Bristol Zoo (Closed) A new era for Bristol Zoo

Nisha

Nisha

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Breaking news this morning:

Bristol City Council have announced that they have purchased the former Bristol Zoo site in Clifton from Bristol Zoological Society. The controversial housing development plan has been thrown out due to public feedback and a lack of funding. Instead the council intend to redevelop the site as a working zoo once again. It will feature new species including Indian Rhino, Leaf Cutter Ants and a state of the art aquarium with Sharks, new enclosures and of course the existing Gorilla family who will be remaining as part of the deal.

BZS will continue to run Bristol Zoo Project/Wild Place as a separate collection.

The new name for the zoo will be Bristol City Zoo. It is currently expected to re-open in Spring 2026

Major developments
 

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Seriously though, it is high time that Bristol City Council do take a more active and promotional role here both at the Clifton site and the new Wild Place area as a (potential) investor and guarantor in the real estate area and assist the new Bristol Zoo at Wild Place to flourish. I do think - for what it is worth - their whole rather passive step aside way of dealing with things, also in the face of the tripe proposals by third parties for a concurrent plastic zoo and retaining the site AS IS park has been phenomally backfiring on making serious progress at Wild Place.
 
Nisha said:
Breaking news this morning:

Bristol City Council have announced that they have purchased the former Bristol Zoo site in Clifton from Bristol Zoological Society. The controversial housing development plan has been thrown out due to public feedback and a lack of funding. Instead the council intend to redevelop the site as a working zoo once again. It will feature new species including Indian Rhino, Leaf Cutter Ants and a state of the art aquarium with Sharks, new enclosures and of course the existing Gorilla family who will be remaining as part of the deal.

BZS will continue to run Bristol Zoo Project/Wild Place as a separate collection.

The new name for the zoo will be Bristol City Zoo. It is currently expected to re-open in Spring 2026

Major developments
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Cruel very Cruel, funny though
 
tigris115 said:
Can't believe y'all fell for this

Never trust anything on this day
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For the record my comments completely ignored the fun run horde mode alltogher, Period!

Just seriously, I merely just observed how 2+ years on from closure how suprisingly unconcerned a major part of the Bristolians, and in particular the Clifton lot and surrounding suburbia, seemingly have been with the predicament the Wild Place aka New Bristol Zoo has found themselves in before the original full relocation, upon the decision to indefinitely close and the 2+ years since ... the old Zoo at Clifton has been effectively closed.

In the end, who made so much of redeveloping the Clifton site into anything else but a housing development with all these far-fetched elitist plans for a plastic zoo and what not and not supporting the housing redevelopment (as if people in Bristol do not require both low end and middle/upper end housing?) with the expert guidance that under this development the original Gardens remain intact as greenfields and as a Nature Education Center? Who among Bristolians could be against such a thing?

Effectively: Who among the Bristolians really put their money where their mouths are .... in terms of buying into the Wild Place site or supporting the move of the Bristol Zoo in the first place to the new location and developing Wild Place as the major new zoo for the region!?? Just content to flock to a rather bleak non-conservation oriented with a scant sauce of Born agains ... (excuse the pun, no Harm intended ... but signalling only what a science based and conservation cum education driven zoo on valid EAZA / BIAZA criteria and guidelines must be based ... Noah's Ark Zoo Farm ...???? It just is ... honestly ... rather meagre responsiveness and realism among the locals..., don't you think?
 
Panthera1981 said:
It’s April 1st, though the way this story has been developing I wouldn’t be surprised if there was an element of truth!
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Ain't that the truth. I guess the outcome of the judicial review in May will define what happens next...or not. The zoo soc. announced some while back they had signed (or was it exchanged even?) the contracts for the sale but if the review goes against them, what happens then? Meanwhile apart from the Gorilla building and a makeshift(?) polytunnel tropical house, progress at the new site is demoralisingly slow as a result of all of this.
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
For the record my comments completely ignored the fun run horde mode alltogher, Period!

Effectively: Who among the Bristolians really put their money where their mouths are .... in terms of buying into the Wild Place site or supporting the move of the Bristol Zoo in the first place to the new location and developing Wild Place as the major new zoo for the region!?? Just content to flock to a rather bleak non-conservation oriented with a scant sauce of Born agains ... (excuse the pun, no Harm intended ... but signalling only what a science based and conservation cum education driven zoo on valid EAZA / BIAZA criteria and guidelines must be based ... Noah's Ark Zoo Farm ...???? It just is ... honestly ... rather meagre responsiveness and realism among the locals..., don't you think?
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I think the problem for Bristol when comparing them to Noah's Ark, is that the latter has a lot of the animals the general public would expect to see on a trip to the zoo.
 
Pertinax said:
Ain't that the truth. I guess the outcome of the judicial review in May will define what happens next...or not. The zoo soc. announced some while back they had signed (or was it exchanged even?) the contracts for the sale but if the review goes against them, what happens then? Meanwhile apart from the Gorilla building and a makeshift(?) polytunnel tropical house, progress at the new site is demoralisingly slow as a result of all of this.
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Exactly, it seems it needs a pressure group from Bristolians to make the many petitions past sell-by date be silent. All the roads in transparant decision making from planning permission to review of the Bristol old zoo redevelopment and the relocation to Wild Place of the left overs.... It is absolutely infuriating .... and creates a stalemate where a facility like NAZF seems to prosper unjustly and without much merit to that place (safe for the dirge of ABC species... ffs....
 
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