Its not that busy a road, compared to the rest of London, its the inner circle road round Regent's Park. The road is very wide, there is never congestion round the zoo, and the zoo is situated in a huge, lush green space within the city.
I have shared my view about the giraffe house at London Zoo in other threads and disagee with many of the criticisms I have read. I have visited many times. It is not covered in pigeon droppings and the full height section has never been shared with any other species of animal. In recent years a single anoa has been housed in one of the lower sides and before that, a long time ago now, okapi in the other. Before that zebra and giraffe were mixed outside; the zebra lived in one of the low sections. The giraffes living in this house have often lived well into old age and before breeding was restricted to specific subspecies, many young have been successfully raised here. The outside space has developed over the years and in my view, the oldest giraffe house in the country still provides appropriate accommodation. I have observed as much trotting and galloping there as in any of the other giraffe enclosures I have seen elsewhere. I think there is a lot of unfair but fashionable criticism out there.
The house, IMO is fine for giraffes. The side stalls housed okapi and Arabian gazelle up until 2006, when the zebra were acquired.
I disagree with the point about successful breeding. Two of the last calves had an ear chewed off by the mother. Since then, only single-sex groups have been kept at London. There is a reason why it holds females only.
I don't think it is beyond the realms of possibility for London to hold giraffe in a kinder enclosure. They don't need a grassy field, they are browsers, and there is sufficient vegetation in the zebra enclosure and in the spare paddock at the back to open up protected browsing areas for the giraffe to access some of the time (although I am not aware how suitable the browse on those trees is in terms of diet).
I would also like to see them invest in bringing the paddocks forward over the paths and plant up a living browse hedge along the zoo perimters. You see the giraffes at Belfast browsing along the edges of their enclosure, this is perfect enrichment and could be recreated at London.
I agree with Johnstoni's suggestions about the potential for further development, there is still scope to improve the enclosure. There is, in my view, unreasonable criticism in this thread and elsewhere which I do think should be challenged. On the breeding point, I was referring to many past calves. I am aware of one that had it's ear chewed but did not know about the other. My understanding about not replacing Hilary, the male who died well into old age is that it has more to do with mixed subspecies and the desire not to breed further giraffe at London. It seems a good idea for London to house an all female, mixed race group, which may be being moved from other collections - not too many though, the old giraffe house with five or six giraffe and a similar number of zebra all in the area directly in front of the main building is clearly not something I would defend now...
