UK zoo's opening times.
- Thread starter chizlit
- Start date
Jordan-Jaguar97
Well-Known Member
Most UK Zoo's I've been to (Whipsnade, Chester, Paignton and Blackpool) all open at 10.00 am, which IMO is pretty late compared to Edinburgh which opens at 9.00am.
Most people don't appear to know, you get a lovely peaceful hour or so first thing! And they miss the bats getting ready for bed!
zoogiraffe
Well-Known Member
Never mind the Bats if you are over 6 foot tall,you can walk safely round the Nocturnal House without smacking your head,on the roof because the lights haven't been reversed until 10!
That could be one reason, another could be the simple economics of the situation based on area and visitor numbers etc.
A zoo license costs so much for every hour that a zoo is open to the public [I think price depends on the amount of visitors]. I think the average is [or was] £40 an hour. If you stretch that over a week it's an extra £280, stretched over a 365 day year it becomes £14,600 to the annual running cost to open an hour early each day.
As already mentioned, Bristol opens at 9 but as also mentioned there aren't many visitors in at that time. So, for the amount of people that arrive at the zoo for 9am instead of 10am, is it financially viable to open that hour earlier?
I think it is just a cultural thing- they've alway done one or the other.
Where opening isn't till 10, which it is in most UK zoos, I think the hour between 9-10 is wasted valuable visiting time for Zoophiles, if not general visitors, but then we are a minority!
There is no set fee or scale of fees in the Zoo Licensing Act and so Local Authorities can charge whatever they think is reasonable. So this statement may be true in some cases, but most authorities seem to charge a flat fee although there is a wide variation between the actual costs (some councils may actually have no zoos in their area, but they still have to set a fee in case a zoo starts up). In general the cost seems to be a couple of hundred pounds per year - an initial licence is valid for 4 years and renewals are for 6 year periods.
I don't think that logical explanations apply here - and incidentally there is even less logic in closing times, in my opinion.
Alan
Fair play - I seem to remember hearing about somewhere where the fee was charged at £40 per hour open to the public, this could have been misinformation.
I think a lot of zoos prefer to have the bulk of the animal cleaning and park preparation work done before opening time and all the animals have to be checked before anyone gets into the zoo as well. I do think in the summer it is better to be open for 9am though and a lot of the animals are pretty active first thing too.
Ajkwba
Well-Known Member
I'll remember that, are the animals active? I can't see a damn thing when it's dark, I've been nose to nose with the aye-aye but I wouldn't recognise it if I met it.
zoogiraffe
Well-Known Member
I found out about purely by chance of turning up early,once and heading straight to the nocturnal house,so I'm always happy to pass that little nugget of info,on as it makes such a difference to visiting the building.Most of them are pretty active,and can be seen far better than when the lights go off,that said my last visit was the first time that I hadn't seen an Aye-aye out before the lights were switched off.
zoogiraffe
Well-Known Member
Just as well they rebuilt the house,because if my memory serves me correctly,if you had been that close to the Aye-aye,in the house before it was converted,to the nocturnal house it would have mean't you would have,been in the arms of a Gorilla!
I definitely recommend this trick, but it's important to get to the Zoo as close to 9 am as possible if you want the best views - the lights may start to dim as early as 9.20, which reduces the chances for photography. There may be some seasonal variation to stimulate species which are sensitive to variations in day-length.
I do agree that the house is normally too dark for my eyes to see as much as I'd like - and judging by the number of visitors who ignore instructions and use their mobile phones as torches, I am not alone. The darkness makes the little LED path markers seem much brighter than they need to be.
Alan
I do agree that the house is normally too dark for my eyes to see as much as I'd like - and judging by the number of visitors who ignore instructions and use their mobile phones as torches, I am not alone. The darkness makes the little LED path markers seem much brighter than they need to be.
Alan
I take it you are talking about Bristol's Nocturnal House here? I mentioned this in the Bristol thread, after my recent visit, that somehow the lighting in there is 'wrong'-its simply too dark/blue lit to see anything properly. I heard other visitors saying the same- its not just impatience, you really can't see some of the animals even if they are moving about. Example is the AyeAyes. They really do need to improve the lighting somehow.