Hi I've had a request to write a wee bit on the this great and often forgoten UK zoo!
The zoo is the only one in Northern Ireland and indeed the only council run zoo left in the UK to the best of my knowledge. It was first opened in 1936 on a small 12 acre site beside a tram station and amusements at the north of Belfast. In the 1970's it was decided that the zoo was no longer accptable and the council had to make the decision to close it down or build a new zoo! luckily they decided on the later and over the next 20yrs the new zoo was built on the a joining parkland on the side of cavehill. The old zoo site still remains though closed to the public and is very interesting to look around the old enclosures. The 'new' zoo is on a rather steep hill on par with that of edinburgh.
On entering the zoo you can head down hill to an area on the zoo which is really unused by the general public! Here there are enclosures for Malayan tapir ( a pair on which we have recently bred our 7th calf from), Eastern bongo (11) an nile lechwe! As the enclosures are rather large the bongo and tapir tend to hide from public veiw alot of the time!
As you start you journey up hill again you come to a small lake area with great white pelican and chinese cormorant! around the lake are two large paddocks one for sitatunga and one for red kangaroo! Colombian black spider monkeys have access to a small island on the lake! By far the most exciting species around this area are our breeding family group of moloch gibbons who arrived in 2006 from howletts. In this area you will also find the childrens farm and small reptile room! this area was one of the original areas built in the new zoo and is now rather out dated and the first to be renovated if and when money becomes available! The zoo keeps several rare breeds here including irish moiled cow and saddlebacked pigs! the reptile collection is limited with no really exciting species. However in this area you will most likely come across one of the most popular species in the zoo our free ranging group of ring-tailed lemur! i must admit I am very biased because I look after them! they dont tend to wander too far luckily!There is also an enclosure with parma wallaby, ruffed lemur and red-bellied lemur mixed in this area! It is planned to mix crowned and collared lemurs with them this year hopefully. Our black-footed cats are kept in this area too, however they are off-show to the public.
as you continue up the hill you come to the former polar bear enclosure it is rather large and now house our spectacled bear group.
The next area has a large paddock for rothschilds giraffe, common zebra and ostrich. We have one of the most successful breeding herd of giraffe in the UK. Th e asian elephants share a house with these species. We currently house three females but at one time had 5 cows and a bull. Visesh the youngest female was born at belfast and is now unfortunately the oldest surviving asian elephant to be born in a UK zoo. Both her and her mother are planned to move to another zoo to breed in the not too distat future.
other species in this area include mhorrs gazelle, meerkat and crested porcupine.
The next area contains the majority of our primate collection. We have 15marmoset/tamarin enclosures with a large number of different species. We have kept and bred pied tamarin and all three lion tamarin species for a number of years. At one time we also had 18 off show marmoset and tamarin groups off show in addition to this keeping rarities such as moustached and weddells tamarin. We now have the largest collection of white-bellied pygmy marmoset in europe. The main monkey houses exhibits three species, javan brown langur, colobus and francois langur to which the zoo runs the ESB for.
Satellite enclosure around these include one for purple-faced langur and one for our family group of verraux's sifaka.
The zoo's ape house exhibits chimps and gorillas in two large enclosures which when built won ufaw awards.
Enclosures towards the top of the zoo include ones for fossa, temminck's golden cat, cheetah and white-nosed coati.
At the very top you will find vicuna, sun bears (these are currently the only 1s in the UK) and red river hogs.
Species on the way down include red-ruffed lemurs, white tiger, barbary lion, african wild dogs and red panda.
The next are is home to a number of aquatic species. Both the californian sealions and mixed penguin exhibits won awards when built and have underwater veiwing. White-tailed sea eagles have a large avairy here and have succesfully bred here. Short clawed otter can also be found here.
The remaining mammal species include a small enclosure for pudu and one for black-tailed prairie dogs. Some of the later have managed to escape of the years and a small free ranging group are very popular with the visitors.
The last bird park is currently under going serious renovations so the collection is limiteed. Cockatoo species kept incluse Red and white talied black,palm,galah,molocan,leadbeaters,blue-eyed and citreon crested.
We our currently developing a large tropical house which will hosue a number of exotic birds including our nicobar pigeons along with two-toed sloth, rodriguez fruits bats and agouti.
The final exhibit is a large walk through avairy with speckled and imperial pied pigeons, sacred and southern bald ibis and cattle and little egret!
I hope this as given you an idea of the zoo and its collection and if you want to ask me any questions feel free!
The zoo is the only one in Northern Ireland and indeed the only council run zoo left in the UK to the best of my knowledge. It was first opened in 1936 on a small 12 acre site beside a tram station and amusements at the north of Belfast. In the 1970's it was decided that the zoo was no longer accptable and the council had to make the decision to close it down or build a new zoo! luckily they decided on the later and over the next 20yrs the new zoo was built on the a joining parkland on the side of cavehill. The old zoo site still remains though closed to the public and is very interesting to look around the old enclosures. The 'new' zoo is on a rather steep hill on par with that of edinburgh.
On entering the zoo you can head down hill to an area on the zoo which is really unused by the general public! Here there are enclosures for Malayan tapir ( a pair on which we have recently bred our 7th calf from), Eastern bongo (11) an nile lechwe! As the enclosures are rather large the bongo and tapir tend to hide from public veiw alot of the time!
As you start you journey up hill again you come to a small lake area with great white pelican and chinese cormorant! around the lake are two large paddocks one for sitatunga and one for red kangaroo! Colombian black spider monkeys have access to a small island on the lake! By far the most exciting species around this area are our breeding family group of moloch gibbons who arrived in 2006 from howletts. In this area you will also find the childrens farm and small reptile room! this area was one of the original areas built in the new zoo and is now rather out dated and the first to be renovated if and when money becomes available! The zoo keeps several rare breeds here including irish moiled cow and saddlebacked pigs! the reptile collection is limited with no really exciting species. However in this area you will most likely come across one of the most popular species in the zoo our free ranging group of ring-tailed lemur! i must admit I am very biased because I look after them! they dont tend to wander too far luckily!There is also an enclosure with parma wallaby, ruffed lemur and red-bellied lemur mixed in this area! It is planned to mix crowned and collared lemurs with them this year hopefully. Our black-footed cats are kept in this area too, however they are off-show to the public.
as you continue up the hill you come to the former polar bear enclosure it is rather large and now house our spectacled bear group.
The next area has a large paddock for rothschilds giraffe, common zebra and ostrich. We have one of the most successful breeding herd of giraffe in the UK. Th e asian elephants share a house with these species. We currently house three females but at one time had 5 cows and a bull. Visesh the youngest female was born at belfast and is now unfortunately the oldest surviving asian elephant to be born in a UK zoo. Both her and her mother are planned to move to another zoo to breed in the not too distat future.
other species in this area include mhorrs gazelle, meerkat and crested porcupine.
The next area contains the majority of our primate collection. We have 15marmoset/tamarin enclosures with a large number of different species. We have kept and bred pied tamarin and all three lion tamarin species for a number of years. At one time we also had 18 off show marmoset and tamarin groups off show in addition to this keeping rarities such as moustached and weddells tamarin. We now have the largest collection of white-bellied pygmy marmoset in europe. The main monkey houses exhibits three species, javan brown langur, colobus and francois langur to which the zoo runs the ESB for.
Satellite enclosure around these include one for purple-faced langur and one for our family group of verraux's sifaka.
The zoo's ape house exhibits chimps and gorillas in two large enclosures which when built won ufaw awards.
Enclosures towards the top of the zoo include ones for fossa, temminck's golden cat, cheetah and white-nosed coati.
At the very top you will find vicuna, sun bears (these are currently the only 1s in the UK) and red river hogs.
Species on the way down include red-ruffed lemurs, white tiger, barbary lion, african wild dogs and red panda.
The next are is home to a number of aquatic species. Both the californian sealions and mixed penguin exhibits won awards when built and have underwater veiwing. White-tailed sea eagles have a large avairy here and have succesfully bred here. Short clawed otter can also be found here.
The remaining mammal species include a small enclosure for pudu and one for black-tailed prairie dogs. Some of the later have managed to escape of the years and a small free ranging group are very popular with the visitors.
The last bird park is currently under going serious renovations so the collection is limiteed. Cockatoo species kept incluse Red and white talied black,palm,galah,molocan,leadbeaters,blue-eyed and citreon crested.
We our currently developing a large tropical house which will hosue a number of exotic birds including our nicobar pigeons along with two-toed sloth, rodriguez fruits bats and agouti.
The final exhibit is a large walk through avairy with speckled and imperial pied pigeons, sacred and southern bald ibis and cattle and little egret!
I hope this as given you an idea of the zoo and its collection and if you want to ask me any questions feel free!
I visited Belfast once a longtime ago but have seen various pix of the gorilla house and enclosure.