Had a great first visit to Africa Alive today with the £10 tickets, managed to see just about everything in a day full of highlights.
The first species I saw were Somali Wild Ass (a first for me), and the foal mentioned above was signed to have been born on the 13th September, I believe mother and baby were in one back paddock with a shelter, a solitary individual (male?) was in another one, and the main paddock was taken up by what appeared to be possibly a mother and older youngster. It was also nice to see 3 Congo Buffalo (only seen before at Chester for me) displayed in the neighbouring enclosure.
I was lucky enough to get good views of both Bat-eared Foxes laying down in their outdoor enclosure, returning later they were still in the same spots.
I liked the three primate displays leading up to the nocturnal house, the Black and white ruffed lemurs were a great family to watch, at least 5 individuals visible at one point in the outdoor enclosure occupying themselves in various ways. It was nice to see the trio King Colobus, a first for me, I also got to see one of them jump off the ground to swing around on a firehose while I was at their enclosure. The Drills were less active when I saw them outside first time round, I came back later and got a better view of the adult male while they were inside.
I was a fan of the nocturnal house and lucky enough to see all of its residents, the Aye-Aye and Malagasy giant jumping rat particularly active, the Royal pythons and Aardvarks predictably less so.
The Woodland Walk was quite pleasant, made even better by one of the Fossa being visible in one of the back enclosures. I also managed to see a second Fossa in the glass fronted enclosure from the other side a bit later.
The Cape Hunting dog brothers were probably the most active I've ever seen the species and put on a great show, even more emphasized by them running around the paddock looking for their food at one point.
The Plains of Africa and its residents were another big highlight, it is awesome to see the Reticulated Giraffes from so close, particularly when 5 month old calf Charlie was running up and down past the 2 females near the barn.
It was also great to see their crash of White Rhino out in the paddock, albeit with the male separated, and to get good views of them in their house later on. The enclosure for Rock hyrax and Superb starling was also nice.
The lemur islands were cool to see, the range of lemur species just as much.
The Red river hogs in their newish exhibit Hog Snorts were also more active and visible then I normally find the species to be, seemed like a pretty good display for them.
I found the information of individual groups of animals on the train to be pretty informative and helpful given my lack of familiarity to the collection, Giraffe and Rhino especially.
The second large loop by the river (the one not around the lake) was the main thing I missed out on, though hopefully that isn't too significant.
