Twycross Zoo Twycross Zoo news 2012 #4

Javan Rhino said:
I have to disagree, and whilst I'm not a huge fan of them myself, I can see the reasons and benefits. Chester's was a good display, it did boost visitor numbers, they didn't look as bad as some I've seen and they had a good amount of educational material.

If somebody can give a productive argument against them other than personal opinion, then I will concede, but I can only see positives [I'm going with Chester to defend here, since it's the collection I know best]:

Cost = not a valid argument, they started making profit on the dinosaurs pretty much straight away. The income from them far outweighed the cost.

Space = They were put in an area of the zoo that hasn't had animal exhibits for years, and that to my knowledge won't have any enclosures on it in the near future.

I dislike them, yes - but I can't think of a good reason that Chester were wrong to have them.

[Twycross could be different, in its current position it could tip the balance either way. I would argue that a lot will depend on their success].
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You're possibly right, maybe i'm biased because i hate the things, and since your argument isn't based on liking them, your points are even more valid. I haven't tried to argue that they don't make money, just think it's sad that they are a necessary evil! I just feel the animals should be enough of an attraction alone, surely they are still the reason most people go to the zoo? If not why don't those people go to a theme park or Go Ape or just the local park playground or indoor play area? Certainly some of these would be cheaper than a day at the zoo!
 
pipaluk said:
You're possibly right, maybe i'm biased because i hate the things, and since your argument isn't based on liking them, your points are even more valid. I haven't tried to argue that they don't make money, just think it's sad that they are a necessary evil! I just feel the animals should be enough of an attraction alone, surely they are still the reason most people go to the zoo? If not why don't those people go to a theme park or Go Ape or just the local park playground or indoor play area? Certainly some of these would be cheaper than a day at the zoo!
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I have to agree there, it is sad that some people seem to prefer these to the actual animals. I think for children who have a short attention span they break the day up a bit though, and as far as I was noticing at Chester then the people were still enjoying seeing the animals - the dinosaurs just encouraged them through the gates.

I prefer the dinosaurs to the big adventure playgrounds and rides, at least they're educational and [since they are depicting animals and educating about them] somewhat relevant.

I do think reactions would be reversed if a zoo had animatronic extinct animals such as quagga, thylacine, passanger pigeon and Javan tiger - I'd absolutely love to see that done if it was done well, but I think the general public would complain that they'd paid to see 'real, live animals, that's why I went to the zoo' :p

Ah well, I suppose it's all a case of 'Pandas and Partulas' - what the minority [zoo nerds] wants to see is completely opposite to what the majority [general public] wants to see.
 
These dinosaur displays are a matter of personal taste. I don't find them particularly interesting but neither do I find them offensive in any way.
Zoos are in competition with many other attractions: if model dinosaurs are a cost effective way of attracting new visitors and encouraging this year's visitors to revisit next year, it doesn't matter what ZooChatters think, more zoos will jump on this bandwagon, until the law of diminishing returns kicks in.
I hope that Twycross will try to make a display in a fixed area, like Chester, rather than scattering the models in odd corners Bristol-fashion. They have enough space to plant up an area with tree-ferns and other exotic looking species to set the models off nicely. They will probably copy Chester's unearthly sound effects so I hope they copy the mist machines too - I thought added a badly needed touch of class to the display.

Alan
 
gentle lemur said:
They will probably copy Chester's unearthly sound effects so I hope they copy the mist machines too - I thought added a badly needed touch of class to the display.

Alan
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Irrelevant to Twycross's situation, but I'd love to know what kind of misters Chester used for the dinosaurs display this year. I have seen wild newts in the stream that cuts through the area at Chester, and from everything I've heard then one type of mister can cause serious stress and illness in newts.
 
Some Zoo news - a 7 year old female bonobo has arrived and a siamang has been born . Both on their Facebook pages , hidden amongst a mass of marketing for 'Christmas attractions ' .
 
pipaluk said:
I was shocked when a zoo of Chester's standing went down this tacky 'theme park' type route (surely its animals should be enough of an attraction!)& even more so Bristol with it's lack of space(this includes the rope course, which i dont object to so much at howletts or woburn), so i guess it's no surprise Twycross are taking this desperate course!
I just hope ZSL, Colchester or Edinburgh don't feel the need to follow suit.
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We're going to have to agree to disagree on this - all I would say is dinosaur models are not going to make Twycross any more of a theme park than the tacky, horrendous funfair rides next to the gibbon house, and I'd wager will bring in far more extra visitors based on evidence from other zoos.

And as a final point - the Natural History Museum had robotic dinosaurs when I was last there (too many years ago now - I'm overdue). Tacky theme park? :p
 
I notice that it's the Chester Zoochatters who can see the positive side of the Dinosaurs. Chester has so much else going on that their Dinosaurs seem incidental to anyone interested in real animals, while Twycross looks a bit bleak at the moment and theirs could be more noticeable than the live residents. They hold absolutely no attraction for me but I realise that things like this are a necessary evil these days.
 
Gigit said:
I notice that it's the Chester Zoochatters who can see the positive side of the Dinosaurs. Chester has so much else going on that their Dinosaurs seem incidental to anyone interested in real animals, while Twycross looks a bit bleak at the moment and theirs could be more noticeable than the live residents. They hold absolutely no attraction for me but I realise that things like this are a necessary evil these days.
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There's some definite truth in this. It's certainly the case that Twycross has often seemed in recent years to be going out of its way to spend money on anything other than animals and I would definitely rather see money spent on new monkey enclosures than on dinosaurs. But I do think done right they're an asset and a very handy way of rustling up a) publicity and b) cash.

To combine the two themes, this is rather anecdotal but see this quotation from Mark Pilgrim in Chester's 2011 annual report:

The summer saw the arrival of Dinosaurs at Large! We had been looking for a few years for a dinosaur exhibition of sufficient quality and when the animatronic dinosaurs from the American company Billings arrived, we all knew immediately that they would be a big hit. Having the dinosaur exhibit attracted new visitors to the Zoo who hadn’t visited for many years and we received a number of letters explaining how much they thought the Zoo had developed over the past few years and how they had become more regular visitors.
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Do we think returning visitors to Twycross would be able to say the same? Beyond Himalaya, most of the rest of the zoo has seen rather a decline over the same period, I'd say.
 
Maguari said:
We're going to have to agree to disagree on this - all I would say is dinosaur models are not going to make Twycross any more of a theme park than the tacky, horrendous funfair rides next to the gibbon house, and I'd wager will bring in far more extra visitors based on evidence from other zoos.

And as a final point - the Natural History Museum had robotic dinosaurs when I was last there (too many years ago now - I'm overdue). Tacky theme park? :p
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I dont like tacky rides either! Ive said if the dinosaurs make money to spend on new projects i'll put up with them, but would rather they werent in the middle of the zoo.
The NHM is not a zoo, so not really relevant. People should go to the zoo to see live animals imo! Models in a museum are fine by me, thats where they belong if they're not in a theme park. Dont really want to prolong this though!
 
Have Twycross gone out of Wooly Monkeys as there is a video of the variegated spider monkeys in their new home which looks a lot like the woolys old house. Plus there is a mention of monkey world receiving 2 males from Twycross
 
If it is correct that Twycross have gone out of the Wooly monkey, this is significant as it was a Wooly Monkey named Sambo, bought from Miss Evan's pet shop by Miss Badham years ago that started the whole thing off.
 
RTB1987 said:
Have Twycross gone out of Wooly Monkeys as there is a video of the variegated spider monkeys in their new home which looks a lot like the woolys old house. Plus there is a mention of monkey world receiving 2 males from Twycross
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I would love to see TZ make some coherent steps towards a collection plan and re-arranging/renovating the major primate complexes in the zoo. Perhaps this - unfortunate - move is a first sign.

NOTA BENE: The woolly monkey situation in zoos is as it is a heavily skewed male surplus population. Having said that if they were less conventionally housed on island type habitats or an Amazonia riverine ... it would make a marvellous exhibit to have both spiders and woollies in one!
 
TARZAN said:
If it is correct that Twycross have gone out of the Wooly monkey, this is significant as it was a Wooly Monkey named Sambo, bought from Miss Evan's pet shop by Miss Badham years ago that started the whole thing off.
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It is correct they have gone out of the species,I suspect we could see a few more species of primates leave over the next 12 months!
 
Of course, with the known stance of Monkey World to allowing any of their animals to move to other zoos, the future of the wooly monkey in the UK will likely last only as long as they choose to keep the species.
 
TeaLovingDave said:
Of course, with the known stance of Monkey World to allowing any of their animals to move to other zoos, the future of the wooly monkey in the UK will likely last only as long as they choose to keep the species.
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Monkey World and Twycross used to co-operate with the woolly monkeys, when did that stop? I would've thought that these animals were part of the ESB, can they really refuse to move animals because of their beliefs? :confused:
 
Brum said:
Monkey World and Twycross used to co-operate with the woolly monkeys, when did that stop? I would've thought that these animals were part of the ESB, can they really refuse to move animals because of their beliefs? :confused:
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Monkey World sent one animal to Twycross, a female that has since died, at what must have been a fairly young age. Not sure how many animals Twycross sent them before the two recent males, didn't they get most of theirs from Apenheul, apart from the recent acquisitions.
 
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