Edinburgh Zoo Priorities for development

[kiang]

After reading that there is a possibility of a dome going over the penguin enclosure, i thought i would note down a few areas of the zoo that really need redevelopment, before the fairly new penguin enclosure.

Firstly i think the monkey house as it stands has to go, for the primates held in the house itself it serves its purpose, indoor/outdoor enclosures, plenty of enrichment, very high outdoor cages and each enclosure kept clean.
But for the visitors, this is not enough, this style of exhibition belongs in the 70's/80's, and it is time one of the best primate collections in the UK, if not Europe, had and exhibit worthy of that, Budongo, living links, the magic forest, the lemur , gibbon and gelada enclosures have led the way, it is time the rest of the primate collection followed.

http://www.zoochat.com/61/edinburgh-zoo-06-04-09-a-71632/
http://www.zoochat.com/61/edinburgh-zoo-06-04-09-a-71631/
http://www.zoochat.com/61/edinburgh-zoo-06-04-09-a-71634/
http://www.zoochat.com/61/edinburgh-zoo-06-04-09-a-71637/
http://www.zoochat.com/61/aye-aye-edinburgh-zoo-36969/

as opposed to

http://www.zoochat.com/61/edinburgh-zoo-06-04-09-a-71689/
http://www.zoochat.com/61/edinburgh-zoo-06-04-09-a-71686/
http://www.zoochat.com/61/gelada-baboon-edinburgh-zoo-37058/
http://www.zoochat.com/61/golden-cheeked-gibbon-enclosure-edinburgh-zoo-37054/
http://www.zoochat.com/61/chimp-outdoor-exhbit-budongo-edinburgh-zoo-37095/

The monkey house has as i say served the zoo well, with many births over the years including the UK's first owl faced guenon, as well as many Diana monkey, spectacled and purple faced langurs, black howler monkey, yellow breasted capuchin, red titi and many others.
But the time has come for a change, and i believe before the society thinks of a dome for the penguins, re-home the monkeys.
I think the ideal site would be the area used for the pygmy hippo, Asian small clawed otter, Australian cassowary and Chilean pudu.
Clear it and build a series of habitats and mixed exhibits that could include the pygmy hippo, Malayan tapir and the often spoken of retutn of the orang utans.
Again, only my opinion, not representing the RZSS in any way (though hopefully someone is watching).

 

[^Chris^]

I agree, with you, I did not really like the primate house. Actually, looking at your photographs it wasn't really as bad as I remember but I agree that they look dated. There are two other areas that I would love to see improved.

Firstly, I would like the rhino's to have a new paddock, in one of the big grassy areas up the hill. The current rhino area could become a new improved house for the tapirs.

I would also like to see changes to the row of carnivore pens. I really don't mind these- but in my mind they are small carnivore pens, and not really well suited to the jaguar, for example. ALTHOUGH, my memory of the zoo is two or three years old, and looking at the website some changes may already be in place here.

It's so easy to whinge when you get going, but it's a shame because I do like Edinburgh.

 

[Pertinax]

Firstly, I would like the rhino's to have a new paddock, in one of the big grassy areas up the hill.

A hillside paddock is inadvisable for such enormous and bulky creatures as Indian rhino. By nature they are normally dwellers on the flat, floodplains of rivers. In captivity they need access to plenty of water and soft substrate to walk on, and can develop serious foot problems if they have to live on hard , well drained ground. Coupled with that is the danger of seriously injuring themselves if trying to run or gallop(e.g. during play or courtship) on too-sloping ground.

 

[Pertinax]

.

Firstly i think the monkey house as it stands has to go, for the primates held in the house itself it serves its purpose.
But for the visitors, this is not enough, this style of exhibition belongs in the 70's/80's.The often spoken of retutn of the orang utans.

I agree the Monkey House has served its time and is pretty outdated now. The very good collection of Monkeys deserve more modern exhibits.

I hadn't heard about the possibility of Orangutans returning to the Zoo. I would certainly support that as historically they had the first births in the UK, though the young DNS. And with the creation of Budongo they've proved they can now create world class exhibits for Anthropoid Apes.

My choice for Edinburgh would definately be Sumatrans - being more active they create a much better exhibit, are rarer and also numerically much fewer in UK zoos(though not in Europe) and were the species Edinburgh originally kept(though they had Borneans more recently)

 

[redpanda]

After reading that there is a possibility of a dome going over the penguin enclosure,

How marvelously pointless! I heard the penguin enclosure was going to be "kept and quietly developed" (Wonders Never Cease), I think this goes a bit past that.

As has been already said, the monkey house, carnivore row and rhino enclosure should all be replaced in a zoo which has exhibits as good as budongo trail and living links. Also, I would like to see Edinburgh get more reptiles/amphibians/invertebrates/fish as the collection is very lacking in all of these classes.

 

[^Chris^]

A hillside paddock is inadvisable for such enormous and bulky creatures as Indian rhino. By nature they are normally dwellers on the flat, floodplains of rivers. In captivity they need access to plenty of water and soft substrate to walk on, and can develop serious foot problems if they have to live on hard , well drained ground. Coupled with that is the danger of seriously injuring themselves if trying to run or gallop(e.g. during play or courtship) on too-sloping ground.

Hmm, that's a shame, but it makes sense. I guess all those paddocks are very steep, even beyond the point of a bit of landscaping/terracing etc. Even the paddock with the addax and lechwe, which is lower down, is still quite sloped isn't it? It would just be nicer to see them with a larger paddock, that's all.

Apparently, according to photos from Kiang the jags have moved since I was last there, so that should be a bit better.

 

[Pertinax]

It would just be nicer to see them with a larger paddock, that's all.

I agree (I haven't seen them at Edinburgh but I know where they live.) Indian Rhino really need a large flat paddock with a large wallow/bathing area so in reality a hilly urban Zoo like Edinburgh is actually not the best place to exhibit this species.

 

[johnstoni]

Will the dome seal the pool as a climate-controlled exhibit? Could that potentially lead to more scope for increasing the species/numbers of penguins they exhibit?

 

[gentle lemur]

I agree about the Monkey House. It's well out of date. I'd prefer to see the monkeys scattered about the zoo in smaller exhibits. The zoo already has a pattern for a very suitable type of enclosure in Living Links, although different species would need slight modifications to the pattern that works so well for the capuchins and squirrel monkeys.

Alan

 

[Simon McGlary]

After reading that there is a possibility of a dome going over the penguin enclosure, i thought i would note down a few areas of the zoo that really need redevelopment, before the fairly new penguin enclosure.

This is one of Iain Valentine's (Director of Animals, Education and Conservation at RZSS) many dreams and probably a shared dream of all at RZSS and Edinburgh Zoo. I would probably imagine that the only enclosures that everyone is truly happy with at the moment at the zoo are the bongo enclosure, Budongo Trail, Living Links and Rainbow Landings. That is why they had the Masterplan. As everyone there says, "The current enclosure meets all the stndards, but .......". Edinburgh's want and desires for it's animal welfare and husbandary is nothing short of exemplary and not only in enclosure design and layout but other forms of enrichment.

Unfortunately, being a charity RZSS is very much tied by the constraints of money flow. Also the basic infrastructure is the thing that needs the biggest upgrade and is the single most expensive element of any work that needs done at the zoo.