It badly needs an overhaul/landscaping. Its all 'dank' and muddy feeling, not dry/sandy like where these Lions come from. It wouldn't be difficult to redo it similar to the African Hunting Dog enclosure on the Cotton Terraces.
Add Sand/rocks etc even if they can't afford to do anything else with it.
It badly needs an overhaul/landscaping. Its all 'dank' and muddy feeling, not dry/sandy like where these Lions come from. It wouldn't be difficult to redo it similar to the African Hunting Dog enclosure on the Cotton Terraces.
Add Sand/rocks etc even if they can't afford to do anything else with it.
I agree entirely. They did a minor refurb but it wasn't especially succesful in my view. Hopefully the tiger development will result in some long term improvements to this area which is feeling very tired and the recent lick of paint just feels like a sticking plaster.
the refurb wasn't so minor - it cost about £100,000, however the majority of that was alterations to barriers, murals, and repainting. I don't think much more than some re-turfing and improvements to platforms was done inside the lion enclosure. Given the cost of the refurb, with extra glass panels added, and the plans to move the tigers in another location anyway, it seems a waste that the lions were left with the moat. Emptying it would extend the outside space by about a third.
I wonder what the long-term plans are for the lions. Given the very light facelift the enclosure had last year, I wouldn't be surprised if they do something more drastic once the tigers vacate the terraces. This would mean though that the lions will be seen like this for quite a few years yet. Some zoos seem to avoid muddy enclosures by (sometimes over-zealously) spreading leaf litter or bark chip over the enclosure floor, London however doesn't seem to do this often with the lions. I wonder if this is because the moat would fill up with floating bits of substrate and look worse than the land area does not, if this is the case then its another reason they should have extended the land area over the moat IMO.
I'd love to see the moat filled in and glass viewing windows added as I've said before, but presuming they can't afford that at present- adding sand(or even woodchip) to the existing land area was just an 'economy' suggestion. But I do hate seeing them exhibited in such tired and 'worn' surroundings.
Despite being the first to import Asian Lions, their surroundings are now among the poorest in the UK, and definately not up to the standard you would expect from the capital's Zoo. Yet the Hunting Dogs on the Cotton Terraces have a nicely landscaped enclosure that can't have cost a great deal to overhaul.
I couldnt agree more the heavy british clay soil doesnt look particularly good.
I agree with filling in the moat too. Add some large grass species arround that concrete lip thing to break it up sand and wood chips and some turfed areas. although by the looks of it youd need to improve drainage. Although it might be a winter casulty but it could be alot better with maybe 10k-20k spent on it .
Now with 4 mammals of this size and bad drainage in such a small area you could redo it today and it would look like this again next week!
But yes it does need doing! i have a photo of when it was lovely and lush! looks so much better.
I saw your recent photo of Chessington's Asian Lion enclosure. Although I think it looks better in the photo than in reality, I would still say its better at present than London's- its dryer and with more 'furniture' though its still a bit 'tatty'.
Bristol's is good, Cotswold's is good and is spacious too. But nowhere yet in the UK has yet really tried to landscape an Asian Lion enclosure along the lines of dry/forest habitat.
