Chester Zoo Memories . Gorillas and Ape House number one

Chester Zoo Memories . Gorillas and 'Ape House number one' Chester Zoo. A nice sunny summer day circa 1966. The Tropical house would be nearing completion when this photo was taken. The ugly breezeblocks would later be clad in sandstone. This was one of two smaller gorilla / orangutan islands that faced the camels (Not the main islands which are still in use today by the chimps albeit much modified). That metal door would in later years be hidden by a sandstone porch / sleeping platform.

Chester Zoo Memories
I'm sure many ZooChat members search this site in the hope of finding old photos of Chester Zoo. Pictures which bring on a feeling of warm nostalgia. Species no longer kept, lost enclosures, lost corridors. I thought it might be nice if members added them with the title 'Chester Zoo Memories' to make searching easier... What do you think? I'll be adding more Memories over the next few days.

Interesting photo, that must be Mukisi and Noelle, the Eastern Lowland Gorillas. I never saw this enclosure before the sandstone wall hiding the door was added.

Some people on here have criticised the original Gorilla/Orang quarters in the tropical house, by today's standards they were poor but at that time it was pretty innovative to keep these Apes within an indoor 'microclimate' that was hot and humid resembling their native ones. It is commonplace nowadays but back then few zoos, and certainly no others in the UK, had ape quarters that were anything like that.

For younger members trying to orient themselves, this is now the right hand part of the red river hog paddock. The visitors are standing by the door leading to the gallery between the ape islands (now combined into the single chimp island) and their indoor quarters (now disused).
I think I am right in saying that Chester was the first UK zoo to keep gorillas on grass.

Alan

gentle lemur said:

I think I am right in saying that Chester was the first UK zoo to keep gorillas on grass.

Click to expand...

Almost definately.

At the time Mukisi and Noelle arrived, from memory, the only other Gorillas in the UK were 'Guy'(London), Congo and Josephine (Bristol) the small early group at Howletts - and maybe also Jersey and Twycross.

Only Chester's and Twycross' had access to grass.

I instantly recognized where in the Zoo this was. It's the Red River Hogs now as stated by GL. Am I right in saying 'Mukisi' is the father of one of the females at Antwerp?