ZSL London Zoo ZSL London Zoo News 2014

[IanRRobinson]

They were notoriously hard to see in their Cotton terrace enclosure too. I think its not too surprising if a nocturnal forest dwelling species prefers a covered house to a bright sunny outdoor area a lot of the time.

The way they were waiting by the doors to get inside at 10.30 a.m. indicated to me they probably wouldn't come out again. And as the House is now closed, you can't then see them indoors instead.

I get bored with saying it, but the lion revamp being done before the Casson Pavilion has been sorted out internally (to say nothing of the Indian Rhino at Whipsnade! ) is poor planning IMHO. Like it or loathe it, the building dominates the Main Garden, and for it not to be open to the public is really not good enough...

 

[Pertinax]

Like it or loathe it, the building dominates the Main Garden, and for it not to be open to the public is really not good enough...

Its getting to be a bit like a modern version of the Mappins, I feel.

 

[BongoHardwood]

Noticed a sign at the serval enclosure at Marwell the other day stating that the pair of serval from London are due to move to Marwell. I'm not sure if this is a temporary move with Marwell having a handy empty enclosure to house the pair while the lion work is carried out at London or if this is a permanent move...

 

[stulch]

Visited yesterday- here are some observations;

1. Tiger Territory- I thought this was great( it should be for the cost)- the outside areas are huge and I really like the landscaping- particularly the tall grassland and 'forest' effect in the larger enclosure. London do this sort of thing very well nowadays and I expect similar when they do the Lions too. A pity there is only a pool in one of the two enclosures perhaps.

Also... both Tigers seemed to be together and no sign of the cubs. Where were they? Surely can't be weaned/seperated from the mother yet?

UPDATE: Tiger cubs are growing fast

 

[Wigwam]

Cheetahs at London Zoo. I hear one of them is called 'Mak'. Is this the Cheetah from Whipsnade known as Maktoum?
Thanks

 

[tennisfan]

Cheetahs at London Zoo. I hear one of them is called 'Mak'. Is this the Cheetah from Whipsnade known as Maktoum?
Thanks

Almost certainly

New cheetah bromance at London Zoo | Zoological Society of London (ZSL)

Maktoum (Mak) , Al Safa (Alsafa)

 

[Panthera1981]

The TripAdvisor Global Travellers list for 2014 has recently been released.Neither ZSL site has made the global top 10 nor the UK top 10.

The UK top 5 are: Chester,Colchester,Paignton,Folly Farm and Blackpool. Chester came 6th on the global list.

 

[Animal Friendly]

The TripAdvisor Global Travellers list for 2014 has recently been released.Neither ZSL site has made the global top 10 nor the UK top 10.

The UK top 5 are: Chester,Colchester,Paignton,Folly Farm and Blackpool. Chester came 6th on the global list.

And 6 Jersey, 7 Cotswold Wildlife Park, 8 Knowsley, 9 South Lakes, 10 Blair Drummond. Interesting that neither Edinburgh or Bristol do not rate in the top ten like London.Perhaps the trip advisor list favours zoos which feature mainly A.B.C. large mammals, the animals that the average Joe Public expects to see on a zoo visit, the exception here being Jersey. This list does not even reflect actual visitor numbers from the UK collections, Chester getting the most is number one, London gets the second largest number of visitors but is not listed, no disrespect but surely the likes of London, Bristol and Edinburgh should in theory be rated higher than the likes of Folly Farm and South Lakes, and of coarse, no mention at all of Marwell and Twycross, which at one time I am sure both would have been in the top ten.

 

[Kifaru Bwana]

Before we go celebrating rather subjective and slightly skewed/biased sites for which zoos in whatever order are best globally …., one would first have to find a site representative of the entire world population and all traveling and visiting zoos worldwide. TripAdvisor in my book is not …. that representative to base relevant assumptions or scorings on.

It is somewhat the same as with a certain Brittanicos individual who continually writes books on European and North American zoos and scores them to his personal tastes with rather subjective tooling system. And sadly, used to or against advantage in the western zoo world … (too much by half).

 

[Shirokuma]

I agree entirely, it is meaningless. London is doing perfectly well in terms of visitor numbers and Panthera1981's post could have, in all fairness, be posted on the thread of any zoo who hasn't made it to this entirely arbitrary ranking.

 

[pipaluk]

And 6 Jersey, 7 Cotswold Wildlife Park, 8 Knowsley, 9 South Lakes, 10 Blair Drummond. Interesting that neither Edinburgh or Bristol do not rate in the top ten like London.Perhaps the trip advisor list favours zoos which feature mainly A.B.C. large mammals, the animals that the average Joe Public expects to see on a zoo visit, the exception here being Jersey. This list does not even reflect actual visitor numbers from the UK collections, Chester getting the most is number one, London gets the second largest number of visitors but is not listed, no disrespect but surely the likes of London, Bristol and Edinburgh should in theory be rated higher than the likes of Folly Farm and South Lakes, and of coarse, no mention at all of Marwell and Twycross, which at one time I am sure both would have been in the top ten.

If the list does favour zoos with mainly large ABC mammals, I am somewhat surprised that Whipsnade does not make the list( by that criteria alone, it would be easily top 3), though not remotely surprised that London doesn't, as I personally wouldn't rank it very high, even if it would make my top 10, just about.

It is impossible to take any list seriously though that ranks Folly Farm or South Lakes so highly! Never been to Knowsley or Blair Drummond, but I find it hard to believe they are in the top 10 too.

 

[Shorts]

no disrespect but surely the likes of London, Bristol and Edinburgh should in theory be rated higher than the likes of Folly Farm and South Lakes

They would and should (be).

It's to be remembered that TripAdvisor users, as others have pointed out, are neither representative nor necessarily knowledgeable. Many of these posters go to zoos once in a blue moon and are thrilled and impressed to see loads of wild animals. Many have never been to another zoo for years and are not are in no position to know a zoo may be better or worse than average.

I think it's instructive that more "geographically isolated" zoos (Folly Farm, South Lakes, Jersey, Blair Drummond and, at a push, Blackpool) are rated higher that most of us might have thought. These are more likely to be visited by people who haven't visited any other zoo for a while and so are in no position to make comparative assessments.

Strangely Twycross, which has relatively little competition close by, doesn't make the list which may imply certain conclusions (but my thoughts on that have been expressed elsewhere and at length).

 

[Shirokuma]

ZSL have a pop up store in Carnaby Street. I had a quick look, the range wasn't massive but was high quality including jewellery, prints, books and soft toys. They also had some items you can buy in support of the lion fundraising campaign and there were various leaflets about conservation related matters.

I don't know how long it will be there.

From the 29th to the 31st August ZSL London Zoo will be celebrating the story of one its most famous residents, Winnie the bear, at the Little Creatures Family Festival.

'Join us in the celebration of the centenary of Winnie’s arrival here at ZSL London Zoo with events and activities inspired by A.A. Milne’s children’s books. There will be fun lawn games for all the family, a Winnie the bear exhibition of illustrations, a great teddy bear picnic, storytelling and much more!'

Also, as an interesting aside, one of my colleagues took his kids to the zoo last week. We were talking about it and I was very keen to hear his impressions as it was his first visit in decades. He said he was incredibly impressed with the general standard of the zoo and thought it was massively improved since his memories from his own childhood. He said there was no sense of 'these animals shouldn't be here' which he remembered from the past. As an interesting contradiction he said he missed the elephants!

One thing he did comment on though was 'the concrete bit with the lions and leopards [sic]' he said that was shabby and felt out of place with the rest of the zoo.

I pushed a bit further about any negative points - he said that on reflection the north bank felt a bit 'forgotten' but had no issues with the mappins which I specifically asked him about.

He said it wasn't a cheap day out but that apart from the museums or parks that it is to be expected in London and that as a central London tourist attraction it offered good value and with the talks and shows was a very full day out.

 

[Pacu]

That's good to hear and echoes my own thoughts on London at the moment. Referring back to the trip adviser ratings, London has taking an absolute pasting on various sites, including trip advisor and the equivalent google site
, over the zoo lates reports in the press. It is clear that many of the posters have not been to the zoo, I wonder if other places, hotels, galleries etc. would get negative reviews from someone who had never been there?

 

[Kifaru Bwana]

Question: was Kumbuka ever properly tested (as to his reproductive capacity)?

 

[tennisfan]

There is now only one aardvark .

Also if ZSL tweet is correct it looks like there are now only two(rather than 3) African Hunting Dogs.

 

[Panthera1981]

As much as I like seeing them, I'm not sure if that enclosure, or RP in general, lends itself well to keeping African hunting dogs. I certainly don't know of any successful breeding. Aren't they quite a highly-strung canine species?

 

[IanRRobinson]

They were supposed to go to Whipsnade once the pack had built up its numbers, at which point the Bongo would have travelled in the opposite direction. Personally I'd have said there's enough space at Whipsnade for them to be there now.

The social canid that I think would be a great exhibit at London is Bush Dog, no longer a common sight in the UK.

 

[persimon]

testing a male gorilla has proven to be more or less useless. Infertility can be temporary (e.g. stress), and being fertile will not mean that they mate properly (difficult to see in gorillas). The best thing to do is to place some fertile females with the male, and wait....

 

[Pertinax]

testing a male gorilla has proven to be more or less useless.

Given his predecessor 'Kesho' ( now in a bachelor group), was diagnosed with Klinefelter's Syndrome, making him infertile, I guess Kumbuka would have been tested at least for that, however slim the chances of another (unrelated) male having such a rare condition.

I think having been handraised and not having been with females before, he has had to learn proper mating technique with them, and that could have taken several months. Several other males I know of with similar not ideal backgrounds( handreared and/or long stayers in male groups) have been in the same situation. I see no reason why he should be infertile. All three females have bred before in the past.