Africa Alive! Africa Alive

Good news. So the current Reticulateds in UK are now;

AA. 1.2
Colchester.1.2
Whipsnade. 1.2(?)
Noah's Ark. 0.1
(others?)
They are slowly gaining ground against the ubiquitous Rothschilds.
 
1.0 nyala has arrived from Krefeld, in quarantine at the moment and will join the 5 females.
 
The park has announced the birth of 3 fennec foxes, their first breeding at the park.
 
I visited for the first time on friday as i was in the area, and will post more thoughts later, but although it wasn't a bad experience overall, my advice to anyone visiting in july or august would be to take the late ticket option of a tenner from 4pm til 730(every day those months & a great idea), as thats probably almost long enough and at 18.95, it is pretty poor value for money.

A couple of things i couldnt find posted on here were:

The birth of 3 blesbok calves in the last month, all were out in the main mixed paddock

A female striped hyena arrived from Augsberg in July
 
First Impressions

Having visited for the first time on Friday, I have to say that overall I enjoyed my visit to the park. It is set in a pleasant spacious location with most enclosures good or at worst adequate.

It has a good hoofstock collection, with some more rarely seen than others in the UK e.g blesbok, addax, somali wild ass. Other less common species such as striped hyena, king colobus,probably a couple of others I can't think of. Also a fair collection of lemur species.

I liked the lion enclosure with its raised viewing platform and the mixed paddock afforded good alround viewing with some raised viewing stations. The riverside walk reminded me a bit of my regular visits to Kilverstone in my youth during the late 70s/early 80s.

I think though that there is something of a missed oppurtunity here, although clearly finances would be restrictive on development. Given that Africa is probably the easiest continent to base a park on with a range of species easily identifiable to the general public and species that are relatively readily available, i feel it could do with a few more high profile species if it is to attract visitors from a wider area.

Tucked away in the most easterly corner of England, with fairly poor transport links to many people, developing its range of species would surely attract visitors from further afield.I only live 80 miles away, but it took over 2 hours to drive there, while zoos much further away, e.g Twycross, Dudley, The Aspinalls and Marwell can be reached in less time (with other top zoos within an hours drive) and I really didn't think there was enough to urge me to make a specific visit again, unless maybe I combined it with Thrigby or Banham. With Banham & AA now opening until 730 in July & august, this has become much easier. As stated in my previous post, I think both zoos are far better value at the £10 entrance fee after 4pm as well!

I know they can't add everything, but surely an African themed park could do with one or two from the following :Elephant, Leopard,Hunting dog, Hippo/Pygmy Hippo, Great apes (I know they have one geriatric chimp), Large monkeys, Guenons, nocturnal primates or how about less commonly seen species such as Ratel.

Just another thought, how about moving the Cape Fur Seals from Banham or the African penguins. Penguins are not something the general public probably associate with Africa, I know I was surprised as a youngster to find penguins at Kilverstone, as I thought before that that they all came from Antarctica!

If I'm in the area again, I would definately visit again and recommend it to anyone else who happened to be in the area, but it's an expensive 4 hours or so for a family of 4 (£62).
 
pipaluk said:
I know they can't add everything, but surely an African themed park could do with one or two from the following :Elephant, Leopard,Hunting dog, Hippo/Pygmy Hippo, Great apes (I know they have one geriatric chimp), Large monkeys, Guenons, nocturnal primates or how about less commonly seen species such as Ratel.
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I think you answered your own question earlier in your post, it takes two hours travel for almost anybody living more than 80 miles away. Most of those could see a lot of the animals you mention nearer and/or for less travel time (Colchester springs to mind for many of those potential visitors). I think the reality is that AA attracts mainly locals and holiday makers and a smattering of hard core zoo enthusiasts and is unlikely to substantially increase on the visitor numbers it already receives by growing the collection (I might visit a little more often though:))

pipaluk said:
Just another thought, how about moving the Cape Fur Seals from Banham or the African penguins. Penguins are not something the general public probably associate with Africa, I know I was surprised as a youngster to find penguins at Kilverstone, as I thought before that that they all came from Antarctica!
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Whilst I like the idea of breaking the common misconception that all penguins come from Antarctica I can't see AA doing what you suggest anytime soon. Any water exhibits (especially pinnipeds) are very expensive to build and maintain and I can't see a place that took well over two years to build a new Fossa enclosure having the financial resources to do so anytime soon.

pipaluk said:
If I'm in the area again, I would definately visit again and recommend it to anyone else who happened to be in the area, but it's an expensive 4 hours or so for a family of 4 (£62).
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I'm glad you enjoyed it, I pretty much agree with most of your review and conclusions including that it's not the best value for money zoo in the UK. That said I think it's mostly very well done and always try and swing by and visit when I'm in the area (usually for a few days with a couple at Colchester.
 
Thanks Shorts, I tried to be fair to a park which i do think could have potential, although visitor numbers are clearly a problem, it was pretty dead for an august day when i visited!

I repeat that the late deal is a great idea for the holiday makers though when they've tired of the beach & one or two more high profile ( I hate ABC after seeing Colchester described as an ABC collection which i don't believe it is !) species would probably make it much more attractive to them than e.g Thrigby.

You're right about some of my suggestions, as i said,finances are definitely restrictive at present, it would be great if they improved.
 
Striped Hyenas.

So do AA now have 1.2? I believe they had a pair (1.1) so unless the original female has either died or moved to another collection they should have 1.2.
 
Jordan-Jaguar97 said:
So do AA now have 1.2? I believe they had a pair (1.1) so unless the original female has either died or moved to another collection they should have 1.2.
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They now have 1.1, but i don't know what happened to the previous female, sorry.
 
johnstoni. said:
at least one of that pair was very old.
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I think the elderly one must have been the female & probably died, as although i didn't attend the talk, i was close enough to hear they were being introduced with the hope of breeding i think, so the male probably isn't that old
 
0.0.9 Greater Flamingo arrived from Tierpark Bern yesterday (5th December)
 
0.1 Reticulated Giraffe born 9/8/2013 to female, Mahiri in a first breeding for Africa Alive. Unfortunately the calf is having to be hand reared after failing to feed from her mother...
 
I can't find anything about male white rhino "Harold". Is he still alive?
 
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