Chester Zoo Chester Zoo 2016 #2

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Not major but thought I would mention it, the Elephant House has changed name from "Elephants of the Asian Forest" to "Elephants of the Asian Rainforest"

Maybe the rain will wash some of the dust off the foliage of the plants inside the house :rolleyes:

Alan
 
Visited today, 2 thing I noticed:

- There are a pair of Kirk's Dik-Dik in with the Okapi. Does any one know what happened to the Red Forest Duiker?

- Not major but thought I would mention it, the Elephant House has changed name from "Elephants of the Asian Forest" to "Elephants of the Asian Rainforest"

Did you see which females were offshow in the chimp group?
 
First visit today together with pocket (friend of mine who is on Zoochat but doesn't really post on here) and Nisha as our tour guide; wonderful time! It's so big and so much more 'wild' than London, though I can see why some think it's 'Disneyfied'.

Saw at least one of each of the big mammal species (big cats, elephants, rhinos, giraffes, apes, bears) minus the jaguars and tigers. Also saw lots of firsts for me animal wise (silvery gibbon, mountain chicken, tuatara, writhed hornbill and tentacled snake).

As for great apes, saw Willie, Iznee, Martha and Sarikei, and Subis, Tuti, Tripa and Siska orang-wise. As for chimps, saw all the boys bar Boris (so Wilson, Nicky, Friday, Dylan, Eric and Carlos), and Farthing, Sarah, Zee Zee, Alice and Tina.

Will be going again tomorrow (just us two this time) to take a more in depth tour, focus more on mine and pocket's favourites. But yes, had a blast!

Also thanks to Nisha for showing us around :D we had a lot of fun with you!!


Oh, btw, I got a portrait shot of an aye-aye (as clear as possible in those conditions, which isn't too clear but you can see its face more or less) :)
 
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As for great apes, saw Willie, Iznee, Martha and Sarikei, and Subis, Tuti, Tripa and Siska orang-wise.

Try and hang around to see Puloh the large male Sumatran- he's well worth waiting for- the only adult male Sumatran on UK mainland... He is often out of sight indoors in the offshow dens but can suddenly appear at any time.

I'm intruged by the name 'pocket'....
 
What is 'Disneyfied'?

I can never understand this complaint about Chester, to me Colchester is 'Disneyfied' over the top, crammed in and people selling stuff everywhere which you don't get at Chester.

I think selling stuff everywhere is a criticism that can be directed at the zoo the original poster compared Chester to even more so than Colchester! London never miss the opportunity to open a new gift shop with each new exhibit: Gorilla, Penguin, tiger....But I guess every zoo needs to make money to survive.

I have never heard Chester described as 'Disneyfield' before though!
 
I suppose that the dinosaurs might remind some of Disney - although I'm so old that the only cartoon dinosaurs I remember are the ones in 'Fantasia' (which was re-released when I was about 10). The only things at Chester that I would label as Definitely Disney are all the signs and printed matter which use that infantile font and graphic styling. If you visit frequently enough, they become so familiar that you can overlook them - but a first time visitor has to look at them, which must get irritating.

Alan
 
Definately Disney

The only things at Chester that I would label as Definitely Disney are all the signs and printed matter which use that infantile font and graphic styling.

Its ten years since my last visit- until my recent one, but I certainly haven't noticed any 'disneyfication' creeping in at Chester over time, though I agree the signage has become pretty naff now. Even 'Islands' doesn't seem disneyfied, despite the 'immersive' aspects.

Colchester I don't think is disneyfied either- only the fake rock may lend itself to any comparison of similarity- otherwise its still pretty much typical of any UK zoo nowadays.

The UK collection that most approaches 'Disney' IMO is Chessington WOA but then its always been a theme park first and foremost anyway.
 
Visited today, 2 thing I noticed:

- There are a pair of Kirk's Dik-Dik in with the Okapi. Does any one know what happened to the Red Forest Duiker?

The male Duiker has moved out of Chester, can't remember where but has joined 2 females at his new home, the Dik Dik has indeed taken his place.....
 
To clarify on my Disneyfied comment, I myself agree that Islands is a great exhibit, but that some aspects of the long walk in and scenery can appear quite naff and theme-park esque (the boats is such an example).

Anyways, on to my review of day 2. We opted to take the route Javan Rhino wrote for us (See the "Chester trip" thread I started) and did indeed see the entire zoo. We also saw a lot more mammals because not only were we there earlier (seeing as how we stayed 3 miles away overnight) but we knew when to be where following yesterday's visit.

By knowing this we were able to see all of the elephants outside together, both tigers and both jaguars (Goshi was given a dead chicken which she had to swim out into the moat to retrieve), one sun bear and one spectacled bear (actually walking around instead of poking its head over the ridge before vanishing again), the capybaras splashing about in their pool, all 13 of the orangs (managed to see Leia, Emma, Indah and Puluh today, plus those we saw yesterday) and 15 of the chimps. Boris was sadly offshow together with Patti and Chrissie but there you go; guess I'll have to come back to see him!! ;) (also because of how awesome the zoo is).

Also saw some contractors walking about in the space that I believe is due to become the tapir enclosure in Islands.

I have edited Javan Rhino's route to be current as of my visit today. If anyone has any questions about the visit today do ask!
 
Just to update on the chimps, today while I was there the 5 chimps which have been off-show (Boris,Chrissie,Patti,Kiki and Vila) were on-show and had access to island. Kiki did spend some of the afternoon having a grooming session with Patti while Boris and Chrisse tended to stay outside braving the wet weather but all 5 did come out when it dried up a bit. Vila seems to have built a nest near the top which I saw her resting in for most of the day.
 
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