...in the days when this was the off-show park for Bristol Zoo, this house was used as a stable for giraffes - hence its height! I'm not sure how long its life will be at Wild Place - it may be just a temporary piece of expedient practicality.
...in the days when this was the off-show park for Bristol Zoo, this house was used as a stable for giraffes - hence its height! I'm not sure how long its life will be at Wild Place - it may be just a temporary piece of expedient practicality.
Do you know why they haven't brought giraffes into the new development? If they have the facilities for them that seems like a logical crowd pleasing species to showcase at their new park.
Do you know why they haven't brought giraffes into the new development? If they have the facilities for them that seems like a logical crowd pleasing species to showcase at their new park.
It's a very soft, low-budget opening. Whether this house would have been suitable for giraffes now, I don't know. Certainly, they may join the collection in the years ahead; for the moment, the onus really was on just getting it open, after many years of delay.
I think if they hadn't got it open with some animals now, their license to keep wild animals on this site would have lapsed/run out and they would never have been able to do it.
I wondered if it had been built for giraffes. It is probably a little larger than the indoor space they had opposite the elephants in the old house at Bristol (which then held okapi and is currently being converted for gorillas). There is no indoor viewing.
I don't think the house would be licensed for giraffe now and I don't think the paddock barrier would work either, a giraffe with a sense of humour could rapidly accumulate a collection of visitor's headgear.
I can't remember seeing a barrier with a rock base like this before: and in view of its general ugliness and the way it makes photography so unsatisfactory, I hope I never see another. It can't have been cheap with that amount of rock, so I'd be surprised if it is a temporary expedient.
I can't remember seeing a barrier with a rock base like this before: and in view of its general ugliness and the way it makes photography so unsatisfactory, I hope I never see another. It can't have been cheap with that amount of rock, so I'd be surprised if it is a temporary expedient.
The rocks around the paddock remind me of the giraffe paddock at Paignton but with that damn ugly fence in the way! That was another reason I thought the house looked odd, almost as if giraffe were planned then scrapped and the fence added afterwards.
How big is this paddock? With more stabling, could it accommodate more species - allowing for the fact that zebra are uneasy neighbours for a great many animals!
