Chester Zoo Chester Zoo Discussion, Speculation & Questions 2018

Crowthorne said:
As someone who works in a botanic garden, I'd just like to stand up for the horticultural teams here. From my experience, gardeners are every bit as passionate and dedicated to their vocations as animal management teams. We here know little to nothing about the inner-working of what the zoo does and why. Chester is world famous not only as a zoo, but also for their work in plant conservation and for housing five of the National Plant Collections for the UK, putting them in the same leagues as major botanic gardens like Kew, Edinburgh and Cambridge.

Please remember to be respectful and think about who might be reading on a public forum such as this; you admonish SMR for coming across as disrespectful towards the keeping teams, then say that you always respect animal care staff over horticultural staff. If any of the horticultural or gardening teams I know were to read your post, they would themselves find it disrespectful I am sure.
Click to expand...

I wasn't intentionally putting down anyone involved in horticulture, but instead stating that I would have thought that looking after wild animals and meeting their individual needs was generally thought of as being more challenging. Heck, my own - admittedly limited - experiences of gardening are that it is easier to do than looking after a pet, particularly when that animal gets sick. Obviously both bring their own unique challenges though. Chester Zoo has some outstanding keepers and I tend to be a bit sensitive when I feel they're not given enough credit.

As I said though, Islands has brought a new aspect to the plant side of the zoo which I think deserves credit. I'll leave it there!
 
SMR said:
From what I've learnt, it was largely down to the personal opinion - and crusade - of one short-lived senior member of staff, and it had some really unpleasant repercussions on other long-standing members of the team (that won't be repeated on a public forum).
Click to expand...

Fair enough. Thank you.
 
sooty mangabey said:
I’d always just assumed that such floral displays were seen as being a bit old-fashioned, and that their replacement with less formal planting was thus a step along the road of modernity. On a personal level, I think there is room for both – and, certainly, part of the appeal of places like Bristol and the CWP is the formal planting, which can look absolutely stunning.
Click to expand...

Oh I agree, Bristol looks amazing in the summer. I do try to pull up my own bulbs for replanting into formal look in my own garden.

But I understand why they would want to change it.
 
Thought I would stay away from this but couldn't I understand that Keepers and Gardeners treat there jobs exactly the same to a gardener a plant is a living thing and needs a lot of attention to grow to keeper a animal needs a lot of attention to grow without either a keeper or a gardener we would ALL be sitting at home getting rather bored because we have no where to go to get our animal and plant fix,
I would like to thank Keepers and Gardeners at ALL collections for there wonderful efforts so we can enjoy our days out.

THANK YOU AGAIN.
 
That's really good if the black lemurs are on show now, I thought we might have to wait for the new Madagascar exhibit to open to see them!
 
I've been a bit out of loop with the developments at Chester. Had a look at the latest map, what's planned for the land in Islands that says opening Summer 2018? I'm hoping to visit in July so was just curious to know what it is.
 
JamesB said:
I've been a bit out of loop with the developments at Chester. Had a look at the latest map, what's planned for the land in Islands that says opening Summer 2018? I'm hoping to visit in July so was just curious to know what it is.
Click to expand...
I’ve not looked at the map but I’m guessing it’s the tree kangaroo enclosure .
 
If it is near the cassowaries in the New Guinea area is is a mixed exhibit for Goodfellow's Tree Kangaroo and Dusky Pademelon
 
Thanks! It seems a large plot of land on the map that they have covered for that, are there any other future developments for the Islands area that is publicly known?
 
JamesB said:
Thanks! It seems a large plot of land on the map that they have covered for that, are there any other future developments for the Islands area that is publicly known?
Click to expand...
The building for the new enclosure actually bridges the path between the suspension bridge and the cassowaries, to allow the tree kangaroo(s) access over the public area into an off-show section on the left hand side of the house. This means that the path from the entrance by the sitatunga paddock to the cassowaries has been closed. This has also allowed construction of squirrel enclosures beside the path before you reach the Coral Sands area. There are some photos of these in the Gallery, although I don't know if the squirrels have been moved in yet.
 
gentle lemur said:
The building for the new enclosure actually bridges the path between the suspension bridge and the cassowaries, to allow the tree kangaroo(s) access over the public area into an off-show section on the left hand side of the house. This means that the path from the entrance by the sitatunga paddock to the cassowaries has been closed. This has also allowed construction of squirrel enclosures beside the path before you reach the Coral Sands area. There are some photos of these in the Gallery, although I don't know if the squirrels have been moved in yet.
Click to expand...
The enterance is open again. As of last Sunday the squirrels are yet to move in.
 
The walk way to the Cassowary was open on my last visit about 3 weeks ago and some photographs of the tree kangaroo exhibit are in the gallery
 
JamesB said:
Thanks! It seems a large plot of land on the map that they have covered for that, are there any other future developments for the Islands area that is publicly known?
Click to expand...

I don't think there are for the moment. The zoo is concentrating on the lemur walkthrough and lion enclosure 2018-2019.
 
Thanks for the answers! Looking forward to my visit in July, hoping the Tree Kangaroos will be on show.
 
JamesB said:
Thanks for the answers! Looking forward to my visit in July, hoping the Tree Kangaroos will be on show.
Click to expand...
I think there is only one at the moment. I only added the (s) to my previous post because I assume that the Zoo would not have decided to build a new exhibit with four sections (on-show and off-show both indoors and out) unless they planned to get more specimens eventually.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top