Visit to Colchester Zoo on 28th/29th August 2009
I've just had an amazing two days at Colchester Zoo. It has been 6 months since my last visit, so it was lovely to be there in the summer sunshine instead of the winter snow! I spent literally the whole day there on Friday (from opening to closing time) and then another 5 hours yesterday. Both days were absolutely heaving with visitors but that didn't put me off! I won't write a review as such because so many others contribute posts about this zoo, but I will add my own observations instead:
1) I briefly saw the baby chimp Talia on her mother's back
2) Tumba the chocolate chimp was smearing faeces on the window of the enclosure
3) A keeper confirmed to me that the male red panda had died (but she didn't have any further details as it wasn't her section), just leaving the female Lushan in the enclosure
4) I saw one of the binturongs in The Heights, lying on one of the rafters with its tongue out
5) After waiting patiently, I saw a pallas cat running around its enclosure
6) I didn't see the tamanduas (but didn't expect to)
7) I only saw one komodo dragon
8) The new pair of African hunting dogs were halfway down the hill in their enclosure
9) I didn't see any Philippine spotted deer
10) Igor and Anoushka the amur tigers were sleeping right by the glass
11) The extension to the aardvark burrow looks impressive
12) I only saw two of the elephants - Tanya and Opal (looking rather pregnant now)
13) I only saw Katavi the cheetah at her display times. When it was Uria's turn, I couldn't see her. What has happened to the male cheetah? He was there in February when I last visited
14) I saw the spotted hyena and both the striped hyenas
15) The Wallaby Walkabout was new for me as the mountain goats were still there last time I visited
16) The African walk through was new for me as well. A poor little girl got caught in the eye by the horn of a rove goat
17) Someone from Jimmy's Farm was there (the farm from the TV) collecting the older Essex pigs as the sow had 11 piglets on Monday 24th August and there isn't room for all of them plus the other pigs. The sow and piglets were separated from the others first, then the ones going to the farm were rounded up onto a trailer (they weren't very happy
). The new piglets are very cute
18) Unfortunately, due to the high winds, none of the birds of prey displays could happen, but instead birds were brought out as if it was an encounter session
19) I fell in love with Lloyd the baby Eastern black and white colobus monkey - he is just gorgeous
I could have watched him all day
20) I didn't see the baby anteater, only an adult (presumably, Gilberto), but I did see Silva (the previous infant) in the old fossa enclosure
21) Now that the margays have left the collection (which is a shame), I noticed that a Geoffroy's cat is in the remaining half of their enclosure (the other half having been demolished to make way for the extension to the amur leopard enclosure)
22) I didn't see the new male amur leopard in his quarantine enclosure at all
23) The Goeldi's monkeys were free ranging in the Worlds Apart exhibit, whilst the emperor tamarins stayed behind glass
24) I found the Cuban hutias (in the old meerkat enclosure) fascinating as I have never seen them before
25) The binturong in the Small Mammals exhibit came out and walked around the enclosure which was fantastic
26) I saw the baby buffy headed capuchin clinging onto its mum's back
27) Rajang and Tiga were wonderful to watch. Tiga had his sack on his head at first, but soon removed it to eat his lunch
28) I went into the South American World walk through exhibit just before it closed at 4:00 so I saw the male sloth climb out of his box and along the ropes back to his indoor quarters
It was lovely to see so many baby animals around the zoo. I fed Tanya the elephant and Century the giraffe which is an amazing experience. There are improvements which have already been made in the last 6 months, and others which are currently happening, so the zoo is constantly evolving. I will definitely go back when the leopard enclosure is finished.
There was so many people there he wouldn't have noticed 
