The 1960/70s probably seem prehistoric to our largest age group of Zoochatters! I don't think old always equals good and wouldn't like to be the keepers who have to clean the Rock every day.
Sorry about that Pertinax for some reason i thought it was older than that! I agree with everything everyones said.
I really hope the new enclosure will be alot better than this
You could easily be forgiven for thinking it was a 'historic' building as it does copy much older baboon rocks elsewhere.
I think there are still a few genuinely historic buildings left at Paignton-the Small mammal House - for now but which may itself disappear to make way for the new baboon rock/the old Giraffe House above the baboons/ some of the old bird aviaries and the last sections of the antelope/cattle areas to name a few. But quite a few others have disappeared in recent years as the Zoo has modernised itself.
its actually not very 'historical' as it was only built in the 1960/70's period- it was modelled on much older historical 'rocks' at other zoos(like Monkey Hill at London)
But even at around 35-45 years old, it's considerably older than most of the other significant constructions at the zoo, and the only one of the older buildings to really have anything distinctive about it. While the new baboon enclosure certainly sounds much better for the baboons, I do hope something can be done to preserve the Rock in some form.
This is one of the most memorable sections of the zoo, I used to stand and watch the Baboons for ages as a kid. I hope the changes are for the better. Good luck to them!
Monkey Heights is not too bad; I rather like the indoor areas, but the climbing structures are too small, as such you look down on the monkeys from the boardwalk which is simply bad design (or execution). This could have been alleviated by giving the inhabitants access to the two large oak trees, but the leaf-eating colobus may well have killed them so they are hot-wired. The whole subject has been discussed at length elsewhere.
