ZSL London Zoo giant pandas for London?

i think americans particularly need to remember how anti-zoo and pro-welfare the average londoner is. any expansion of zsl into regents park would be met with critisicm from dog-walkers to born free
 
glyn said:
i think americans particularly need to remember how anti-zoo and pro-welfare the average londoner is. any expansion of zsl into regents park would be met with critisicm from dog-walkers to born free
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Its become almost a cultural thing over the years. London's Zoo is okay- sometimes its politically correct to support it, sometimes not so much, just as long as it stays in its own little corner of the Park and doesn't try to extend its boundaries. The mere mention creates uproar.;)
 
i am glad thou that it wont expand, as the current zoo would be likley to be one huge exhibit, with no historical references
 
its official (ish) london are trying to get giant panda's. i have a newpaper (the daily mail) in front of me with a large article on the issue. apparently colchester zoo are also looking into acquiring pandas! there's alot of animal protest rubbish in the article as well.

"these are sentient animals, not diplomatic gifts to be traded between china and britain" - spokesman for Captive Animals Protection Society

""Colchester zoo in essex has also made preliminary inquiries"

:D
 
OOOOH - now that really IS interesting!!! I actually believe Colchester would be one of the best places for Pandas in this country, far better than London, so am pleased that they've now entered the equation. :D

That said, if 3 UK zoos get Giant Pandas after a drought of years, it might lessen their impact on the public and so not be worth the expense after all? I'm not sure what to make of this.
 
Sand Cat said:
I actually believe Colchester would be one of the best places for Pandas in this country, far better than London, so am pleased that they've now entered the equation. :D
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Two zoos so close together both exhibiting Pandas? The reality seems a little unlikely to me.:(
 
Yeah, I think London would get the upper hand being the 'National' zoo.

Even still, I find it VERY interesting! I might e-mail ZSL, just to get any other possible details if this is confirmation.
 
colchester are great at mixed exhibits and natural elements in thier enclosures

london is good at promoting the conservation side of things as well as involving guests

either way i dont mind which collection gets pandas.
 
I'm becoming this thread's resident sceptic. There is nothing on The Daily Mail's website about this and I can't find anything with Google either. Of course this doesn't mean it's not true . . . but I'm not convinced yet ;)


Alan
 
well it was in the paper, the was alot of hullaballooo about how they will be the first for ages
 
If there were 2 zoos to get pandas
i would have thort that it would have been:
The National zoo:
London Zoo
The Zoo with the most animals:
Chester Zoo
(Although that is biast, cos i hav mentiond before that i want chester to get Pandas)
 
I think Chester should have them over London, it has more room to build them a much better exhibit.
 
A chester zoo guide book from 2001 has a FAQs section. One of the questions is:


"When are you going to have Giant Pandas?"


And the answer:


"Now there is a question! All we can say is that our links with China are running smoothly after important visits to Chester in 2000. In our twinning document with Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Base and Chengdu Zoo, we agreed to help with animals native to Sichuan Province. Giant Pandas are one of these species! Certainly for some time, our help will be in China."


It gives out rather mixed messages but i don't think that it will happen in the near future - i think the reason that they didn't say no was to keep their options open. Also, Pandas don't really fit into any of the sections proposed by the masterplan.

Ah well, we can always dream!
 
It has been stated on here, that chester will not be getting Pandas. Even with their master plan.
 
Cat-Man said:
If there were 2 zoos to get pandas
i would have thort that it would have been:
The National zoo:
London Zoo
The Zoo with the most animals:
Chester Zoo
(Although that is biast, cos i hav mentiond before that i want chester to get Pandas)
Click to expand...

I think you could argue that in the opposite direction - Chester is the #1 zoo in the UK now in terms of visitor numbers etc. whilst London is very highly regarded. It would be far more beneficial for somewhere like Colchester or Edinburgh to get Pandas - it would really put them on the map, and send their visitor figures through the roof!

I do think that Chester could build a world-class Panda enclosure though. London probably could do a good job, but with other potential projects that need tackling (eg. Lion Terraces), should they really take on such a major new species?
 
taun said:
It has been stated on here, that chester will not be getting Pandas. Even with their master plan.
Click to expand...
Quite true Chester will not be getting Giant Pandas in the fore seeable future but back in the late 90`s they did look at bring them but the cost out weighed the expected gain in income,from them so it was dropped and the twinning agreement with Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Centre was set up,if Chester does any thing with Giant Pandas in the near future it will be via live web-link to Chengdu.
 
That's cleared up the little mystery, thank you Chris. So we are now left with the bigger mystery - is it going to happen?
I rate Edinburgh's chances as pretty high. Perhaps London's depend on designing and building suitable accommodation - could this be the opportunity to use the extra land earmarked for the Zoo in Regent's Park? Have they got a sponsor/donor in mind? I can't help thinking Colchester may be the back marker in this race.

Alan
 
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