Chester Zoo £30 Million pound "Islands" to transform Chester

Nisha

Nisha

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
The zoo has today announced an ambitous £30 Million pound project to kick off the Natural Vision development. "Islands" as it has been named will feauture Malayan Tapir, Sun Bears (both new species for the zoo) among others and several exsisting species who will also get new enclosures. Work is expected to begin 2012 for a 2014 opening
Chester Zoo - Islands plan

Heart of Africa is postponed due to the cuts
 
Makes sense to start with a lower-price-tag item given the economic climate.

And - could it be - a chance of a multi-bear (and multi-tapir) Chester Zoo once more! Sounds good to me.


EDIT: "Sumatran and Philippine Crocodiles" - is this a typo or has there been some splitting I'm not aware of?
 
Hmmm I'm guessing it'll just join RoRA to the other places rather than giving the Sumatrans a new home & letting the Borneans have the current luxury pad! Then again it's about as far from the south west of the zoo as you can be...
 
Nisha said:
The zoo has today announced an ambitous £30 Million pound project to kick off the Natural Vision development. "Islands" as it has been named will feauture Malayan Tapir, Sun Bears (both new species for the zoo) among others and several exsisting species who will also get new enclosures. Work is expected to begin 2012 for a 2014 opening
Chester Zoo - Islands plan

Heart of Africa is postponed due to the cuts
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Very nice - a shame HoA is being delayed but this seems a very good alternative. Are there any artists impressions/maps available or is this yet to be done?
 
OrangePerson said:
Hmmm I'm guessing it'll just join RoRA to the other places rather than giving the Sumatrans a new home & letting the Borneans have the current luxury pad! Then again it's about as far from the south west of the zoo as you can be...
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Yes, RotRA is at the eastern edge of the zoo. Either some very odd stuff going on or that's a points-of-the-compass mistake! :D
 
Sumatran crocodile was also puzzling me, I wonder if they mean Siamese crocodile.
 
bongorob said:
Sumatran crocodile was also puzzling me, I wonder if they mean Siamese crocodile.
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How about False gharial? Can't do much digging because I'm on a course computer and everything I see is blocked, but a quick google image search for 'Sumatran crocodile' throws up pictures of either gharial or false gharial (are the proper gharial only native to India?)

Anyway, I assume an answer will be found before I get chance but I will do some more digging later if nothing is found.
 
Javan Rhino said:
How about False gharial? Can't do much digging because I'm on a course computer and everything I see is blocked, but a quick google image search for 'Sumatran crocodile' throws up pictures of either gharial or false gharial (are the proper gharial only native to India?)

Anyway, I assume an answer will be found before I get chance but I will do some more digging later if nothing is found.
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Have just found this small piece of info on Sumatran Fauna

Swamp Crocodile
The Sumatran Swamp Crocodile is found in North Sumatra and Aceh. The area surrounding Lake Banko near Ket is the last remaining habitat of the Sumatran Swamp Crocodile.

Another website claims that the latin name for the Swamp Crocodile is Crocodylus palustris which when typed into Wikipedia comes up with the Mugger or Marsh Crocodile. [ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mugger_crocodile[/ame]
 
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A photo I found of Crocodylus palustris Aka the Marsh Crocodile still unsure whether this is infact the Sumatran Crocodile but a few websites seem to indicate that it is.
 

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Muggers are certainly possible - there's a few about in Europe, including at Thrigby, of course.
 
I'm still confused, I've found C.palustris, C.porosus and Tomistoma schlegelli described as Sumatran Crocodile.

However Sumatra is outside the range of C.palustris.
 
Only two species of crocodilian are found on Sumatra; Tomistoma and Saltwater Crocodiles, neither of which are ever called "Sumatran crocodiles" (I lived at Way Kambas for 9 months).
Sorry Lee but Muggers have never been known as "Sumatran Crocodiles" and there are only salties in Aceh.

Gotta love it when a zoo fails to put out an accurate press release.
 
Going to be completely negative on this one. I will only believe this is happening and being built when the ground is broken and the builders are on site! There have been to many big plans in zoo's scrapped that cost that amount of money such as Hollywood Towers and HoA!
 
Dicerorhinus said:
Gotta love it when a zoo fails to put out an accurate press release.
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Indeed. One of my bugbears as well*.

My first thought was that it was just completely wrong (maybe they meant Siamese, as suggested above), but give the recent 'Painted Dog' incident I wondered if it might be a new PC name (for Tomistoma, maybe?).

Either way, it's all pretty speculative at this stage.



*As an aside, one UK zoo's fascinating fact on Twitter a few days ago was:

"Tuataras (lizards from New Zealand) have not changed since the dinosaurs where around millions of yours ago" (my emphasis)

One bad zoological error and two easily-avoidable typos, all in under 140 characters. Yeesh.
 
Maguari said:
*As an aside, one UK zoo's fascinating fact on Twitter a few days ago was:

"Tuataras (lizards from New Zealand) have not changed since the dinosaurs where around millions of yours ago" (my emphasis)

One bad zoological error and two easily-avoidable typos, all in under 140 characters. Yeesh.
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wow

Never mind the typos and the misunderstanding with squamates and sphenodontia. The entire point is inaccurate!
 
Dicerorhinus said:
wow

Never mind the typos and the misunderstanding with squamates and sphenodontia. The entire point is inaccurate!
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Well, yes, you do have a point there! :D

I remember the QI question on lviing fossils where they actually found a genuine one - a plant (I think it was a species that reproduced clonally by sending out runners) that had been growing for millennia so that the older branches of it had had time to fossilize while the newer ones were still growing. In any other context 'living fossils' are a bit of a misleading concept.
 
Perhaps another good idea for a thread?

Inaccuracies in zoo press releases, signage and presentations?

Could be fun and I’m sure a bunch of the “zoo nerds” here would have plenty of examples.
 
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