Bristol Zoo (Closed) Bristol Zoo News 2018
- Thread starter Crowthorne
- Start date
charliejb
Well-Known Member
Goodfellows Tree Kangaroos coming for the half term holiday.
New attraction and animals at Bristol Zoo Gardens
New attraction and animals at Bristol Zoo Gardens
Not long now then!
One thing I noticed when I was there is the big sign with all the conservation is wrong. For those that haven't been, it' a large map that points to various countries and has a short passage on the conservation that the society does in that country. But the arrow for their lemur leaf frog conservation in Costa Rica actually points to Honduras. And their Tanzanian macaque conservation points to Mozambique. Only someone who really knows maps can see it but it caused me a lot of amusement. Only beaten by the Flamingo land sign
I think he meant Kipunji mangabey. And I can think of a few other Cercopithecidae like the Udzungwa red colobus .Macaque or Mangabey, there are no Macaque in subsaharan Africa
Kipunji is not really a mangabey though, Sanje mangabey would be a better fit.
A quick google for Bristol's Tanzanian conservation concerns suggests it is indeed the Sanje Mangabey.
This enormous structure doesn't seem to have quite lived up to expectations so far- it seems to have been closed as a walk-through a lot of the time and then the Rock Wallabies didn't seem to work out for some reason I never discovered. Has it been open recently and what does it contain now?
It's currently closed while it's been redeveloped for tree kangaroo, I presume there will be public access when it's finished but with the kangaroos inside an inner enclosure. This makes the original structure redundant unless free-flying birds are to be kept in it.
A nice little bit of zoo history has been unearthed - a flight of steps that lead up to the old Monkey Temple (now Smarty Plants). It is hoped more steps on other sides of the temple will be uncovered in the future
Historic steps unearthed at Bristol Zoo Gardens
Historic steps unearthed at Bristol Zoo Gardens
Here is a link to an Instagram account sharing pictures of the Tree Kangaroo developments:
Zoo Cast UK on Instagram: “Work is well underway on a new enclosure at Bristol Zoo Gardens that will see Goodfellows tree kangaroos living there for the first time in…”
Swipe through the pictures to see the enclosure
Zoo Cast UK on Instagram: “Work is well underway on a new enclosure at Bristol Zoo Gardens that will see Goodfellows tree kangaroos living there for the first time in…”
Swipe through the pictures to see the enclosure
The steps have only been buried for twenty years...I remember them well. There was a bust of Alfred the Gorilla on the plinth shown in the old b/w photo. And the monkeys were NOT removed to the existing monkey enclosures- that's just a publicity fallacy I'm afraid, as the Temple contained a colony of rhesus macaques and their fate is unknown to me after the exhibit closed, but they disappeared from the zoo. (At the time of the Temple closure, I don't think the existing monkey enclosures were even in existence).
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Here is a link to an Instagram account sharing pictures of the Tree Kangaroo developments:
Zoo Cast UK on Instagram: “Work is well underway on a new enclosure at Bristol Zoo Gardens that will see Goodfellows tree kangaroos living there for the first time in…”
Swipe through the pictures to see the enclosure
It looks nice, I hope it works better than the Rock wallabies did. I wish they could have done something like this for them too, instead of getting rid of them, surely room in this huge structure for both?
Unless they have a second outdoor area for the TKs then there would be room for the wallabies in a non-walk through area.
The rock wallaby walk-through never worked due to a fundamental lack of understanding of rock wallaby behaviour - they are skittish and prefer to be up high. There was nothing particularly wrong with the enclosure; it just should never have been a walk-through with this species. I'm not convinced that a walk-through tree kangaroo enclosure would be any better...
Perhaps the problem for the rock wallabies was the number of visitors in a confined space .
I saw the Bristol Rock Wallabies at Flamingoland in December and they came within a few feet of me when I was alone in the walk-through, suddenly a family with 2 youngish children came crashing through the gate and they shot back to hide in the rocks!
I know they are quite nervous animals and favour being up high. I was surprised this species was chosen for a walkthrough in fact, rather than the more typical Bennett's Wallaby. I think their new enclosure at Flamingo Park is also a walkthrough(or walk-past) of sorts, I wonder if they will fare better there. Its a shame Bristol did not instead modify the enclosure and continue with them. It seems the Tree Kangaroos will be in 'an enclosure within an enclosure.'