Well I am so so sad i feel that the old days of Miss Badham and Miss Evans have gone completely now I know it needed to be modernised and brought into the 21st century but not to the extent it has gone. I feel after all Miss B & Miss E did has been forgotten about and the new powers that be have got a lot to do to make up for the past bosses mistakes and poor money management. I know Miss Badham & Miss Evans have retired and sadly Miss Badham has passed away but I feel they have been forgotten about which saddens me it is as if they are trying to push them out which is wrong after all Twycross Zoo was there family and life for many years they will live on in my eyes.
Twycross Zoo So sad the old days have gone
- Thread starter Jane Doe
- Start date
Two questions:
1. What would you have not modernised;
2. What's your evidence to suggest "they" are trying to push Misses Badham & Evans out? The most recent guidebook clearly states (right at the beginning) that they founded the zoo and includes sections on past history (which many zoos don't). This seems beyond lip service and strikes a reasonable balance to me.
Unless you can reply to these questions with reasoned answers I suspect you're just going to come across as a rose-tinted nostalgia addict to many (myself include).
A rose tinted nostalgia addict!, what exactly is one of those!, could you please elaborate?
Seriously, I sincerely hope that Molly Badham and Nathalie Evans are remembered at Twycross for many years to come, the same goes for Mr. Motteshead, Mr. Durrell, Mr. Knowles and Mr. Aspinal at their respective zoos. After all, at London, Mr. Raffles and Mr. Davey still get a mention.
It's fairly obvious to me.
This thread sounds almost the same as a recent one demanding the closure of the zoo!
mazfc
Well-Known Member
Yes you should. I'm a regular visitor and I don't feel they've been forgotten at all. As stated earlier in the thread the history of the zoo is covered in the guide book, and Molly's books are prominently displayed in the gift shop. I even got a copy of one of them in my recent keeper day pack.
The current modernisations, especially the ones in the last year, have done nothing but make the zoo a better place.
There's still a lot of work to be done of course, not least continuing to sort out the chimps, that whilst loved by Molly, are very human orientated, making the current plans for larger groups a trickier prospect than it should actually be.
I also hope they are never forgotten I loved Miss B and Miss E they were like family
I would say the best way we can remember and respect Miss Badham and Miss Evans is to continue to take a keen interest in their zoo and the animals that live there, I am sure Miss Badham would have agreed with that.By continuing to be supportive to the zoo during good times and bad.
It's a bit rich to criticise the zoo when you've not been near for 20 years. How does a zoo keep going? By attracting customers. It's all very well wishing from afar that it could be preserved as a museum whilst contributing nothing to keeping it going at all!
It is all very well to read the books but knowing the person is different and as for the chimps being human orientated is wrong if the zoo new the background of some of the chimps where they came from l mean back in the late 50's early 60's people could have chimps as pets and that is where a lot of them came from I mean Molly and Nat were probably the first to try to reintroduce chimps back into the wild venturing on unknown territory so it is not as if they were using the animals to make money they were there family.
Although the majority of Twycross' chimps are humanised to a greater or lesser extent, it shouldn't prevent getting them into larger(or even one single) groups. The recent moves from the old Chimp Row cages into larger groups in the other Ape buildings, have already proved that and they seem to have been effected (by skilled introductions) relatively easily. Monkeyworld in Dorset were also able to build large social groupings from what were nearly all originally badly-humanised Chimps.
I think a bigger problem for Twycross is having the funds to build a large new complex so all their Chimps could be in one group.
That is rich I would not go when the other CEO was there because I didn't like the was she was treating the place like I said it needed being brought up to the 21st century I didn't say I wanted it to be like a museum but when you had worked there in miss B and miss E's day it is hard plus when you are disabled it is not so easy.
I appreciate that when they started you could buy a chimp from a pet shop, I can remember this in my home town as I recently stated on another thread. I think it should also be remembered that not everyone was fortunate to know Miss Badham personally like yourself, reading Molly's Zoo will give people insight into how this zoo started and hopefully they will find it interesting and informative, just as I have been most interested in reading the new book on Colchester Zoo, especially about its early days when it was opened by Mr.and Mrs. Farrar, I never visited Colchester Zoo in those days so reading about it in its early days I found fascinating. Miss Badham and Miss Evans ran Twycross successfully for forty years, however I do not think they exactly made the right choice with the person they chose to "continue the good work" when they retired, fortunately that long episode is also now history, I do think you should try and visit yourself and draw your own opinion of how the zoo is today, if you go, I hope you have a nice day.
mazfc
Well-Known Member
It's a shame you been able to get for such a long time. I hope you enjoy your day when you go. A big plus at twycross is its flat ground and the new paths make it easier for people to get around.
I post quite a lot of pics on the fb page. It's a good place to look at the new changes there.
I personally love the chimps and I've got great pleasure from seeing their moves, but I don't think its been as easy as people were hoping/expecting it to be. There's a lot of intact males there with opinions of their own. I'm just really glad that twycross haven't gone down the Monkeyworld route and castrated them.
I didn't know Molly or natalie and only know them from the books and looking round the zoo. I have very mixed feelings when I read the book. I genuinely feel that they were ahead of their time when caring for primates when they started out. But I think they kept a bit of a blind spot with the great apes.
I tried to read the book bearing in mind the context of the time and zoological thinking at the time. But it's hard to do.
I post quite a lot of pics on the fb page. It's a good place to look at the new changes there.
I personally love the chimps and I've got great pleasure from seeing their moves, but I don't think its been as easy as people were hoping/expecting it to be. There's a lot of intact males there with opinions of their own. I'm just really glad that twycross haven't gone down the Monkeyworld route and castrated them.
I didn't know Molly or natalie and only know them from the books and looking round the zoo. I have very mixed feelings when I read the book. I genuinely feel that they were ahead of their time when caring for primates when they started out. But I think they kept a bit of a blind spot with the great apes.
I tried to read the book bearing in mind the context of the time and zoological thinking at the time. But it's hard to do.
I'm still not clear specifically what changes you (Jane Doe) believe are a step too far from the old days.
As to saying
As to pushing the memory of the ladies away - they called their baby orangutan Molly for a reason!
I think it is sad that the apes are still paying for what they did but to be charitable I think Monkey World have found that often apes who have been treated with kindness and love, however misguided, have found it hard to become one of the ape family.
As to saying
- how do you suggest they overcome this when one of them is dead?
As to pushing the memory of the ladies away - they called their baby orangutan Molly for a reason!
I think it is sad that the apes are still paying for what they did but to be charitable I think Monkey World have found that often apes who have been treated with kindness and love, however misguided, have found it hard to become one of the ape family.
Pleased to hear about the plaque, could I ask anybody going in the near future to take a photo of it and post it on here, thanks.
I can assure you I never want to see Twycross Zoo close
mazfc
Well-Known Member
I thought the plaque was in honour of a female keeper, whose name escapes me at the moment. She was a long standing member of staff though