ZSL London Zoo ZSL London Zoo News 2012

Dassie rat said:
It reminds me of another ZSL article that said that London Zoo's female gorillas were looking forward to the arrival of a new male gorilla from France. Were they doing Linguaphone courses? No, they didn't know he was coming.
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They went over the top that time. Gave them photos of the male and put(I think) jam or something on them so they were 'looking' at the picture when the publicity photos were taken. That was the ill-fated 'Yeboah' of course.
 
The zoo faces a difficult balancing act.

It is a serious scientific organisation, but ZSL receives no government funding and needs to make the most of every publicity opportunity to get people through the gates.

A dry press release just won't cut it when the most likely place for stories about zoos will be human interest and cute picture stories in places like the Daily Mail website and newspapers like Metro.

If the zoo want to stand out they need to put it forward in an engaging and amusing way which might seem like dumbing down - and in effect it is - but is ultimately necessary to get the job done.

Hopefully this will get people to come to the zoo where the serious education can take place.
 
I can see why the zoo do this sort of thing,it'll make better headlines and hopefully draws in more visitors by the media interest such stories garner,but I agree it does make their two new tigers sound like a pair of sex mad sluts. Taste and publicity don't always go hand in hand!
 
leiclad20 said:
I can see why the zoo do this sort of thing,it'll make better headlines and hopefully draws in more visitors by the media interest such stories garner,but I agree it does make their two new tigers sound like a pair of sex mad sluts. Taste and publicity don't always go hand in hand!
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Personally, i don't pay too much attention to these cheap, tacky type articles, just like the countless animal with pumpkin ones you'll find on most zoo websites at this time of year(meerkats love pumpkins apparently
though), but if it appeals to the masses and generates more visitors & funds then so be it.
I do wonder whether it puts some people off though or makes them take zoos less seriously than they otherwise might?
 
Saw Jae Jae today - he is a really lovely tiger, looks very confident, relaxed and curious. He comes right up to the glass to have a look at you. Melati is taking longer to settle down, however, and is still off show.
 
A baby Mangabey was born this week, it is on show and doing well. The Mangabeys are in Gorilla Kingdom, next to the Colobus monkeys which had a baby the week before which is also doing well.
 
The Mappin terraces are looking quite spruced up with a new fence that prevents the wallabies all huddling up at the back, so you can see them better, which is a great improvement. The emus have moved along to the end where the brolgas were. Not sure what happened to the black swans that were there for a while.

The new displays in the reptile house are coming along and there's an interesting panel about how they think chytrid disease was spread...

There is a bunch of baby meerkats (at least three?) in the enclosure next to the otters... always big on the awwww factor!

Oh, and there's a new young male sloth in the rainforest, he looks settled in already (but what would a sloth look like if it wasn't feeling settled???) and he has such a sweet face, hope Marilyn thinks so too...
 
I think the Mappins are looking a great deal better now. Is it my imagination or is there more foliage too? It seems less like a very fake desert and more like a general outback/bush area and it is looking much better.
 
Not sure about more foliage; they just seem to have done quite subtle things but the general appearance is hugely improved. The water in the moat is clean and sparkly and it just looks attractive. Yesterday there were lots of visitors just sitting enjoying the view in the autumn sun which is a change, it can be a bit deserted.
 
I suspose you both are right. Even over summer I found the Mappins more appealing than in a long time before that ...
 
London Zoo from Old Photographs 1852-1914

stulch said:
Also book-wise there is going to be a 2nd Edition of the book London Zoo from Old Photographs 1852-1914 brought out in July. The author John Edwards is now working on his next project 1915-1960 The War Years.
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The 2nd Edition of the book London Zoo from Old Photographs 1852-1914 has been on sale in the shop since Monday 29th October. As of Saturday, some of them were signed copies.
 
stulch said:
The 2nd Edition of the book London Zoo from Old Photographs 1852-1914 has been on sale in the shop since Monday 29th October. As of Saturday, some of them were signed copies.
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Just to add that this is a superb book; thoroughly recommended to anybody interested in zoo history.
 
I didn't see them this week, and I did go along the length of the new exhibit. It's not quite finished yet, so perhaps they're still to come. The waxy monkey frog is fantastic though, much more weird than the photo on the website. The dunny frogs are comfortably installed in the loo cistern!
 
volvox said:
Not sure about more foliage; they just seem to have done quite subtle things but the general appearance is hugely improved. The water in the moat is clean and sparkly and it just looks attractive. Yesterday there were lots of visitors just sitting enjoying the view in the autumn sun which is a change, it can be a bit deserted.
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No offence :), but surely zoo visitors want to look at animals.

I'm nearly at the point of ceasing to care what they do with the Mappin Terraces, but if London really does want to retain a claim to being a major zoo turning over a large amount of land to such a limited number of -frankly- commonplace animals is IMHO not the way forward.
 
No offence taken! - but by "view" I did mean of wallabies hopping about on the terraces. And I daresay this is heretical on a zoo website, but I do still think of London as being a zoological garden, not just a collection of animals. A beautiful environment in a big city with lovely trees, open spaces and planting, a pleasure to wander in. I know from chatting to visitors that many of them see it that way too.
 
volvox said:
No offence taken! - but by "view" I did mean of wallabies hopping about on the terraces. And I daresay this is heretical on a zoo website, but I do still think of London as being a zoological garden, not just a collection of animals. A beautiful environment in a big city with lovely trees, open spaces and planting, a pleasure to wander in. I know from chatting to visitors that many of them see it that way too.
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If it's that they want then surely it would be easier & cheaper to just stroll around regents park? People go to the zoo to see animals that they can't see in their local park or woods! At the risk of repeating what i've said in the past, London really should make better use of the limited space it does have, the mappins, the offshow Clore, large areas underused on both sides of the canal are unacceptable. There is no point in having a nature walk or bird watching in a zoo located in a massive public park either. Everyone i speak to who has visited in the last 5 years after a gap of 20 plus years is totally underwelmed by the experience. It saddens me that when people ask me to recommend a zoo, i avoid suggesting London, unless its during winter when the indoor areas make it more competitive.
 
volvox said:
I didn't see them this week, and I did go along the length of the new exhibit. It's not quite finished yet, so perhaps they're still to come. The waxy monkey frog is fantastic though, much more weird than the photo on the website. The dunny frogs are comfortably installed in the loo cistern!
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I thought I saw them last Saturday (Mountain Chicken Frogs), but I might be wrong!
 
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