Visited the Centre 31 / 03 / 2011 on a cloudy and very windy day.
Arrived around 10.20 in the morning to find the centre virtually empty, the admission is now £4.00 per adult still great value compared to what you pay at most zoos and other collections.
On entry to the collection noticed right away they had done there usual winter move around.
The staff had been working hard during the winter to put up new fences and refurbish many of the enclosures there have been species leaving and new ones arriving.
The atmosphere within the centre was very friendly and very much family orientated, noticed that the entrance was also advertising for other local attractions.
Right now to the main aim of this report, what has moved left or arrived
Rhea is now in the enclosure just to the left of the main entrance/exit gate.
Jacob Sheep are now in the enclosure that used to hold the Bennett’s Wallaby.
Bennett’s Wallaby are now in with the Pygmy Goats directly in front of the main entrance/exit gate.
Now down to the more interesting stuff
As Chizlit as said in another thread the Beaver is now no longer in the collection he has moved to a local private collection.
In this enclosure they now have Hawaiian Goose and a pair of Reeve’s Pheasants
The Rhea have been moved and some have now moved to another collection (Dudley) they still have 4 Rhea left and will be keeping these to breed from as they are not related (I thought they were as they were all in Lilliput Village together).
Coatimundi have also left the collection but the keeper couldn’t remember as to where they had gone.
Geoffrey’s Marmosets now have what must be one of the biggest outdoor enclosures as they have the complete run of the Coatimundi enclosure (very large area for just 4 small monkeys).
Mara the centre now has 5 Mara they are in 2 groups we have a pair in the old Coatimundi enclosure with the Geoffrey’s Marmosets and 3 in the enclosure next to the Wallabies and Pygmy Goats.
Coming soon to the collection will be Squirrel Monkeys and Emperor Tamarins, the Squirrel Monkeys will go in an enclosure next to the Grey Mouse Lemur (Looks like one of the old aviaries as be refurbished for the Squirrel Monkey’s)
Emperor Tamarins will be going into the vacated area in Lilliput village by the Rhea work as started on this area.
The new map shows Pied Tamarins down by the marsh but couldn’t see them all I could see were what looked like foundations for a new enclosure.
Grey Mouse Lemurs are now in an enclosure that as a viewing area for the indoor part virtually in darkness both the entrance and exit doorways are covered in thick black plastic slats so the light barely comes into this area and I must admit it seems to work because last year these were very rarely out but now they seemed to be out most of the day.
Didn’t see any new additions to both the Reptile House and the Small Mammal house but was told there will be new additions in both shortly.
Over all I was impressed with the amount of work that as gone in over the winter and would willing recommend this collection to other people.
Still work to be done but in any collection there is always still work to be done.
Will be uploading photographs into the gallery tonight so please leave a comment also there are many more on my flickr page.
EDIT - my flickr page will be updated 01/04/2011 at 9pm
http://www.flickr.com/photos/1963adrian/
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