ZSL London Zoo Londo Zoo 'ZooWorld'

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Pertinax

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
'ZooWorld' is what they now call the former Casson Elephant building...

Uk zoo buffs will know it now houses Camels on the former Elephant side, and the Bearded Pig (about seven),( formerly kept on the cotton terraces), on the former Rhino's side. I believe the Anoa lived here too at one time but they have now been moved to obscurity the old paddock behind the adjacent Ostrich House
Inside the Elephant house they have had to reduce the display areas accordingly, creating a problem... So one each of the Elephant and Rhino display 'bays'(the opposing ones) has been turned into small aviaries housing Cardinals, Partridges etc. There is a wooden floor covering the old dry moats and you actually stand where the rhinos and elephants once stood as the aviaries only fill the back areas.
The Pigmy Hippo area(former elephant bathing pool) just sits empty when they are in their summer quarters outside.

This building is an example of the problems ZSL have had in filling a redundant pachyderm house with other species. It has a rather empty feel about it.
 
There are 9 bearded pigs, I beleive, that I've posted this info befire, but the group is led by a dominant male, Pugley, and there has a ppently been a good breeding record. Where were the bearded pigs housed before their move to the Cotton terraces? And another thing, when did the zoo get them. I think I remember seeing them back in 2001, but they might have just been red river hogs.

Do you know any other birds that are housed in there?

Why doen't the zoo get rhinos back to solve the problem? Are the enclosures too small?
 
Writhedhornbill said:
Do you know any other birds that are housed in there?

Why doen't the zoo get rhinos back to solve the problem? Are the enclosures too small?
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I counted 7 bearded pig, there could have been more.

Birds in those aviaries in the ZOOWORLD included Pope Cardinal, Roul Roul Partridge(I think) maybe bleeding heart dove, Shama.

Rhinos were phased out for exactly the same reason as the Elephants. No longer regarded as suitable for the building, despite it being purpose built.
 
At the risk of being immodest im partially responsible for the Bearded Pigs being at London .I was good friends with Hans Fradrich who was Director of Zoo Berlin until 2002 ,I suggested that London might be worth getting in touch with as Berlin was struggling with surplus at the time.And, lo and behold it did happen!Im told that they have actually been castrated now at London,the fecundity of the Berlin herd has rather dropped in the meantime as well.Ive also seen the malayan subspecies at Night Safari in Singapore [Sus barbatus oi] and they are taller and narrower somehow.I really like to see different species in zoos-kind of a zoo twitcher i suppose, but of course such a thing now often goes against EEPS.SSPS,and all the future trends [which zoos need to do to be honest].There are still unusual things to be seen but you have to travel far and wide to be honest.
 
if i was in charge id ditch the ugly camels, send them packing to whipsnade, and like you said, add malayan tapirs. in 2005 porcupines were displayed in the summer in the pygmy hippo pond, then they went to the old penguin pool which subsequently flooded.
zoo world was quite an effective small mammal display. in the future it'd make an fabulous venue to display species dependent on zoo breeding programs, like golden lion tamairn, socorro dove, monserrat oriole, etc with malayn tapir and bearded pigs, pygmy hippo and perhaps anoa.
but ultimately i think this exhibit could be converted into an amazing enclosure for oranguatns without any major exterior strucutural adjustments.
it would be the inside thatd present the problem
 
glyn said:
if i was in charge id ditch the ugly camels, send them packing to whipsnade, and like you said, add malayan tapirs. in 2005 porcupines were displayed in the summer in the pygmy hippo pond, then they went to the old penguin pool which subsequently flooded.
zoo world was quite an effective small mammal display. in the future it'd make an fabulous venue to display species dependent on zoo breeding programs, like golden lion tamairn, socorro dove, monserrat oriole, etc with malayn tapir and bearded pigs, pygmy hippo and perhaps anoa.
but ultimately i think this exhibit could be converted into an amazing enclosure for oranguatns without any major exterior strucutural adjustments.
it would be the inside thatd present the problem
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I've often thought that- such a high roofed building would make a great primate enclosure.
 
This building is certainly a bit of a 'white elephant' -if you'll forgive the pun- in its present state....
 
it could, even within heritage restrictions make quite a superb rainforest exhibit also, like some of the north american 'jungle world' type displays.
the old camel yard would be great for orangs with high climbing structures, trees and grass. maybe theme it around south east asia with a progression to the big cats (tigers, asian lions and red panda).
pygmy hippo are OK in their current enclosures, but i feel they are under utilised in terms of their exhibit potential. some funding to upgrade the old yards behind the stork house with summer/winter accomodation could work, but so too could relocating them to the 'wild africa' area.
 
Yes, I'm thinking here- if they've now developed the cotton Teraces for exclusively African Species(I'm sure the Tapir won't stay there) then perhaps the old elephant house could be developed for Asian animals similarly;bearded pigs already there, maybe also add Anoa, tapirs, orangutans etc, as others have said, the potential is certainly there.

Its so obviously being underused at present. The camels are no sort of real display at all and they use up half the space.
 
What's the roof like on it? Isn't it on of those greeny blue copper ones? Would it be a bit dark to grow plant's inside or what?

We'll just have to wait and see- does anyone think this 'zoo world' thing could be a temporary phase?

We could start a petition for a South East Asian building! It wouldn't necessarily mean bringing in too many new species either- they've already got gibbons and crested macaque that could do with new exhibits and the malayan tapir is out of place where it is.
 
maybe they are already thinkng along those lines? I don't know. But its certainly a very 'empty' exhibit at present with no 'theme' to it.

They have kept the African monkeys near Gorilla Kingdom, but moved the Langurs, Sulawesi macaques and Spider monkeys right away to the cat Plaza. I'd almost say these were surplus at present. Also I wonder how happy these monkeys are living within close contact- sound, sight and smell- of big cats? Its all a bit 'temporary' feeling.
 
essentially the roof is designed to actually filter light down into the building, which was supposed to give an impression of the visitor entering a sunny forest glade surrounded by the elephants in their indoor stalls.
when you consider it, the interior is big, quite an attractive space which i feel would lend itself to an asian forest exhibit. maybe a transluscent roof like on the clore is out of question due to heritage restriction, but if the zoo was to focus more on presenting small mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians indoors along the lines of the current displays linked by (pottted plantings) and featuring major exhibits for orang, tapir, anoa and pigs inside too, then i think quite a good attraction could be established.
 
After reading some of the ideas on here, this is how I personally, would re-organise London Zoo

The Casson Pavilion:
1. Relocate the Pygmy Hippos to 'Into Africa' in the Tapir enclosure. There is a pool and an outdoor area and they won't require moving from winter/summer homes.
2. Swap the Tapir to the Casson Pavillion in the Hippos' places.
3. Refurbish the Casson pavillion into an Asian rainforest theme and incorporate Orang-Utans (or at least move the Gibbons over here). Also free-flying birds could be a possibilty.
4. Send the camels to whipsnade. Allow the apes, the use of the outdoor facility.

Thats's just off the top of my head really...
 
My opinion of the Asian Cassion Pavillion is that

1. The Tapirs would be exposed too much and i think they should be kept in a quiet area of the zoo. Isnt there space on the other side of the zoo where the Snowdon aviary is too build a paddock for them.

2. I don't think the building would be a good enclsoure for the orangs without breaking the listed buildings rules.
 
ZooMania said:
I don't think the building would be a good enclsoure for the orangs without breaking the listed buildings rules.
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Have London indicated any interest in having Orangutans again? They got rid of their previous stock during the 1990 near-closure era- they said they were 'labour intensive' and uneconomical spacewise. Still, I suppose that's all history now...
 
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