Birmingham Nature Centre Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park News 2021
- Thread starter Quincey
- Start date
Does anyone know if BWCP still holds otters??? There does not seem to be any mention of them on last year's thread and the species has even been linked to the park's former holdings on ZTL.
Anyone know if they are still in with the Binturong or have they moved elsewhere?
Anyone know if they are still in with the Binturong or have they moved elsewhere?
Facebook live just showed a new species for the park, 3 Northern Luzon Cloud Rats in the nocturnal house
Popped in for an hour this morning and had a glorious visit, the weather was fine, most of the animals were active and about, and it was just a very pleasant visit in general. It was quite busy though and had to have been close to the current COVID capacity, but fortunately most people were still maintaining social distancing.
Things of note that I've not seen mentioned before -
New Bush Dog enclosure looks great, another high quality development to go with other recent builds.
There are two new enclosures on the site (same design as most of the small monkey enclosures) but neither have any indoor accommodation currently and are currently sitting empty.
The old pig paddock is now devoid of life but there is a shed going up in there with what appears to be a large viewing window.
No sign of the wallaby or pygmy goats but both were still signed.
The parrot aviary has had all signage removed but it's still home to at least one Eclectus Parrot.
Indoor houses are still closed (obviously) so I was done in an hour, but looking forward to getting back once the buildings are open so I can see the Cloud Rats.
Things of note that I've not seen mentioned before -
New Bush Dog enclosure looks great, another high quality development to go with other recent builds.
There are two new enclosures on the site (same design as most of the small monkey enclosures) but neither have any indoor accommodation currently and are currently sitting empty.
The old pig paddock is now devoid of life but there is a shed going up in there with what appears to be a large viewing window.
No sign of the wallaby or pygmy goats but both were still signed.
The parrot aviary has had all signage removed but it's still home to at least one Eclectus Parrot.
Indoor houses are still closed (obviously) so I was done in an hour, but looking forward to getting back once the buildings are open so I can see the Cloud Rats.
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I have just seen in this scientific paper about the illegal trade of the earless monitor lizard Lanthanotus borneensis and the role of zoos in this trade, that ZIMS listed the arrival of three of these lizards at Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Centre in 2018, with another two arriving in 2020.
Some or all of these lizards are the results of confiscation from Heathrow Airport, but further information is lacking according to the paper:
Zoos consenting to the illegal wildlife trade – the earless monitor lizard as a case study
Some or all of these lizards are the results of confiscation from Heathrow Airport, but further information is lacking according to the paper:
Zoos consenting to the illegal wildlife trade – the earless monitor lizard as a case study
Generally speaking: The author is a well-respected conservation scientist with a high quality record of scientific papers and reports.
However, the only disconnect I see in the paper is - as I am familiar with the imports from Japan/iZoo into Czech Republic (read: destination Zoo Praha) - that these were reported as being offspring hatched at iZoo in Japan.
I had the pleasure of undertaking my first visit to the Birmingham Wildlife conservation Park (formerly Birmingham Nature Centre) recently, as part of a two attraction day combining it with an uninspiring visit to SEA Life Birmingham earlier in the day and wanted to leave a mini review for anyone considering a visit.
I have been historically hesitant about visiting council run zoos anticipating they will be small, quaint and archaic but have changed my opinion having visited BNC and Camperdown in Dundee and thoroughly enjoying both and finding both incredible value for money.
Arriving pretty fed up following my visit to SEA Life I was anxious to see what the centre held as I had not researched it very extensively. I waited outside the entrance building for my allocated slot to start and peered through the fence at a muddy corner enclosure with a single rhea standing in it and wondered if I was hoping for too much of this attraction..
The park has a very loose one way system due to Covid which no one seemed to utilise and when you reached the entrance again there was nothing to prevent you completing multiple circuits which was great.
I breezed past the rhea enclosure with my fingers crossed hoping for more exciting mammalian inhabitants within.
On the other side of the path an enclosure holding Saki Monkeys stopped me for a while. Small monkeys were everywhere across the site, tamarins of multiple species, squirrel monkeys, marmosets etc.
As you walk up a small hill at the start of the one way system you pass through what I presume was an old entrance to the zoo / park as it looks like a ticket booth or gate house which has now been re-purposed to be toilets and animal food prep kitchens. If this wasn’t a former entrance then it certainly looks out of place.
Turning right at the top of the hill you pass a large and heavily planted lynx enclosure with some good elevation, one lynx was seen lounging in the heat. On the other side of the path are lemur enclosures for Alaotran Lemur which were impressively planted with very dense “reeds”.
At the end of this run of cages there is a newer looking wood building for Komodo dragons which was very impressive and looked similar to many other UK Komodo enclosures, the outside enclosure however left something to be desired as it seemed very small. Perhaps this is intentional as I am not convinced how much Komodo’s enjoy British weather…
I am not going to talk you round the whole park, but by the time I had reached this point I was relieved and felt the site would be an enjoyable visit with functional to good exhibits. This assumption played out accurately with the rest of the zoo being filled with fairly standard enclosures for fairly common animals; including the predictable red panda in an enclosure with a large tree it had no access to, sandbox for the obligatory meerkats, ring tailed lemurs, capybara etc etc. But there were some exceptions, ocelot in a heavily planted enclosure with lots of privacy even though it abutted a restaurant outdoor dining area was nice, active bushdogs were lovely, but the two nocturnal houses were incredible.
I stumbled across the loris house first (flashbacks of Shaldon Wildlife) and walked in through the heavy opaque black rubber doorway blinds and was pleased to be in absolute, pitch black, darkness. Which was great as one of my pet hates of nocturnal attractions is; if you are going to put a door on then make sure it keeps the light out! A good example of a terrible nocturnal attraction would be the brush tailed porcupine enclosure at Africa Alive which has an open doorway to the outside and the only thing you can see clearly is your own reflection. Pointless! Anyway, I digress, inside there are two equal sized enclosures with a pair of loris in each under red light who were active, feeding and a great display. I was probably in there for about twenty minutes before the next visitors crept through the blinds and I moved on.
The second and main nocturnal building was equally dark (not much to ask ey?) and lit with red light. The first enclosure you see is for a pair of potto. Previously I have never seen potto move other than to momentarily lift their head from a ball of fur, but this pair were absolutely charging around the enclosure, climbing through the branches, traversing the ceiling, in and out of the nest box, if anything they made me think the enclosure could be bigger. And I never thought I would say that about a potto! Also, who knew potto had a reasonably long tail?!
There is also a very large enclosure for Luzon Cloud Rats (3 Seen) and again these were active and mobile and put on a great display utilising their entire space and were massive in stature compared to ones I have seen curled up at Edinburgh and Wingham previously.
The final enclosure in the nocturnal house houses a pair of sloths, an armadillo species (not seen) and a group of night monkeys all of which were active and engaging in their displays.
Overall a relatively small zoo which I went round twice in three hours comfortably but with excellent nocturnal houses which I would happily pay the £7.50 entry fee to enter on their own, I will be back.
Sorry for the long post!
I have been historically hesitant about visiting council run zoos anticipating they will be small, quaint and archaic but have changed my opinion having visited BNC and Camperdown in Dundee and thoroughly enjoying both and finding both incredible value for money.
Arriving pretty fed up following my visit to SEA Life I was anxious to see what the centre held as I had not researched it very extensively. I waited outside the entrance building for my allocated slot to start and peered through the fence at a muddy corner enclosure with a single rhea standing in it and wondered if I was hoping for too much of this attraction..
The park has a very loose one way system due to Covid which no one seemed to utilise and when you reached the entrance again there was nothing to prevent you completing multiple circuits which was great.
I breezed past the rhea enclosure with my fingers crossed hoping for more exciting mammalian inhabitants within.
On the other side of the path an enclosure holding Saki Monkeys stopped me for a while. Small monkeys were everywhere across the site, tamarins of multiple species, squirrel monkeys, marmosets etc.
As you walk up a small hill at the start of the one way system you pass through what I presume was an old entrance to the zoo / park as it looks like a ticket booth or gate house which has now been re-purposed to be toilets and animal food prep kitchens. If this wasn’t a former entrance then it certainly looks out of place.
Turning right at the top of the hill you pass a large and heavily planted lynx enclosure with some good elevation, one lynx was seen lounging in the heat. On the other side of the path are lemur enclosures for Alaotran Lemur which were impressively planted with very dense “reeds”.
At the end of this run of cages there is a newer looking wood building for Komodo dragons which was very impressive and looked similar to many other UK Komodo enclosures, the outside enclosure however left something to be desired as it seemed very small. Perhaps this is intentional as I am not convinced how much Komodo’s enjoy British weather…
I am not going to talk you round the whole park, but by the time I had reached this point I was relieved and felt the site would be an enjoyable visit with functional to good exhibits. This assumption played out accurately with the rest of the zoo being filled with fairly standard enclosures for fairly common animals; including the predictable red panda in an enclosure with a large tree it had no access to, sandbox for the obligatory meerkats, ring tailed lemurs, capybara etc etc. But there were some exceptions, ocelot in a heavily planted enclosure with lots of privacy even though it abutted a restaurant outdoor dining area was nice, active bushdogs were lovely, but the two nocturnal houses were incredible.
I stumbled across the loris house first (flashbacks of Shaldon Wildlife) and walked in through the heavy opaque black rubber doorway blinds and was pleased to be in absolute, pitch black, darkness. Which was great as one of my pet hates of nocturnal attractions is; if you are going to put a door on then make sure it keeps the light out! A good example of a terrible nocturnal attraction would be the brush tailed porcupine enclosure at Africa Alive which has an open doorway to the outside and the only thing you can see clearly is your own reflection. Pointless! Anyway, I digress, inside there are two equal sized enclosures with a pair of loris in each under red light who were active, feeding and a great display. I was probably in there for about twenty minutes before the next visitors crept through the blinds and I moved on.
The second and main nocturnal building was equally dark (not much to ask ey?) and lit with red light. The first enclosure you see is for a pair of potto. Previously I have never seen potto move other than to momentarily lift their head from a ball of fur, but this pair were absolutely charging around the enclosure, climbing through the branches, traversing the ceiling, in and out of the nest box, if anything they made me think the enclosure could be bigger. And I never thought I would say that about a potto! Also, who knew potto had a reasonably long tail?!
There is also a very large enclosure for Luzon Cloud Rats (3 Seen) and again these were active and mobile and put on a great display utilising their entire space and were massive in stature compared to ones I have seen curled up at Edinburgh and Wingham previously.
The final enclosure in the nocturnal house houses a pair of sloths, an armadillo species (not seen) and a group of night monkeys all of which were active and engaging in their displays.
Overall a relatively small zoo which I went round twice in three hours comfortably but with excellent nocturnal houses which I would happily pay the £7.50 entry fee to enter on their own, I will be back.
Sorry for the long post!
Don't apologise. Thanks for taking the time to write a brilliant in-depth review.
I agree about the rhea enclosure. I think the fact it contains animals that don't stand still too often, peck at anything green, and spend a lot of their time at the front of the enclosure doesn't help the mud in there. The rheas, Komodo dragon outdoor area and the capybara enclosures are the only ones in the park that I think of negatively (although I thought the capybara enclosure had disappeared under the new spider monkey enclosure?).
The structure you described was indeed a former entrance. Former entrance at Birmingham Nature Centre 28/02/10 - ZooChat
Overall I believe BWCP is a hidden gem, with its small monkey enclosures, lynx, ocelot, nocturnal houses and reptile house among the best in the country. For its tiny size it certainly packs a punch.
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There is a large spider monkey enclosure near the entrance / opposite the antelope paddock and play areas. Not sure if this has replaced an old capybara enclosure? The current capybara were held at the other end of this paddock with a rectangular grassy paddock with a shed and patio-esque area in the upper area sloping to a pool at the lower end before a fence which follows the stream. Quite functional but everything a capybara needs.
Thanks for confirming suspicions on the entrance.
I didn't make it into the reptile house as it was absolutely heaving and I am still feeling quite covid cautious. Certainly more so than many of the other patrons.. One to look forward to next time.
Visited yesterday (7/9) and had a pleasant visit as always. I timed it so I went on the first day the local schools went back so it was nice and quiet. 
New stuff of note is the two new small primate enclosures now have signage and well furnished outdoors, just waiting on the indoors in both cases. The one on the site of the old pig yard will be home to Cotton-top Tamarins whilst the one by the Meerkats will house the Golden-lion Tamarins currently opposite the Komodo Dragon house. Other new stuff is the reptile house has had a bit of a spruce up inside with new panelling, bringing it more in line with the Komodo house aesthetically speaking, and the Northern Luzon Cloud Rats showed extremely well. In fact it was nice to be able to visit the nocturnal houses after such a long absence, was like visiting old friends...
Really good visit, glorious weather helped, only lowlight was not seeing the Bush Dog pups but hey, can't have everything on every visit!
New stuff of note is the two new small primate enclosures now have signage and well furnished outdoors, just waiting on the indoors in both cases. The one on the site of the old pig yard will be home to Cotton-top Tamarins whilst the one by the Meerkats will house the Golden-lion Tamarins currently opposite the Komodo Dragon house. Other new stuff is the reptile house has had a bit of a spruce up inside with new panelling, bringing it more in line with the Komodo house aesthetically speaking, and the Northern Luzon Cloud Rats showed extremely well. In fact it was nice to be able to visit the nocturnal houses after such a long absence, was like visiting old friends...
Really good visit, glorious weather helped, only lowlight was not seeing the Bush Dog pups but hey, can't have everything on every visit!
Anyone know what has happened to the following from the collection as I visited Saturday with my Nephew who wasn't impressed.
Gray mouse lemur.
Did notice that the smaller monkey's have been split from mixed exhibits into there own exhibits.
Virtually all the species were seen except for Red Panda and Otters everything else was viewed.
Gray mouse lemur.
Did notice that the smaller monkey's have been split from mixed exhibits into there own exhibits.
Virtually all the species were seen except for Red Panda and Otters everything else was viewed.
The Gray Mouse Lemurs died out a few years ago. Their enclosure has since held Brush-Tailed Bettong, and now holds Northern Luzon Giant Cloud Rats.
There are new enclosures for family groups of Golden-Headed Lion Tamarins and Cotton-Top Tamarins, who were already living as single groups. The mixed enclosure featuring Golden-Headed Lion Tamarins, Emperor Tamarins and Red Titi is unchanged, as is the mixed enclosure featuring Golden Lion Tamarins and Pygmy Marmosets.
The golden lion tamarins and pygmy marmosets were in the last gray mouse lemur exhibit when i saw them last
The rats are now in Moonlight I think it was called.
The enclosure that holds the Golden lion tamarin used to hold a few bird species last time I visited 2 and half years ago.
Most of the small monkey's were in the class room at the back of the cafe 2 and a half years ago
The rats are now in Moonlight I think it was called.
The enclosure that holds the Golden lion tamarin used to hold a few bird species last time I visited 2 and half years ago.
Most of the small monkey's were in the class room at the back of the cafe 2 and a half years ago