Bristol Zoo (Closed) Bristol Zoo - 2022 planned closure of current site, and relocation to Wild Place site.

Daubentoniidae said:
This is incredibly sad news, Bristol had always been one of my favourite zoos to visit. I hope all the staff are ok and of course the animals. It's such a shame, I love the atmosphere and gardens on the site, I just hope Wild Place will continue to improve now.
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I've never visited wildplace and I suppose I never would out of choice, I would much rather visit Bristol zoo any day.

Frankly I don't think I would really care at all if London zoo decide to pack its bags and move off to their site in Whipsnade (I'd probably congratulate them on it actually and tell them that it was about time too) but Bristol is a very very different matter in my opinion.

They have obviously put so much work over the years into making that zoo work given the limited space and unlike London they did an excellent job at it too in my opinion (world class actually ! ).
 
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Obviously deeply sad and the Clifton site will be sorely missed but when it comes right down it much better this than the whole ship goes down, and they have ten times as much space to play with at Wild Place than in Clifton - the Wild Place site is Chester-sized.

The zoo's website has more specific info - the zoo will remain open until 2022, with Wild Place becoming the new Bristol Zoo in 2024 after remaining open through (presumably fairly significant) developments in the interim. The zoo are not selling the iconic entrance building, which will be retained as an 'urban conservation hub' (i.e. a base for the Avon Gorge & Downs project and for education programmes).

Our Future | Bristol Zoo
 
Daubentoniidae said:
This is incredibly sad news, Bristol had always been one of my favourite zoos to visit. I hope all the staff are ok and of course the animals. It's such a shame, I love the atmosphere and gardens on the site, I just hope Wild Place will continue to improve now.
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You summed up my thoughts entirely. It was a really special place and a lovely zoo to visit. I hope that the sale of the site releases enough capital that Wild Place really blossoms as a collection. Thoughts with the keepers and the rest of the Bristol staff.
 
Maguari said:
Obviously deeply sad and the Clifton site will be sorely missed but much better this than the whole ship goes down, and they have ten times as much space to play with at Wild Place than in Clifton - the Wild Place site is Chester-sized.

The zoo's website has more specific info - the zoo will remain open until 2022, with Wild Place becoming the new Bristol Zoo in 2024 after remaining open through (presumably fairly significant) developments in the interim. The zoo are not selling the iconic entrance building, which will be retained as an 'urban conservation hub' (i.e. a base for the Avon Gorge & Downs project and for education programmes).

Our Future | Bristol Zoo
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The character of the place will change irreversibly (and sometimes that can be just as fatal in the longterm as any economic issue).

I think that this is a really significant loss and shouldn't be understated even with the economic considerations that you mention.
 
It is sad news but in my opinion a great step forward for Bristol Zoological Society. I've never visited Bristol myself but I have been to Wildplace many times and the enclosures there are fantastic, especially Bear Wood, it is sad but Bristol's main income is most likely families with young children and Wildplace has more species that would attract families such as the giraffes, wolves and bears. I hope to visit Bristol before it closes because they have some fantastic species there.
 
GiraffeJack10 said:
It is sad news but in my opinion a great step forward for Bristol Zoological Society. I've never visited Bristol myself but I have been to Wildplace many times and the enclosures there are fantastic, especially Bear Wood, it is sad but Bristol's main income is most likely families with young children and Wildplace has more species that would attract families such as the giraffes, wolves and bears. I hope to visit Bristol before it closes because they have some fantastic species there.
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I don't think it is ever giraffes and megafauna that get visitors through a zoos doors and if it is then this is a situation / narrative that is sadly engineered and pushed upon the public by zoos themselves (due to a lack of imagination IMO).
 
I'm very sad about this; I have some magical memories of Bristol Zoo and actually prefer it to many larger collections. The way they have re-focused on smaller species really impressed me and the nocturnal house is a very, VERY special place. I hope some things like that can be re-created at the new site and it isn't all just big animals in big fields!
 
Sand Cat said:
I'm very sad about this; I have some magical memories of Bristol Zoo and actually prefer it to many larger collections. The way they have re-focused on smaller species really impressed me and the nocturnal house is a very, VERY special place. I hope some things like that can be re-created at the new site and it isn't all just big animals in big fields!
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Totally agree with that sentiment, well said !
 
I'm gutted at this news, due to my love of this zoo. Hundreds of years of history just going to be wasted away. But I'm glad they aren't both closing and hope that they maintain their high quality of collection, especially insects and smaller animals. Still reeling honestly
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
The character of the place will change irreversibly (and sometimes that can be just as fatal in the longterm as any economic issue).
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Absolutely. The current Bristol Zoo is a gem and its loss is a tragedy. But it is pretty clear that the alternative was Bristol becoming a shadow of its former self in the way most of us would say London has, or dwindling to nothing in an Old Poznan way, with the Society forging on regardless until one or both of the sites have to close in rather less planned circumstances. I think a dignified transition to a strong Bristol Zoo at the new site is distinctly preferable.
 
Dylan said:
I'm gutted at this news, due to my love of this zoo. Hundreds of years of history just going to be wasted away. But I'm glad they aren't both closing and hope that they maintain their high quality of collection, especially insects and smaller animals. Still reeling honestly
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What are the chances of them continuing that focus on smaller taxa with this new move ?

The cynic in me believes that it could well lead down the root of larger and larger species being kept and the old focus being put aside as historic.
 
Maguari said:
Absolutely. The current Bristol Zoo is a gem and its loss is a tragedy. But it is pretty clear that the alternative was Bristol becoming a shadow of its former self in the way most of us would say London has, or dwindling to nothing in an Old Poznan way, with the Society forging on regardless until one or both of the sites have to close in rather less planned circumstances. I think a dignified transition to a strong Bristol Zoo at the new site is distinctly preferable.
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Yes, I understand but in my opinion I would much rather that wildplace was the one to have bit the dust and in fact I didn't think much of it to begin with anyway.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
What are the chances of them continuing that focus on smaller taxa with this new move ?

The cynic in me believes that it could well lead down the root of larger and larger species being kept and the old focus being put aside as historic.
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Well hopefully a lot of the species currently at Bristol can be relocated to Wild Place, provided they have the right facilities. It'd be a shame to lose such a diverse nocturnal house.
 
Daubentoniidae said:
Well I understand Wild Place has a lot of space ever

Well hopefully a lot of the species currently at Bristol can be relocated to Wild Place, provided they have the right facilities.
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Yes, but the focus on the smaller taxa partly came about due to the constraints of the old site at Bristol zoo and I truly wonder whether that will be thrown aside in this very unfortunate decision to move to the larger site of wildplace.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
I don't think it is ever giraffes and megafauna that get visitors through a zoos doors and if it is then this is a situation / narrative that is sadly engineered and pushed upon the public by zoos themselves (due to a lack of imagination IMO).
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A zoos primary income is from families with young children and to many people megafauna species are the ones that will attract the most visitors. I find fiji banded iguanas just as fascinating as a reticulated giraffe for example but many people are not interested is smaller and less popular species so I think that the two collections combined will have species for zoo enthusiasts like us to enjoy aswell as species that the general public enjoy.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Yes, I understand but in my opinion I would much rather that wildplace was the one to have bit the dust.
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They're already struggling to keep enough larger animals on 12 acres to compete with other zoos in the area. There is regular debate about whether there's room for lions in particular in the current site, in the current age. And that site is in an expensive part of the city and they have problems obtaining parking space nearby. The opportunity of 136 'cheap' land acres on the city's edge vs the restrictions of 12 exceptionally high-value ones in the middle of a fairly posh housing district when you're trying to build a new future is, I'm afraid, not much of a debate.

Also, if you ever saw the original plans for the Wild Place site, it was always very hard to see the Clifton site staying open if that happened - it would have been massively overshadowed. So it's not like this is an entirely new situation. To be honest, I think Covid has not so much caused this as just brought it forward a bit. It was always likely to be the end outcome.
 
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