It is intriguing that on Allen Nyhuis's recent thread "U.K.'s Top 5 Zoos" the #9 zoo was Colchester. There has been a lot of agreement on the suspect quality of some of the exhibits at that zoo (mandrill, meerkat, sooty mangabey, striped hyena, orangutan, lion, etc) and the exaggeration of bizarre-looking fake rocks in enclosures as diverse as those ranging from cuban crocodiles to aardvarks. How is this the #9 ranked zoo out of a couple of hundred in all of the United Kingdom? Is there a superb collection of animals in Colchester?
Before the criticism started coming left, right and center for Colchester I considered it a perfectly adequette zoo that made some shall we say strange theming decisions.
You can critisize the fake rock and the complete lack of naturalistic enclosures but it does not make Colchester a bad zoo imo. There is a fantastic mammal collection in particular, the large majority of which are kept in above average enclosures. It has been a good 3-4 years since I visited Colchester myself, and I have therefore not seen the new Orangutan enclosure, and I will admit that it does not look that good - especially when taking into consideration the fantastic ape enclosures built in the past few years at Edinburgh and Chester. That lion exhibit doesnt look to kind either.
This enclosure pictured though, and some of the others mentioned like the Hyenas are in my opinion not worthy of the criticism thrown at them from members who have not yet visited this zoo (and presumably have no plans in doing so )
I will never fully judge a zoo or an exhibit until i've seen it with my own eyes, and frankly if anything Colchester has always been the most American-ized of the large British zoos in my eyes.
9th best zoo in the country? Yeah, that would probably be my rank for it aswell. The orangutan enclosure perhaps pushed it down a posistion or two.
It is intriguing that on Allen Nyhuis's recent thread "U.K.'s Top 5 Zoos" the #9 zoo was Colchester. There has been a lot of agreement on the suspect quality of some of the exhibits at that zoo (mandrill, meerkat, sooty mangabey, striped hyena, orangutan, lion, etc) and the exaggeration of bizarre-looking fake rocks in enclosures as diverse as those ranging from cuban crocodiles to aardvarks. How is this the #9 ranked zoo out of a couple of hundred in all of the United Kingdom? Is there a superb collection of animals in Colchester?
Certainly in mammal terms there are few UK collections more diverse than Colchester. It's a very good range of species, with a number of UK unique species (caudatus Colobus, Silvery Langurs, Black-backed Jackals and so forth). The reptile and (particularly) bird collections are rather less impressive, but not wihtout their moments (such as two rather nice croc species, Cuban and Slender-snouted).
I don't think 9th best is too far wrong - most of it's problems are aesthetic (or to do with it's slightly schizophrenic layout...). There was criticism on here for the design of the shelter in the hyaena exhibit. I agree that the shelter looks rubbish. But it does the job required, and there is nothing else wrong with the hyaena exhibit at all.
I can only truly speak for myself, but I would certainly say Colchester is frequently ugly, but it'd have to be far uglier to counteract the excellent animal collection and what appears to be a generally high level of animal care.
They really tested me with the volume of their Christmas music though...
I have to say music would bug me but their collection looks good and generally aesthetics don't bother me, I guess I should visit Colchester as it looks interesting.
Colchester's very diverse collection somewhat counteracts the odd/ugly design of many enclosures and the piped music- which can be very annoying(!). (For foreign readers, this is a genuine Zoo and does not have any other amusement park leanings that I am aware of).
What probably also gives it a high ranking(and I would agree it probably deserves it) is that the majority of the collection is very different to that which makes up the 'bulk' of other large collections such as Whipsnade, Marwell, Howletts.
It should not be overlooked that Colchester is one of Europe's most successful fund-raisers for conservation - it consistently comes out at the top (or near the top) of the league table for EAZA campaign contributions, and also raises a large amount of money for various projects worldwide. Th husbandry of its collection is, generally, excellent. it does genuinely interesting things with its public presentations. All of this outweighs, easily, the slight ugliness of the various enclosures there.
