Northumberland Country Zoo Northumberland Country Zoo News

Visited for the first time today and was very impressed! What I noted.

  • Great to see the fruit bats- didn’t realise how rare they were! A couple of them were fighting- it looked as if they were tangled

  • The new reptile/nocturnal house was great- saw nearly every animal

  • The hot house is it lying empty without any development

  • Watched the bird show- really good (the zoo actually has some decent rockwork)

  • There is practically no poor enclosures anywhere, I didn’t feel as if there were any exhibits needing a bulldoser. However, I did see some stereotypy- from some of the raccoons, the serval for a bit and the snow leopard, though it was probably because the keeper was going into the outdoor area.
• There are a lot of raccoons- I counted about 12 in one enclosure

• The snow leopard exhibit is very impressive- a spacious indoor area with actually decent mock rock and two large aviary with plenty of rocks and furnishings.

Overall, I really liked it. One question though- what are they building behind the tapir and capybara enclosure? It looks as if it might be something big like a cat.

Species seen (not including domestics):

Prairie dog
Blue tounged skink
Blue poison dart frog
Rainbow boa
Maculay’s spectre
Leafcutter ant
Black beauty stick insect
Madagscan hissing cockroach
Sulcatta
Leopard tortoise
Asian water dragon
Sand monitor
Chilean rose tarantula
Another tarantula species I can’t remember
Gray mouse lemur
Some species in with them unsigned- maybe a malagasy rat?
Long nosed potoroo
Red eyed tree frog
Livingstone’s fruit bat
Meerkat
Harvest mouse
North American tree porcupine
Siberian chipmunk
Indian eagle owl
Harris hawk
Tawny owl
Arctic fox
Snowy owl
American kestrel
Bengal eagle owl
Great grey owl
Laughing kookaburra
Serval
Ring tailed lemur
Red fronted lemur
Canadian lynx
Common raccoon
Greater rhea
Capybara
Brazilian tapir
Snow leopard
African grey parrot
Asian short clawed otter

Species unseen:

Six banded armadillo
Sugar glider
Cape porcupine
A couple bird of prey species I can’t remember
Scottish wildcat
 
Overall, I really liked it. One question though- what are they building behind the tapir and capybara enclosure? It looks as if it might be something big like a cat.

New Serval enclosure I believe. Will be interesting to see what they do with the current one. Could extend it into the now dormant owl aviary in front of it and add a new cat species like Margay for example
 
Northumberland zoo is a zoo I’d love to visit. It has a great animal collection and I think it has a very promising future. The videos they post online gives you an insight of the zoo and its future. It will be great to see what it does in the next few years.
 
Went this afternoon. Didn't see the bat baby but saw a lot of the species we don't normally see. Scottish Wildcat, Canadian Lynx, a Snow Leopard up close at the window. Saw the new Vositse in the Nocturnal House. Also saw Afia the Serval in her new house from a distance. New African Grey Parrot aviary is great but noisy! Work ongoing on the site of the former hot house, looking forward to seeing what 2024 has in store.
 

New tropical house is taking shape. Still no announcement on the species but there are some clues here

- one species described as a "terrestrial chewer"
- more than one arboreal species
- some animals coming from Chester Zoo, others coming from other zoos
Is it going to be revealed soon?
Just wondering:)
 
They are aiming to have it open by mid March.

They'll also be announcing some of the species that will be part of the big 35 acre expansion at some point this year. That expansion is a 10-year plan so by the mid 2030s the zoo will be nearly three times it's current size.
Ok thanks :)
 

New tropical house is taking shape. Still no announcement on the species but there are some clues here.

- one species described as a "terrestrial chewer"
- more than one arboreal species
- some animals coming from Chester Zoo, others coming from other zoos
I Hope they will have the old parrot house as a South American building with agoutis and monkeys, such as tamarins. Possibly even tamandua or sloths
 
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