Twycross Zoo Himalaya Opening Date

The comments were hilarious, I guess it was a quiet day for visitors the days they did the vox pop!

The shot of the new enclosure is stunning, though, the space looks far more vast than Marwell, Banham etc, and importantly the leopards can get some height on the rocks at the back of the enclosure if they wish to get away from visitors.
 
yeah its spectacular the enclosure. The enclsure itself is the entire length of the centre and the guy I spoke to said there are areas they can go if the y want to get away, howveer there are flat rocks positioned to heat up under the sun so they sleep there for visitors to see I think. Its one of the biggest enclisures ive seen. I was also told in the enclosure it will be planted yp and there will also be a large pool as well as a stream running through it. I cant wait til they go in and see them in action.
 
But what are they doing in the video clip. Sleeping! I hope this beautiful and very expensive new enclosure lives up to expectations when the Leopards move in.
 
I said elsewhere, if it doesn't work for snow leopards, it would make a great habitat for a baboon species.
 
kiang said:
I said elsewhere, if it doesn't work for snow leopards, it would make a great habitat for a baboon species.
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I really would rather see a Primate species in there- a huge group of something like the Javan Langurs(both colours) as they breed very freely and are very active much of the time.

I wonder if there would be any 'health' problem about keeping Primates so near a public eating/food area though, even with the glass barrier.
 
At the moment none of the enclosures currently have any Animals in,I believe at the moment that they will have nothing in them until towards the end of April 2010.
 
zoogiraffe said:
At the moment none of the enclosures currently have any Animals in,I believe at the moment that they will have nothing in them until towards the end of April 2010.
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Yeah this is correct. Its the start of may that they go in. Yeah a primate speices such as langurs would be kl as hey are always active. But the enclosure issue about them being so close to human eating area. As when you think about leopards are a lot cleaner than langurs.
 
tomzoo123 said:
As when you think about leopards are a lot cleaner than langurs.
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My mind is officially boggling! I don't see how you work that out?

In any case, if they're behind glass, it doesn't make any difference really, except that I'm inclined to agree that the primates would make a better (and more appropriate) display.
 
I don't believe the majority of visitors would resist trying to attract the attention of primates while they are seated eating food. That doesn't mean the animals would continue to be attracted by the sight of visitors with food.

I'm also sure that a large group of monkeys would create a very dirty window, and from what I can see from this development, the planting and general aesthetics appear to be of great importance to Twycross. A large cage, mostly devoid of greenery with no mature trees overhead would remind me of the langur exhibit at bristol.
 
johnstoni said:
the planting and general aesthetics appear to be of great importance to Twycross. A large cage, mostly devoid of greenery with no mature trees overhead would remind me of the langur exhibit at bristol.
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If it had been Langurs or Primates, obviously I would have expected a different style of Landscape.

However, knowing there are very complicated laws and safety measures about health and hygeine in relation to food, I do wonder whether it was easier to get permission on hygeine grounds for a 'feline' display close to a public food outlet, rather than one with Monkeys.
 
from the looks of the photos though there seems to be a stream to stop the animals getting right up against the window so i doubt there would be much risk of primates getting it dirty
 
Pertinax said:
I wonder if there would be any 'health' problem about keeping Primates so near a public eating/food area though, even with the glass barrier.
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I don't think there's any legal requirement. The lion-tailed macaques at Bristol are only separated from the picnic area by glass. But that doesn't mean that I think it's a good idea.

Alan
 
gentle lemur said:
I don't think there's any legal requirement. The lion-tailed macaques at Bristol are only separated from the picnic area by glass. But that doesn't mean that I think it's a good idea.

Alan
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And there's a glass-fronted exhibit for tamarins (Red-handed currently, I think) actually within the restaurant at Cotswold.
 
Once the snow leopards are in, I'd love to hear from some of you who live close, what this new exhibit is like. If some-one could do a video that would be great! Do you have suggestions for any other improvements?

Sounds like this one, and the new Central Park Zoo and the Zurich Zoo, are setting the benchmark for 21st century snow leopard exhibits.
 
Having seen the Snow Leopard enclosure no way is this exhibit setting a bench mark for Snow Leopards enclosures,its not very big in fact size wise its only about twice the size of the Amur Leopard enclosure and its not much higher than that enclosure either,also the enclosure doesn`t have many places the Snow Leopards could hide from the visitors unless you count the off-show dens for the enclosure.In fact if this is a bench mark for Snow Leopards I will go to see Snow Leopards at Zurich Zoo,Luneburger Heide Wildpark or Nuremberg Zoo.

Think I`ve put it back pretty much how it was before Pertinax had some fun with it.

ZooGiraffe's post carried on here but I've obliterated it by mistake...sorry

Pertinax(not ZooGiraffe) said;
I think a number of people have viewed the photos of it in the Gallery and drawn the conclusion it is enormous- because photos have a knack of stretching distances and heights/foreground-background.

Not surprised to hear there are no areas for the Snow Leopards to retreat too- they want them to be seen....
 
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Sorry ZooGiraffe- I think I've obliterated your post when in fact I was trying to quote from it. Not deliberate..;)
 
According to the planning docs it's 55m long x 20m deep, so around 1100m2 (If I've read them correctly!). The height is around 9.2m at the back to the top of the netting, 5-6m to top of landscaping. I was also led to believe that there are areas for them to escape too but I might be wrong on that.

Whether that size constitutes a benchmark in World terms I don't know, I thought it was pretty big when I saw it, it looked much more than twice the size of the Amur Leopards exhibit. With the Amur Leopards you are viewing in the context of open fields and with this exhibit against a building, albeit a pretty big one, so it's hard to judge and I could be wrong.

I'm thinking 1100m2 sounds bloody big now, I'll check the drawing again!
 
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Pertinax said:
Sorry ZooGiraffe- I think I've obliterated your post when in fact I was trying to quote from it. Not deliberate..;)
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It looks a bit mangled but the main body of its in place.
Will try to put back up what i posted before you had some fun with it.
 
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