Monkey World is such a famous establishment due to the hugely popular TV series and I have fond memories of watching all of the episodes years ago, yet on ZooChat it seems as if barely any U.K. zoo nerds visit the place. Every other day there are loads of new photos from Chester and London, and even an abundance of photos from places that are fairly small and nondescript, and so why isn't anyone visiting Dorset? Seeing large groups of primates (chimps, orangutans, capuchins, gibbons, marmosets, macaques) engage in a range of social behavior seems as if it would be enormously successful and yet many of the reliable zoo photographers on this site do not visit with regularity. It is only a couple of hours from London and speaking as someone who drives days at a time on epic road trips in the summer I regard 2 hours as meaningless when it comes to visiting a zoological collection.
Monkey World is such a famous establishment due to the hugely popular TV series and I have fond memories of watching all of the episodes years ago, yet on ZooChat it seems as if barely any U.K. zoo nerds visit the place. Every other day there are loads of new photos from Chester and London, and even an abundance of photos from places that are fairly small and nondescript, and so why isn't anyone visiting Dorset? Seeing large groups of primates (chimps, orangutans, capuchins, gibbons, marmosets, macaques) engage in a range of social behavior seems as if it would be enormously successful and yet many of the reliable zoo photographers on this site do not visit with regularity. It is only a couple of hours from London and speaking as someone who drives days at a time on epic road trips in the summer I regard 2 hours as meaningless when it comes to visiting a zoological collection.
An interesting observation and one I can't really answer for the group but personally speaking the place holds limited appeal to me. I haven't visited in about 12 years and my only previous visit was about 20 years ago. The place has some nice enclosures but the species list is far from impressive (unless you're REALLY in to primates) and the fact that there aren't many other collections in the vicinity probably puts certain zoochatters off because of the lack of potential double-ups.
Every other day there are loads of new photos from Chester and London, and even an abundance of photos from places that are fairly small and nondescript, and so why isn't anyone visiting Dorset?
Speaking personally, I have never visited Monkey World, but I hope to so one day. I think the number of ZooChatters who live within your 2 hours drive radius is much smaller for Monkey World than for Chester, London or Paignton or Colchester come to that.
It's a combination of species and geography that's prevented me getting around to visiting the place (even though I've visited virtually every other zoo of significant size in the UK*). Species-wise there's nothing particularly unusual there that I can't see on my doorstep at Twycross (albeit poorly housed), geography-wise there's other collections in the (very) general area that are of more interest (again species wise) -I'm thinking Marwell and Bristol amongst others.
*For the record, the other places I've never got around to visiting are Longleat (too expensive for nothing unusual), Knowsley (an real oversight I know, but if I'm heading to that general area I'm always more tempted by Chester) and Drusillas (I can visit a lot of places far closer with more interesting collections, too far for nothing unusual).
Yeah, for me - it's not in an area I've yet visited for an extended visit, and there are many more interesting places (to me, not particularly an ape fan) closer to home for day trips - Monkey World is four hours' drive from here. I'm far more likely to visit Dorset for wildlife than zoos - it doesn't call me, though if I were down there I'd try to call in (for the monkeys, if nothing else!).
The geography angle is significant - it's not just drive time - with Zootierliste's Zoo Radius Search, there are almost 200 zoos (of all types) closer to me than MW, as the crow flies! This will be more-or-less the same for anyone in the Midlands, Merseyside, North Wales, Greater Manchester or Yorkshire - so most of the Chester, Twycross, Dudley, YWP and Blackpool posters!
(it actually places 259th on their list but about 65 of the listed collections are closed - and some are effectively further as they're on the Isle of Wight, but even so..!)
The geography angle is significant - it's not just drive time - with Zootierliste's Zoo Radius Search, there are almost 200 zoos (of all types) closer to me than MW, as the crow flies! This will be more-or-less the same for anyone in the Midlands, Merseyside, North Wales, Greater Manchester or Yorkshire - so most of the Chester, Twycross, Dudley, YWP and Blackpool posters!
(it actually places 259th on their list but about 65 of the listed collections are closed - and some are effectively further as they're on the Isle of Wight, but even so..!)
That is a lot of zoos! Tim Brown's IZES guide to British zoos that was published in 2009 lists 154 zoos in the back of the book but there are many other really tiny collections scattered all over England. As always I'm startled to imagine living in a part of the world where it seems as if every few kilometers there is another zoo by the side of the road. I wonder if I'd have visited some insane number of zoos by now if I lived in Europe...
Though to be fair, that place *does* have an odd kind of binturong
The density of zoological collections in the UK is certainly not evenly distributed; the nearest collections to me are all well over an hour away, whilst some UK zoochatters have 3 or 4 collections on their metaphorical doorstep!
I think for photographers( of which I'm not one) the enclosures aren't very photogenic as backgrounds- see above- they are functional more than aethsetic (but certainly good for the animals). Also the selection of Primates is fairly limited to the ones listed above and there is virtually nothing else there. Although I've visited in the past, I have also driven past there on several occassions, without bothering to go in.
