Well I visited both today. Very interesting contrasts, as stated by
@Maguari .
Bristol is interesting. It reminds me a lot of London in the late 90s/early 00s, and maybe that's because it has so many animals they used to have; pygmy slow loris, sand cats, paddlefish, Standing's day geckos etc. I found it to be really enjoyable despite it only being 15 acres, and it definitely has shot into my top 5 zoos in England without a doubt. The gorilla enclosure is very good for a city zoo gorilla enclosure, and seeing Jock (who lived at London for a year in the early 00s) again after so long made me very happy. (Side note, it seems Touni, the gorilla who came from Vallée des Singes last year or the year before, has kept the clapping the youngsters there have learnt to do at scatter feeds when they want attention/some extra food. She clapped a few times during the talk, which took place outside on the island.) We followed the advice of many on here and went straight to the nocturnal house at opening time. Sure enough, we saw plenty awake/active, with a clean sweep of the house's rarer/unusual mammals (mongoose, sand cat, kowari, spiny mice, loris, mouse deer, cuscus, aye-ayes, mouse lemurs, jumping rats and quolls all active
) The kowari and the quolls were firsts for me and I absolutely loved them both. Also saw the aye-aye twins when we returned later so we were truly lucky in there
other firsts around the zoo were the fur seals, yellow-footed rock wallabies, Livingstone's flying foxes, Lord Howe's stick insects (yes
@Maguari and
@Martin B we saw them
) and the lemur frogs. There were a few notable downsides, namely the tapir, lion and hippo enclosures, and these all fall under my main issue with Bristol; like London and any other city zoo, space constraints are a clear problem. It can well be difficult to make a good zoo out of a city space, but Bristol has broken the mold and is the only city zoo in my top five in England. Some of the areas could easily be changed around though, for example the lions could be converted for something like clouded leopards or lynx. Overall, however, despite its blemishes it was a fantastic visit. A couple of points that may need addressing, were the pygmy chameleons ever onshow, and did we miss any particular rarities in the lorikeet walkthrough (it was, together with the penguin and flamingo walkthroughs, sadly closed due to the bird flu issue)?
As for Wild Place, you can really tell the place is still in the process of being built up, but that is not a bad thing. Yes it makes for a short trip and yes it may look messy, but they do have some very nice species (okapi, laughingthrushes, tarictic hornbills, mongoose lemurs and geladas) and some good enclosures (not too big on the Alaotra reed lemurs' outdoor area, nor the one for the goats, but the gelada enclosure, wolf wood and lemur walkthroughs were great). It is clearly a very family-oriented zoo and it is, well, what it says on the tin; a wild place. Lots of emphasis on wildlife conservation (good!!) and lots of kids obstacle courses, playgrounds etc. which is great as well. The nature walks and meadows are a lovely addition too, and I'm excited to see where the zoo is going (giraffe enclosure and dik-dik/crowned crane shared enclosure are on their way).
Vastly preferred Bristol, but regardless, a grand day out
if there are any questions hit me up!!
Finally,
@pipaluk since we had that minor disagreement re Colchester, I have since made a top ten zoos in England. Here's the list in order from best to worst (yes some may disagree but this is just my personal opinion, others are free to say what they think and why):
1. Chester
2. Whipsnade
3. Bristol
4. Colchester
5. Marwell
6. Howletts
7. Paignton
8. Port Lympne
9. London
10. Twycross
if you visit at the latter time the aforementioned lighting opportunity will have passed!
