Hi, brilliant plan to write the history atColchester. I was there in 87/88 not long after the Tropeanos had taken over. I was there for the dubious delights of the 1987 hurricane. Many of us lived in caravans adjacent to the car park and I will never forget being woken up at 6am by someone banging on the door. We could barely stand up as we walked around trying to check the damage around the park. The Tropeanos were away but Anthony and Sarah (both teenagers) were still in the house.
We went to the house to check on them and offered both of them a scotch to calm them down before we tossed a coin to work out who would drive down to check whether the bears were still secure - thankfully they were.
Up on the top ridge there was a lot more damage, resulting in one of the pumas getting out and also a wolf trotting around the car park area while we were busy trying to deter the tigers from climbing up the large tree that had fallen into their enclosure, providing a convenient escape route straight over the overhang. Luckily we managed to push the tree down into the enclosure before the tigers attempted to investigate.
Thankfully the wolf returned to her enclosure relatively easily.
The trail of damage was massive, especially in such a heavily wooded zoo based around the steep valley. It was amazing that the only losses we had were a raven who was killed when his aviary was destroyed, and the puma, who had to be shot mid-morning when she reappeared stalking a member of staff from the bank of trees next to the lake.
We had no electricity for several days, the sealion and seal pools were full of leaves and debris, and the army came in after 2 days to help clear a lot of the bigger fallen trees and branches for us.
The following night was quite entertaining as the entire gun crew were detailed to stay the night at the zoo in case of any repeat event (most of them lived locally but the roads were blocked) and all stayed the night in my very cosy caravan.
I don't have any pictures from the hurricane but I do have a few of Tanya and Zola the elephants being trained as youngsters and also the old sealion pool and seal pool. Any more questions then feel free to contact me.
We went to the house to check on them and offered both of them a scotch to calm them down before we tossed a coin to work out who would drive down to check whether the bears were still secure - thankfully they were.
Up on the top ridge there was a lot more damage, resulting in one of the pumas getting out and also a wolf trotting around the car park area while we were busy trying to deter the tigers from climbing up the large tree that had fallen into their enclosure, providing a convenient escape route straight over the overhang. Luckily we managed to push the tree down into the enclosure before the tigers attempted to investigate.
Thankfully the wolf returned to her enclosure relatively easily.
The trail of damage was massive, especially in such a heavily wooded zoo based around the steep valley. It was amazing that the only losses we had were a raven who was killed when his aviary was destroyed, and the puma, who had to be shot mid-morning when she reappeared stalking a member of staff from the bank of trees next to the lake.
We had no electricity for several days, the sealion and seal pools were full of leaves and debris, and the army came in after 2 days to help clear a lot of the bigger fallen trees and branches for us.
The following night was quite entertaining as the entire gun crew were detailed to stay the night at the zoo in case of any repeat event (most of them lived locally but the roads were blocked) and all stayed the night in my very cosy caravan.
I don't have any pictures from the hurricane but I do have a few of Tanya and Zola the elephants being trained as youngsters and also the old sealion pool and seal pool. Any more questions then feel free to contact me.
