Newquay Zoo A review of Newquay Zoo

F

foz

Well-Known Member
with the addition of two new exhibits and sprucing up much more newquay zoo has come a long way since i last visited. so i hope you find this interesting:

so through the simple entrance of the zoo to face a detailed and large outdoor tortoise exhibit for leopard torotise and radiated tortoise. the pen is very well landscaped with many tropical plants and rocks etc. down the lake (past a small ice cream stall) is the island for black and white ruffed lemurs the climbing frames are very good and the island size is okay but it could dow with a bit more vegetation. in the lake are white-naped cranes, black swans and the usual duck species. carrying on the down the path on your right is a tropical garden with a party lodge and to your left is ring tail lemur island, the island isn't huge but grassy with ample climbing equipment for the species, the reeds to the side of the island provide the lemurs wonderful oportunities to climb and jump. (had a nice time watching the small baby jump among these reeds) the inside enclosure can also be seen. further on you come to the series of small islands for geoffroys marmosets. the lively group climb amongst ropes and vegetations spanning three small island and makes a very good display.

here to your right is a complex of enclosures. red pandas have a steep hilly enclosure, not as good as chesters but alright. beneath the red pands enclosure is a tunnel which is being redeveloped into a recycling display. out of the tunnel you come to a small wooden pen home to azaras agouti, the enclpsure is secretive and quiet as not many people come down the tunnel. arounf the back of the enclosure (closest to the lake and directly opposite the marmoset islands) is a small enclosure for priare dogs, the small bark chip enclosure houses a small number of priare dogs (i've only seen one at a time). here you come to the new phillipine exhibit the bit you can see form here is the philipine deer paddock, it could do with a few more mature trees but otherwise is very nice. back down by the lake is a enclosure for demoiselle cranes and agouti's (there are three agouti enclosures in total around the zoo). here is previously unused land is the site for the new fishing cat cage, right next to the stream which i felt could of been incorporated into the enclosure. here you come to the dragon maze and a cage fore grey cheeked:confused: parrots (unsure) down the path to your left os the brand new african exhibit. very nicely done..

the new exhibit features extensive use of decking over looking the exhibit, zebra, lechwe and guineafowl were out in the main exhibit. ostrich were held at the back and appraently the lechwe had been constantly chasing the ostrich and so they had to remain seperate. nyala stood on the hardstanding and behind them were a pair of black wildebeast. it was revealed during the keeper talk that another zoo is going to take two of the wildebeast :eek:(hence the four that were obtained) could this be the mystery animal at chester????

next to the exhibit are netted enclosure for ural and eagle owls. behind the enclosure is two islands one for silvery marmosets and a second for emporer tamarins and pygmy marmosets (recently moved from tropical house). all of the marmosets/tamarin islands are all very well done with natural trees and ample climbing equipment.

down to the oriental garden a large avairy is positioned on the hill so the ground starts at around wasit height. the avairy housed balck hornbill and a very active pair of blue magpie the avairy is very well done with lots of tropical plants. The whole exhibit centres around the short clawed otter exhibit which is fed by the natural stream. arounf this enclosure is the avairy for prevosts squirrel and owstons palm civet which can be viewed huddled up indoors, although i did watch one get up and groom the other.

the rest of the review will continue on another post.....
 
They went straight on to the BIAZA surplus list on arrival at Newquay and for the record this is not the mystery species for Chester,well atleast not as far as i know.
 
I have been told that the black wildebeest could very well be going to Marwell wildlife i have my fingers crossed
 
Marwell did indeed hold black wildebeest when they first opened, so they've have had experience with them. Whilst they would look nice in the valley, I would rather have the more common species there considering the agression to other animals black wildebeest have.

I think another likely bet would be Edinburgh, seeing as they have a wide collection of rare and unique animals.
 
okay second half:

following the path on is the large paddock for brazilian tapirs, capybara, hawaiian goose, black crowned crane and pied tamarins. the tamarins have an island in the large pool, the island is fantastic for the species with natural trees and lots of climbing opportunities the success of the enclosure is shown in how well newquay breed these tamarins. for the first half of the day the tapirs refused to show but by the afternoon the tapirs put in a lively display including attemtping to reach trees showing their amazing trunk, spraying the public with urine:D and biting each other. the capybara had a new baby and the balck crowned crane kept trying to stamp on the goose.

around the back of the food kiosk is the penguin enclosure, pretty standard for the humboldts penguin which breed regularly each year. next to enclosure is an avairy for greater hill mynah bird which remained hidden for the enetire time. next is an enclosure for parrots (forgot which species) and black rumped agouti (another agouti enclosure). behind the stone wall is the fossa enclosures, two small cages in an odd shape and two seperate indoor viewing areas. the male and female are seperated which caused for the male to pace where the two enclosures connect for much of the day. eventually in the afternoon the female was let in, while the male was in the indoor area, the female (mavis) rubbed herself all over the enclosure. Behind these enclosures are a toilet block. directly in front of the fossa enclosure is the Lion enclosure although pretty small the enclosure was adequate for the lone lioness who slept throughtout the day expet to stretch and roar. next to the lion enclosure is the lynx exhibit. the two new young carparthian looked small in their enclosure and only the one was constantly on show. the enclosure is unusual in design it is half cage over at the top, a long building to the side of the enclsoure gives indoor viewing into the cave in their enclosure and indoor night area, within this building is also a small flight of stairs which lead to a glass pyramid which gives good viewing onto the second level of the enclosure where the lynx like to sleep right next to the glass.

the big cat feed was the lynx as the lion had a rest day. this was the only time the second lynx was visible and both underwent clicker training. last bit of the day a lynx was found climbing the lower branches of one of the many oine trees in their enclosure, the lynx struggled enormously and fell from the tree but in true cat style landed on his/her feet. next to the lenyx enclosue is the education centre, opposite it is the play area and behind the pkay area is the new meerkat enclosure ex raccoon enclosure. although i was sad to see the charismatic raccoons leave the meerkats looked good in their large enclosure.

back down towards the lion enclosure and out of this corner of the zoo you come to the red brick lion house and picinic area in front of the tapir paddock. to your left is the wooden and glass avaiy for vasa balck aprrots and next to this is the indoor area or coatis (ring tail) and their large cage. adjoining onto this is the sulawesi crested macaque viewing area. the veiwing area is awkward has you have to bend down to see the macaques as the glass finishes at around waist height. the zoo had recently aquired females from chester which had been breeding at newquay and a new baby was on show as well as an active juvenile. the outdoor enclosure is very good for the macaques with added climbing structures and vegatation the macaques look good in the ex bear pit.

turning right from pit down a flight a stairs in the new enclsoure for the visayan warty pigs as part of the phillipine exhibit, the enclosure is pretyy big and the phillipine exhibit far better utilises the space then the old african plains. the pigs exhibit is fenced by green cross hatched mesh thats waist height but the pigs can get at peoples shoes through the bottom...it a treat to have such an endangered and rare animal sniff your smelly trainers. the enclosure features a cave at the back where they spent most of the day, the rest was spent foraging the in the deep bark chip that makes up the floor of the enclosure. you can carry on around that path that would bring you back to the tapir paddock with a two large avairys for red fronted and scarlet macaws and himalayan monals (with the red fronted macaws). back up by the macaques carrying on around is the farmayard area, the small barn looking over the yard houses a cage for cusimanse, the farmyard area also highlights kenyan people pther than that it is a pretty classical petting zoo with goats pigs etc. but carrying on up through the farmyard is an avairy for blue eyed cockatoo and oppsite is a large glass enclosure for sand lizards in which it is almosts impossible to fin the critters. inside the local wildife centre it shows how to conserve back-garden wildlife and a small enclosure for harvest mice.

out of the farmyard area is the tropical house. the tropical hall is great and can be viewed from two levels. the ground levl is always to most inacative but some interesting animals can be found here including roul-roul partridge and a toad species (cucorro? or something like that). the second level has recently had the pygmy marmosets moved to the emporer tamarin islands which to me was a great shame as the highly acative marmosets would get very close and was always the highlught of the exhibit. rodriguez bat can be seen on the ceiling, black bul bul, black crake, bali starling, rainbow lorikeet, aracari, hoffmanns sloth and imperial pigeons can all be found in this area and i dare say i've missed a few out. To the side of the enclosure is a netted area (to see clearly you have lean over the glass waist high fence) the netted enclsure houses radiated tortoise, golden lion tamarin and lesser malay chevrotain. the whole exhibit is surrounded by a few glass enclosures for repitles. the tropical exhibit is set in a mystic jungle temple (although where is anyones guess giving the range of species:)) inside the house is a small education room with face painting inside. inside the minibeats room is a variety of species all in standard glass fronted enclosures, the room ecentres around an enclusre fetauring a huge varietry of frogs and small lizards (like golden bande dpiison dart frog and brown anole) some of the animals included in the room are skinks, geckos and toads. but in here i found one of my most exiting discories a merriams kangaroo rat. i kept oming back to the tropical hosue just to catch a glimpse of the kanagroo rat which fortunatley i did in the end.

back outside to your left is the monkey walk (directly opposite the walk is the lake and lemur islands), the enclisures seemed bigger than i remembered, here are three tall cages each with indoor viewing from the tropical house to the night house the species are: two buffy headed capuchin brothers, a pair of cherry crowned mangabey, a pair of diana monkeys. the cages are very tall although the mangabeys could do with some more hiding spaces as their cage (and the diana monkeys) are viewable from three sides. carrying on right next to the diana monkey idnoor viewing is the night house or 'wildlife at night' here again i was very exited to discover paca in the enclosure with kinkajou. the kinkajou were always very good display but i didn't think there were any paca in the uk and was very supiresed to see them. the night house is made of two large glass fronted enclosures the first one as mentioned above houses paca and kinkajou but the second houses six banded armadillo, sebas fruit bat and tamandua. i spent ages watching the active pair of armadillo's and bats flittering around but couldn't see the tamandua. but eventually the tamadnua can right up the the glass clambering amongst the climing dstructures and plants in the enclosure to come right to the viewing window. :D

out of the night house you come back to the very begining but with the indoor viewing for the tortoise paddock as mentioned in the first post.

well thats it hope someone finds all this inetresting. the highlights of my trip were:
1 seeing the lynx fall from the tree 2 the two new exhibits including my trainers being snuffled by the vuayan warty pigs 3 the merriams kangaroo rat. and.. 4 the paca in the night house

hope you enjoyed the review:D
 
Thanks for the review foz. Presumably the Lynx are in the old Puma enclosure which, if I remember correctly, is quite a good size.

I intend to visit, myself, in the Summer as I am quite interested in how the new exhibits will turn out.
 
@Foz the first Agouti enclosure actually holds a pair of juvenile Hairy-rumped Agouti not Azaras,but as they are not fully grown it`s an easy mistake to make as they are not labelled.
 
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