Originally Posted by bongorob
No, the ramp zig-zagged and the entrance to the nocturnal section was roughly above where the door to the capuchin enclosire is.
If you look carefuly you can see a steel plate covering it. As a child I often went in there while parents had a coffee! Mother came in to get me 2 hours or so later. To hold a childs attention for that time, it had to be good. There was only one entrance and exit, with a cost of 2'6".
As you went up the ramp you could look down on Alligators. Before that there was a fish pond and waterfall (you can still see it). After that you looked down on Pigmy Hippos and then Nile crocs before entering the Nocturnal part. There were about 4-6 cages here and I can remember Genets and Slow Loris. You then came out on the upper walkway.
The galap tortoise enclosure used to have the Alligators in it, then Freshwater crocs and finally it was split for Dwarf crocs and Mata Mata. The Tuatara enclosure used to have the Dwarf crocs in and before that Thomistoma. I can slso remember Broad-nosed Caimen in one of the large vivs and a very large anaconda. There were about 36 reptile enclosures which are now closed off (sad). The smaller enclosures where the frogs are at present, was one very large viv.
The collection at that time consisted of mainly snakes (including about 12+ venomous Spp) and lizards. There were many Austrailian spp (Brown snakes, Olive python, Childrens python, Austrailian Water Dragon). Other snakes I can remember were:
Reticulated python, African python, Burmese python, Boa constrictor, cribo, Forest cobra, spitting cobra, Green mamba, copperhead, long-nosed viper, Rhino viper, Gaboon viper, Sunbeam snake, Mexican rattlesnake, Tropical rattlesnake, Puff adder, White-lipped viper, water monitor and many others.
Those days are long gone. I believe that because the interest has moved to chilonia and amphibians that is what you will mainly see from now on ( or small spp that can be mixed with them), with a few token large croc, snake or lizard spp.