A Look at Some Well-known European Zoos - in 1984

[Hix]

Here ends my zoo travels.
There is one more journal entry: on March 2nd I went to the airport because there was an issue with my flight the next day – I was supposed to be catching a Lufthansa to Johannesburg and connecting to a South African Airways flight to Harare in Zimbabwe where I planned on spending a week before flying Qantas back to Australia.

Although there is no journal entry for March 3rd, I know I was up early and visited the zoo again until just after midday when I returned to the hotel to finish packing. At 15:00 I checked out of the Hotel and headed for the airport. My Lufthansa flight was not due to depart until the evening and I was there in plenty of time but, because I was on standby, I did not get a seat, and was told it was unlikely I would get one for at least another week. Reluctantly, I changed my ticket for a flight back home to Sydney. However, it was now 19:00 and the flight didn’t leave until 06:00 the next morning so I spent the night on a bench in a small lounge in the terminal, clutching my bags while I dozed.

I caught the flight home the next morning without incident.

When I made these notes and wrote the commentary in 1984 I had no idea the information would be of interest this far into the future. Having seen zoos evolve and change direction over the intervening years, when I found these notes storage they reminded me of a point in time that was very different to today. And that my drawing skills are pretty rudimentary.

I hope these notes/views/opinions have been of interest, and sincerely hope that some of the more disappointing zoos have picked up their game since then.



Hix

 

[TeaLovingDave]

I hope these notes/views/opinions have been of interest, and sincerely hope that some of the more disappointing zoos have picked up their game since then.

Very much so quite a lot of the photographs are failing to show up properly due to formatting errors, so I shall go through the thread fixing this for you now.

On a related note, I can see all of the photographs due to being a moderator, but I think it is possible no one else other than yourself and the other moderators can see them - the personal album many of them are saved to is set to be visible only to yourself. Is this deliberate?

 

[Hix]

@TeaLovingDave,

I've just fixed the links, and those that aren't visible will be soon once I've posted all the individual reviews.



Hix

 

[TeaLovingDave]

with a great new ape complex called the Urwaldhaus

Now the oldest extant part of the zoo in question

Up at 5:30 to go to Innsbruck & Alpenzoo but trains not running so went to Hellabrunn again.

A great pity you missed out on this collection; as I have written elsewhere it is a collection I hold quite dear.

 

[gentle lemur]

I like the idea behind this series very much, as it reminds me of my own tours around the zoos of western Europe in the early 1970s.
I messaged Sim a while ago about finding a better way for ZooChat to accommodate posts and discussions about zoo memories, which was prompted by the fact that I had just scanned a number of photos from my first visit to Whipsnade in 1972 and posted them in the Whipsnade gallery, but I was not sure about the best way to combine them with text into a longer post in one of the Forums.

 

[Brum]

I've been looking forward to these reports since you mentioned typing them up years ago Hix, I'm appreciative of your efforts.

I like the idea behind this series very much, as it reminds me of my own tours around the zoos of western Europe in the early 1970s.
I messaged Sim a while ago about finding a better way for ZooChat to accommodate posts and discussions about zoo memories, which was prompted by the fact that I had just scanned a number of photos from my first visit to Whipsnade in 1972 and posted them in the Whipsnade gallery, but I was not sure about the best way to combine them with text into a longer post in one of the Forums.

And I'm sure I'm not the only one eagerly awaiting your reports GL.

 

[Hix]

I like the idea behind this series very much, as it reminds me of my own tours around the zoos of western Europe in the early 1970s.
I messaged Sim a while ago about finding a better way for ZooChat to accommodate posts and discussions about zoo memories, which was prompted by the fact that I had just scanned a number of photos from my first visit to Whipsnade in 1972 and posted them in the Whipsnade gallery, but I was not sure about the best way to combine them with text into a longer post in one of the Forums.

I started typing these up several weeks ago, and figured the best way was to have a thread with one post containing an introduction and 17 links to the individual reviews. But I realised some reviews were too tiny as stand alone reviews in their own threads (like Dahlholzli and Berne's Bearpits) and figured they'd have to appear in this thread somehow. Then I found my travel journal/diary, and the inclusion of those entries necessitated a separate post per zoo - and also confirmed for me the order in which I had seen the zoo. I was also very surprised that I had visited Regent's Park too, as I had completely forgotten about it!

I didn't want the flow of the now 21 posts to be interrupted, so I waited until it was 3:00am in Europe to quickly post them all, then took my time posting the individual reviews. That way I could post the links to each each zoo's review. Unfortunately, much of the formatting done in Word was lost when posted, plus there were broken links in each post so I had to go through the thread re-inserting the links and reformatting each time I posted a review.

But, if the information is of interest, then the work will be worth it. I'm just sorry it took nine years from the original Bristol Zoo review to get around to finishing off the rest!



Hix

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust

Monday February 6, 1984 (Jersey)
Flew to Jersey on BA. First customer at Hertz’s new airport office so I got the rental (Cortina Ghia) for free. Took me an hour-and-a-half to find the hotel – The Highfield Country. Then went to the zoo; saw nobody I knew.

At the [JWPT members] meeting in the evening at the Lido de France, Gerald and Lee Durrell gave a lecture on making the Amateur Naturalist. Spoke to Him afterwards, as well as John Hartley, Phil Coffey, David Waugh, Ged Caddick & Nick Lindsay. Got both Durrell’s to autograph a copy of The Amateur Naturalist.

Tuesday February 7, 1984
Went to zoo for most of morning. Afternoon drove to St Helier, Rozel, Bouley, Bonn Nuit, Greve-de-Lecq, then back to zoo. Dinner at hotel.

During the day I spoke to Simon Tonge and Quentin Bloxam about the Reptile House (getting Hydrosaurus and Fiji Iguanas) & Nick Lindsay about Teporingos.

Wednesday February 8, 1984
Drove round island today – St Helier to buy a new tripod, then St Aubins Bay to Corbiere Point, up St Ouens Bay to Grosnez, round Greve-de-Lecq then over to the zoo where I spoke to John Hartley.

Thursday February 9, 1984
Beautiful Day!! Got to the zoo when it opened, ran out of film twice and had to buy some more. Said goodbye to Ged Caddick and took some last photos before leaving at 12:45, drove around the island a bit more before back to hotel to pack for tomorrow morning flight.

________________________________​

I first went to Jersey back in 1982 to do their Summer School and so I knew what to expect. Jersey specialises in rare and mainly endangered species like Snow Leopards, Pink Pigeons, Thick-billed Parrots, Volcano Rabbits, Hutias, Tenrecs, Orangs, Gorillas, Congo Peacocks, Rodriguez Flying Foxes and Fodys, and the very rare Keel-scaled Boa. As I had seen most of the animals there the last time, I noticed the changes as well: three Przewalski stallions they were holding, a capybara, and some Black-and-Red Ruffed Lemurs.

The Gorilla enclosure is comparable to Taronga’s Chimpanzee Park being about the same size and having no roof. The animals are kept in by a high wall. Unfortunately, the inside area is open to the public and the animals have no place to go to get away from them.

The Waldrapp Aviary has a back wall mimicking a cliff face as this species of ibis only nests on cliff faces.

The Brian Park Ape complex, originally housing gorillas, now is occupied by [orang-utans] Gambar, Gina and Maias (pronounced ‘my arse’) and Gina’s baby, Mokko Mokko. The complex didn’t have a roof when it had gorillas, so they had to build one for the Orangs.

Looking after their pair of Snow Leopards proved to be more difficult than expected. Apparently, Snow Leopards are adversely affected by dust and moisture, and the keepers had a lot of trouble when they hosed out the inside den to get rid of any dust and then trying to dry the den quickly. The animals could not stay outside for too long as the climate in Jersey is a lot warmer than it is in the Himalayas.

Great to read about your memories of Jersey zoo @Hix !

Very interesting post indeed.