Colchester Zoo 2003 - Red River Hog exhibit

May 2003

I visited three UK zoos with some British zoo friends following my USA visit: Chester, Twycross and Colchester. Regrettably it was my first time with a digital camera; both cards were full of photos from the USA and I was only able to take few photos in the UK. I still need to do a proper UK zoo tour.

Red River Hog exhibit.

Rubbish Red River Hog Exhibit.

lechweoryx said:

Rubbish Red River Hog Exhibit.

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You can't beat a reasoned, well thought-through argument showing balance and awareness of all the facts...

The only facts that we need to be aware of are if you are not going to keep Red River Hogs properly then don't keep them at all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wasn't very impressed with this exhibit either. Whereas the slightly older Warthog and Mandrill/Hyaena exhibits are both spacious and provide excellent viewing, in this one its spoiled by the long narrow shape and the fence, particularly at the viewing end. I think this 'fancy' fence actually draws the eye away from the animals themselves. The whole area is also quite small for the nine or ten hogs in it now and they really need that bank planted with young trees to the left as part of the enclosure too. If they had simply repeated the Warthog enclosure, it would have been fine- larger and easier to view.

The enclosure is currently home to 11 RR hogs. The area to the left was planted last year and looks alright. The plan is to leave the group how it is. Just remove the younger males.

lechweoryx said:

The only facts that we need to be aware of are if you are not going to keep Red River Hogs properly then don't keep them at all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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You will not reach the maturity desired for this forum until you realise that overuse of exclamation marks will not make your points and posts bulletproof.

While I would agree this is not the best Red River Hog exhibit I've seen, it has the basic things they need: a small pond (which could be bigger though) and shelter from the sun. The hogs can also get away from the public, should they desire privacy; the exhibit is long and narrow and they seem to be able to go into corners and into the shed at their leisure.

Finally I would like to know your zookeeper experience. I'd also appreciate if you could list your zoology degrees and the papers you've written. Then, and only then, pending on what I see, will I accept your authority on the keeping of Red River Hogs. Not before.

Is the front part of the exhibit concreted?

Baldur said:

Finally I would like to know your zookeeper experience. I'd also appreciate if you could list your zoology degrees and the papers you've written. Then, and only then, pending on what I see, will I accept your authority on the keeping of Red River Hogs. Not before.

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Although I also saw Lechweoryx's response as pointless, unreasoned and immature, saying that we must all be keepers, have zoology degrees and back up what we say with zoological papers to give our opinions on here would stop 99% of us from being able to post (including, unless I am mistaken, yourself). As such, only having members from this "elite" would rather defeat the object of an international forum for all zoo enthusiasts to exchange views.

I never said we needed all to be keepers, have degrees or have written papers. I'm purely a zoo enthusiast myself too. It just bothered me that he used a word such as 'rubbish' to describe this exhibit and then commenting on its suitability to house a species without going into exactly what makes it unsuitable. Not having any zookeeper experience, I try to avoid to comment on zookeeping matters myself. It is the same as writing a film review and say "This film sucked."