I recently had a long weekend off from work and, after much deliberation, decided to head to Kent. There I chose to do the three zoos around Canterbury, these being Howletts, Wingham and Wildwood. I don't think you could find three more contrasting zoos anywhere!
Howletts was my first destination. It's been six years since I last visited. To be honest not much has changed. All I noticed new was a colobus/gelada mix, an open top Moloch gibbon complete with capybara and a revamped pen for Chinese leopard. I say gelada and colobus mix but the colobus weren't allowed access to the large open pen till about 4 o'clock and then they stayed put while a young gelada cleared up there waste food!
On the positive side it is always nice to see breeding groups of langurs. They seem to be doing particularly well with the Spectacleds as I saw at least three babies. It's also great to see the Grizzleds and the Bandeds or whatever they're called nowadays. I also liked the lemur walk-through that had no ring-tai leads or ruffeds. Instead there were black, red-bellied and crowned (which had a two week old baby). The honey badgers are always great entertainment at Howletts and they also seem to be having great success with capybara as they are everywhere.
Unfortunately I found a lot of the zoo very tired looking and was disappointed to find the two Heck's macaques are now off-show.
The next day I headed for Wildwood. This was my first visit and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. As you may know it specialises in mainly British wildlife and is set in a wood obviously. It's collection contains many animals not normally seen in zoos such as water vole, weasels, stoats and both water and pygmy shrews. There new nocturnal house had both fat and hazel dormice, hedgehog and wood mice. According to the notice board they had bred 4 red squirrels, 2 pine marten, 9 polecat, 1 beaver, 3 red deer and a litter of Scottish wild cat this year. It also boasts a lovely reasonably priced cafe with gorgeous cake at £1 a slice!
Finally I went to Wingham. I had overheard keepers at Howletts slating the place and having visited two years ago I thought they were being over critical. However, I think they may have a point.
I love zoos and find it hard to properly knock them but I was very disappointed here. It seems to me that they are trying to get too many new animals in a short space of time. The new cheetah enclosure is still being finished off even though two cheetahs are living there. It is crammed into the far corner of the park. Not only this but it is on a flat piece of land, yet just outside the pen are lovely grass mounds that are just being used for kids to run up and down! The parrot house seems forgotten about and the bird courtyard by the exit has no signs and again looks bleak. A large proportion of lights and heat lamps in the reptile house were not on and the penguin enclosure is a very strange design.
Maybe I just visited on a bad day but I feel the whole place needed a good tidy up!
Although all three collections are very close I feel they all cater for very different people. The Daily Mail readers will lap up Howletts, while your Sun and Mirror readers will love a day seeing lions and tigers at Wingham. As for Wildwood, it seems a perfect place for grandparents to take their grand kids for a lovely day out and a nice bit of cake.
Howletts was my first destination. It's been six years since I last visited. To be honest not much has changed. All I noticed new was a colobus/gelada mix, an open top Moloch gibbon complete with capybara and a revamped pen for Chinese leopard. I say gelada and colobus mix but the colobus weren't allowed access to the large open pen till about 4 o'clock and then they stayed put while a young gelada cleared up there waste food!
On the positive side it is always nice to see breeding groups of langurs. They seem to be doing particularly well with the Spectacleds as I saw at least three babies. It's also great to see the Grizzleds and the Bandeds or whatever they're called nowadays. I also liked the lemur walk-through that had no ring-tai leads or ruffeds. Instead there were black, red-bellied and crowned (which had a two week old baby). The honey badgers are always great entertainment at Howletts and they also seem to be having great success with capybara as they are everywhere.
Unfortunately I found a lot of the zoo very tired looking and was disappointed to find the two Heck's macaques are now off-show.
The next day I headed for Wildwood. This was my first visit and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. As you may know it specialises in mainly British wildlife and is set in a wood obviously. It's collection contains many animals not normally seen in zoos such as water vole, weasels, stoats and both water and pygmy shrews. There new nocturnal house had both fat and hazel dormice, hedgehog and wood mice. According to the notice board they had bred 4 red squirrels, 2 pine marten, 9 polecat, 1 beaver, 3 red deer and a litter of Scottish wild cat this year. It also boasts a lovely reasonably priced cafe with gorgeous cake at £1 a slice!
Finally I went to Wingham. I had overheard keepers at Howletts slating the place and having visited two years ago I thought they were being over critical. However, I think they may have a point.
I love zoos and find it hard to properly knock them but I was very disappointed here. It seems to me that they are trying to get too many new animals in a short space of time. The new cheetah enclosure is still being finished off even though two cheetahs are living there. It is crammed into the far corner of the park. Not only this but it is on a flat piece of land, yet just outside the pen are lovely grass mounds that are just being used for kids to run up and down! The parrot house seems forgotten about and the bird courtyard by the exit has no signs and again looks bleak. A large proportion of lights and heat lamps in the reptile house were not on and the penguin enclosure is a very strange design.
Maybe I just visited on a bad day but I feel the whole place needed a good tidy up!
Although all three collections are very close I feel they all cater for very different people. The Daily Mail readers will lap up Howletts, while your Sun and Mirror readers will love a day seeing lions and tigers at Wingham. As for Wildwood, it seems a perfect place for grandparents to take their grand kids for a lovely day out and a nice bit of cake.
