which was understandably asleep in the corner).
- The Tropical House was closed although there was a talk that would have allowed you to go inside at 15:00, but there was no way I was hanging around for that long.
- Despite this, I think the place does show promise and I look forward to revisiting once the place is fully open in 2022, hopefully by which point they will have ironed out some of the biggest flaws.
Now onto the species list - I have decided to sort the animals out roughly in the order I saw them in. The species marked with an asterisk (*) were signed but not visible while species marked in italics were visible but not signed:
Africa
Into Africa (two enclosures with indoor viewing)
- Black-and-white ruffed lemur
- Common genet
Small standalone aviary
- Congo grey parrot
Walkthrough enclosure (formerly for lemurs)
- African pygmy goat
Medium-sized outdoor enclosure
- Meerkat
Open-topped pit display
- African crested porcupine *
- Yellow mongoose *
Two small enclosures on opposite sides of the path
- African civet
Two small roofed enclosures along the main path near entrance to 'The Americas'
- Serval
Two aviaries behind the display lawn
- Barn owl *
- Tawny owl *
Australia
Walkthrough enclosure that makes up half of the former wallaby walkthrough
- Bennett's wallaby
Paddock that originally made up the other half of the wallaby walkthrough
- Llama
Small annex to the aforementioned paddock
- Kunekune pig
The Americas
Two aviaries along aviary row
- Bengal eagle owl
- Asian brown wood owl
Small standalone cage
- American red squirrel
Medium-sized standalone cage
- Laughing kookaburra
Larger aviary
- Harris's hawk
Petting corner (indoors)
- Guinea pig
- Domestic rabbit
Small semicircular aviary
- White cockatoo
Small paddock
- Domestic donkey
Open-topped enclosure
- Striped skunk *
Large aviary
- Domestic helmeted guineafowl
Two small adjoined aviaries
- Striated caracara
There are also several species listed, either on the top or on labels around the park, as 'coming soon', including:
- Ring-tailed lemur (a bit ironic, as it's the only animal listed as being at the zoo on their website)
- Common marmoset
- South American coati
- Asian small-clawed otter
- Macaws (the biggest aviary in the aviary row in the Americas; species not listed but the poster depicted a blue-and-yellow macaw)
