Amazon World Zoo Park Amazon world

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It's a few years since I have been into this zoo, but I have to say that I concur with some of the negative comments expressed here. I love a diverse collection, and I love a diverse collection for the sake of it, but not at the expense of animal welfare, and not when the presentation of that collection is so lacking in taste and class. The plastic vegetables mentioned by a previous writer are just the half of it!

I did return to the zoo this summer, arrived one minute after closing time with three children - and wasn't let in. (it really was just one minute! - the people who were parking their car alongside us were admitted). Their PR is not so hot either.

I hate to criticise a zoo, but this does give a bad name to the broader zoo community - despite having what is, on paper, such a magnificent collection.
 
I agree, the zoo has a lovely collection of animals, but the cages are so small and unatural, the smell in the desert area nearly knocked me out! and they claimed that they were testing new air fresheners (whatever!)
 
Writhedhornbill said:
They have crested Quetzal.
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You have photos of it? Some zoos say they have Crested Quetzal but all photos I have seen from zoos are Golden-headed except a few Resplendent in Mexico. Golden-headed and Crested are found in the same regions so perhaps they just dont know any better.
 
some freinds of mine went the other day (despite my best attempts to stop them) and they too were appauled at the conditions the animals are kept in.

Im new to all this but surely they are breaking some kind of welfare laws or something? Does anyone know of any official way to complain?

What also annoys me is that tescos have put their name behind the zoo with the clubcard points scheme thing, and yet for some reason the other two zoo's are not doing the same, i wonder if the zoos do not want to join? (although i doubt that given the benefits), maybe tescos only want to deal with one zoo.. which seems a bit strange to go for the worst of the three?
 
The current management at the IOW zoo are more welfare and ethically-minded than most collections of their size, which may be why they chose not to associate. I don't know much about the flamingo wildlife encounter though.

As a zoo enthusiast, there ARE things you can do. If you see something awful, report it to the RSPCA, even getting a visit or a phonecall from them will signal something to the collection in question....it puts pressure on them to improve conditions and at worst (or best, depending on which way you look at it), they may opt to send certain animals to collections with better conditions. I don't think taking action in this way is 'anti-zoo', in many ways it is pro-zoo, as you wish the species you come across to thrive and breed. It only has a positive outcome in the long-term.
 
pingu said:
some freinds of mine went the other day (despite my best attempts to stop them) and they too were appauled at the conditions the animals are kept in.

Im new to all this but surely they are breaking some kind of welfare laws or something? Does anyone know of any official way to complain?
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It is very poor, but I doubt they are breaking any welfare laws- everything is well fed and in basically sound housing- it just happens this is at the very lowest level and much of it is is in 'tacky' surroundings. But it would probably be found 'acceptable' to anyone except a zoo enthusiast or people familiar with much better animal collections.
 
Like many zoos it does indeed have its bad points, however i was lucky enough to meet their new head keeper who is very knowledgable and has alot of experience with birds. Four of the toucan avairies have already been enlarged and indeed the birds are already showing signs of breeding. The rest are to be worked on. They are also getting an additional four acres where all the outside animals will get larger exhibits. It is easy to pick holes in a zoos appearance but I personally admire what they are trying to do. We all can go round every zoo and find problems. after a while I often find myself looking for them rather appreciating what is good about them. Amazon world has a great record breeding armadillo and sloth, two species which are pretty tricky to breed.

I realise that im opening myself up for some ear bashing however I have visited over 100 zoos around the world and care for animals professionally and can say that every animal i saw looked fit and healthy. With the planned improvements and extension i look forward to revisiting in years to come.
 
Well nice to hear that the animals are well looked after still,i got to admit its not the best looking of places but it does have a good record of breeding some difficult species to bred,by the sounds of it they are improving the Toucans area which to me was one of the worst areas when i visited,if they get breeding some of those species it will only improve its reputation for breeding difficult species.
 
That's good that they now have a bird person as head keeper. Most places have awesome staff, but there's only so much you can do before the answer is better facilities. It's good to hear they are finally taking their toucan collection seriously. Criticism and pressure are good things, even lines of enquiry with keepers feed back to management, especially if they are on issues the staff themselves would like to see improved.
 
Al said:
They are also getting an additional four acres where all the outside animals will get larger exhibits. It is easy to pick holes in a zoos appearance but I personally admire what they are trying to do. We all can go round every zoo and find problems..
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The news about the additional outdoor area is welcome. In my opinion this is the worst part of this collection- very basic and leaves itself wide open to criticism about poor enclosures etc. There are some Macaws & cockatoos housed in really primitive cell-like aviaries, + several small open air enclosures- altogether its not a pretty sight.
The range of 4(?) Toucan aviaries near the exit to the indoor area are presumably the ones that have recently been built(or modernised?) They are spacious, but still very bare- I'd like to see woodchip flooring and some more plantings in/around them but maybe its early days yet....

I'd also add that while I'm probably quick to criticise, I'm equally keen to give praise where I think its deserved.:)
 
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An additional point would be that most, if not all the successful toucan and aracari breeding in the UK in the last 10-15 years has taken place in aviaries with outdoor access, with little or no visual contact with other toucans. ZSL do hold birds indoors, but their breeding pairs always have outdoor access. ISIS indicates that another 4 tocos have hatched at ZSL this year, these are not from the indoor pair. Some dedicated private breeders in the US manage to breed successfully using indoor cages, though (eg. www.emeraldforestbirds.com) Whether this is to do with birds in public collections needing the privacy of a shelter, or just the effect of fresh air, I don't know, but certainly they have a long way to go if they are still intent on holding all of their birds indoors, let alone being able to negotiate planting up the aviaries.
 
if i had the money i would buy it up and restore it to its former glory! it wa a good zoo before they added the desert area and night zone, agree with the above that the outdoor area is pretty nice, even has anteaters!
 
It wasn't quite as 'busy' when it first opened.....but the toucan/motmot aviaries etc were still basically bare spaces with no height, planting or nesting facilities, and some of the current outdoor animals were still inside (eg lemurs).

The outdoor area will hopefully now improve, however of all the species currently held outdoors, I think the giant anteaters are most likely to suffer from a small/inadequate space, knowing as we do how they are given to repetitive pacing in far larger and more stimulating enclosures.
 
johnstoni said:
The outdoor area will hopefully now improve, however of all the species currently held outdoors, I think the giant anteaters are most likely to suffer from a small/inadequate space.
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This is definately the area in need of most improvement and a new 4 acres should allow them to do that(perhaps closing the existing area down?) including decent sized enclosures for the Anteaters/Peccaries etc.
 
Pertinax said:
This is definately the area in need of most improvement and a new 4 acres should allow them to do that(perhaps closing the existing area down?) including decent sized enclosures for the Anteaters/Peccaries etc.
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is there enough land around the area to that though or would that mean relocating the collection?

and whatever happened to the hawk walk which used to be outside?
 
Well, they have apparently acquired another four acres, I would say they could create some fantastic enclosures for their existing animals using that space. I fear that, true to form, they will concentrate on further acquisitions to enlargen the collection, but I hopefully will be proved wrong.
 
ok sounds interesting, i suppose they will move some of the animals that are currently indoors will move outdoors (maybe a new desert building as it has nothing to do with amazon!)

i am probably the nearest person to amazon world here so i suppose i should visit next year and find out some more info!

and does anyone know what happened to the hawk walk they used to have in the outdoor area?
 
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