Well I have just had a lovely day out at my home collection, and my first zoo in about two years. I hadn't been to the nature centre since about year 3 (Age 7-8 for you foreigners) and I knew some things had changed but I was surprised to see a lot of the zoo was exactly the same and how I remembered it.
The big things I identified though had t be the old wallaby enclosure is now a children's play area with log and rope climbing frames and a funny rocking lemur you could sit on. The wallaby's are now housed with the centre's pair of pygmy goats. In other news the guinea pig house is now a classroom type area with a caricature artist doing work for £5.00 a person. The guinea pigs are now split between two paddocks one right next to the old house by the spider monkey enclosure and the other built around a tree near the ring-tailed lemur and African spurred tortoise enclosures.
There is an empty vivarium in the small insect/ lower vertebrate house as well that looked ready for stocking some time soon.
Other than this I would say their is no big news so I just wanted to talk about my day. Greater rhea where a nice spot for me, I had seen them before once when I was walking outside the zoo but seeing them up close was nice, one did look to be doing courtship following two females but the devil stopped before I could take a photo. The Safki where very nice to see, though I only saw two males and did not see the cotton topped tamarin at all, unfortunately. The lone ocelot was sleeping in his house and was a nice change after watching pot bellied pigs and a lone European pond turtle. The Lynx where really great as well, best I had ever saw the group before! Unfortunately i did not get a good view of the gentle lemur, I could see it in the house but it was far away and very much in shadow, but I count it non the less! The two crane species blue and white-napped where very good to see they where right at the walls of the enclosure, though I only saw one of each. I saw all the monkeys in their large Amazon paddock and an agouti for the first time, one of the lion headed tamarins was in a separate enclosure though by the gentle lemur. Reptile house, bar screaming children, was very cool, the new young Uromastyx where zipping about like mad right next to the glass, I was also lucky to see the chameleon forest dragon, only a small specimen in the very top of the enclosure. I also enjoyed the mangrove snake but failed to spot either gecko species on show. The nocturnal house was a joy seeing owl monkeys and loris for the first time was awesome! No luck seeing the pied tamarin or red squirrel and tragopan and only saw three female sitatunga, but non the less it was a great trip my highlight being binturong for sure! I will upload photos to the gallery in due coarse.
