Zoo #57, Edinburgh Zoo, it must have been last Wednesday.
I’d like to take a moment to thank
@TeaLovingDave for making my day a pleasant one. Without his vocal dismay at the current state of Edinburgh Zoo I might not have enjoyed my afternoon quite as much as I did, as I was expecting a much more dismal experience (although the weather made up for what the zoo lacked in misery). Hopefully one day he comes to Melbourne Zoo and I can return the favour with my own familiarity-bred contempt.
Edinburgh wasn’t going to be part of this trip until quite recently. I’d intended, after London, to bounce around England’s West for a few days, visiting Bristol Zoo and Cotswold Wildlife Park along the way. Cotswold fell by the wayside first: I’d planned to stay in Oxford, from where you can get a bus to a nearby town and then walk the remaining 3.5km or so to the zoo. In April I would have done it, but at this late stage in the trip I knew the effort would be more than I could be bothered with. And Bristol eventually got discarded for a combination of cost and apathy as well. I’d still very much like to visit both, but they’ll have to wait. I’m very glad I went to Edinburgh instead, because it turned out to be one of my favourite cities of the entire journey, and I’m desperate to go back.
I arrived at about 1:30, having only belatedly made the decision to go that day for fear the weather would be even worse the next. Upon arrival I was asked when I’d like to see the pandas? There are spots available at 1:45, so I could go straight away! I can’t say my enthusiasm matched the sales attendant’s own, but very well, I said, let’s get the blob bears out of the way. And speaking of getting things out of the way, on the way past I saw the obligatory flamingoes, meerkats and fugly Waldrapps. The only way was up – both figuratively and literally, because the zoo is on the side of a hill.
I was intercepted on the approach into the pandas by a staff member who had a pre-mission briefing for us. Apparently pandas don’t like noise – nobody has told the pandas at Berlin, who were coping just fine – and the female was off-display because it was breeding-attempt season. Oh, and the male hasn’t come outside today either. But we could go through and try our luck, and maybe – maybe – we’d be allowed to try again later in the day if required. There was no male panda on view, and I’ve seen enough pandas not to bother a second time. The exhibit was pretty disappointing for one of the newest I’ve seen, as an aside.
I emerged from the panda disappointment into the part of the zoo with the penguins, and for the first time I remembered that not only is one of them a commissioned colonel in the Norwegian Navy – are there no warrior penguins in Norway itself? – but that they were about to go on parade. So I watched the parade, which involves lining up along a path for about two minutes as one king and four gentoo penguins briefly waddled outside, shepherded by five keepers. This is, without doubt, the weirdest special attraction in any zoo I’ve visited. And I’ve seen Georgia Aquarium’s dolphin show.
At this point I wasn’t really feeling Edinburgh, to be perfectly honest, but things picked up once I hauled myself, in first gear, to the top of the hill. Paddocks as simple as paddocks can be, but they’re attractive and watching the guanacos – or were they vicuña? I forget – as they frolicked around was fun. There was a glaring omission here though. I’m not usually one to advocate for more domestics in a zoo, but where on earth were the highland cattle? They’re not pandas, sure, but they are still an attraction for visitors to Scotland.
The best exhibit in the entire zoo, I think, is the lions: after decrying the lack of good lion exhibits in Europe I’ve had four great ones in the last five zoos, with Burgers, Rotterdam, London and now Edinburgh. The tiger exhibit is decent, too, and the adjoining paddocks for zebra and nyala are gorgeous too. And there were more basic, unremarkable but nevertheless attractive exhibits as I finally got to go downhill, including the wallabies and sun bears. There’s also a couple of misses, the most conspicuous of which is Budongo. Well, to call it a ‘miss’ is probably a touch unfair: the exhibit itself is modest but not bad, per se. What I couldn’t really understand was the oodles of money that was evidently spent on effectively empty indoor space that looks like it escaped from a mid-market conference centre.
I’ve left the best thing to comment on until last. I *loved* the research centre for capuchins and squirrel monkeys. As I approached I saw that there were two identical enclosures, each with groups of both species, and wondered why for about five seconds, and then twigged: I was looking at treatment and control groups. Zoos bang on a lot about education, which usually boils down to signs, warning of environmental catastrophe, that people don’t read and keeper talks they half-listen too. Well, they may or may not read the signs here but those that do are treated to a genuinely fascinating window into the nuts and bolts of scientific research. The exhibits themselves are of a piece with Edinburgh – okay, but nothing special – but their very reason for being makes them the star of the show.
I’m reading this post back and I have to admit it’s a bit of a plodder. Never mind. The next one is written and it’s a little better.
and fortunately the lonely planet hasn't picked up on this yet, because we do not need Chinese tourists in every city 
