Colchester Zoo Colchester Zoo news 2025

Moorhunhe said:
Can you see the red bellied lemurs somewhere? We didn't see them with all the rest in the massive enclosure, and the map on the app takes me to a bush area we can't get to?
I've not seen a keeper in a while to ask.
Click to expand...

They are in the big lemur walkthrough enclosure, although at the moment I think it is closed to visitors. You can still see into the enclosure from the corridor with the giant anteater indoor area and from the bridge, but the red-bellied lemurs are very hard to see even from there - I probably haven't seen them in over a year.
 
For Red Bellied I would suggest trying from the bottom window by the toilets near the Crazy Sand stall fairly early in the morning when keepers put food out.

Fyi, the Cranes were moved opposite Komodos because they kept escaping from the other enclosure. I assume it's a short term solution?
 
DesertRhino150 said:
They are in the big lemur walkthrough enclosure, although at the moment I think it is closed to visitors. You can still see into the enclosure from the corridor with the giant anteater indoor area and from the bridge, but the red-bellied lemurs are very hard to see even from there - I probably haven't seen them in over a year.
Click to expand...

TomPhotog said:
For Red Bellied I would suggest trying from the bottom window by the toilets near the Crazy Sand stall fairly early in the morning when keepers put food out.

Fyi, the Cranes were moved opposite Komodos because they kept escaping from the other enclosure. I assume it's a short term solution?
Click to expand...

Thanks both!
We did walk on top and looked down into the big enclosure and saw the ring tailed & crowned ones.
I would think the others would be there too but the app was confusing.

We saw the leopard cubs this morning playing with mom's tail, was so cute!
We booked a hotel 15 min away, I'm ready for bed already, lol.
It was a really nice place. We did miss out a bit, we found the paths quite confusing, so constantly looking on the app.
 
Went for another visit to Colchester Zoo this morning. These are the things I have noticed:
  • The pathing around the new capuchin redevelopment has been done, and you can now walk right around the entire display. The glass windows still need to be added, and it looks like the indoor area still needs a lot of work (both the animal and visitor areas).
  • I saw at least three golden-headed lion tamarins today - the two in the Worlds Apart building (which I think were the original sibling pair from the Rainforest Walkthrough, unless something has changed), plus one in Rainforest Walkthrough itself. Presumably that must mean at least one new individual has arrived.
  • Not sure why, but there was a large crate inside the sloth and white-lipped tamarin indoor enclosure, on top of the sloth nesting box - perhaps a second nest box, or a moving crate.
  • Something I have actually noticed for the past several visits - it seems that the mangabeys have been split up. The male and one of the females are still mixed, while the second female is being kept separate.
  • I don't know if they have just been split up, or if one of them was in the off-show indoor area, but I could only see two aardvarks today - the mother and her youngster.
  • A sign has been put up in the Iguana Forest that says that one of the female green iguanas is indeed nesting.
  • It was good to see the wolves having a carcass feed today, with the entire front half of a fallow deer given to them.
Moorhunhe said:
Can you see the red bellied lemurs somewhere? We didn't see them with all the rest in the massive enclosure, and the map on the app takes me to a bush area we can't get to?
I've not seen a keeper in a while to ask.
Click to expand...
  • I tried the upper viewing window for the Lost Madagascar walkthrough today, near to the Crazy Sand shop, at around 9:45 to 10:00 (not entirely certain of the time). Saw both of the red-bellied lemurs and all the ring-tailed lemurs, which had recently been fed. Also I later saw the crowned lemurs out on the island. It's been the first time for probably two or three years that I have seen all three of these lemur species on the one visit.
 
We went here Thursday 20 + Friday 21 March.
We had never been before and knew nothing about it.
The only thing I knew was that there were Leopard cubs, as it randomly popped up on my FB a few weeks back.

As Colchester is about 2,5 hours away and only the boyfriend can drive, he found a Travelodge very cheap only 12 minutes away from the zoo, so we booked an overnight stay. We used the Spring offer for just over 18£ and thought if we can't manage to see it all in 1 day we might go back the next day.
We planned getting there for opening at 9.30 am but there was much more traffic along the way then before we left looking at google maps, and had to take a longer break in between, we didn't pull up at the car park until about 10.30 am and by the time we were all settled and actually in, it was almost 11.

First impressions when walking in, it immediately looked really nice, lots of foliage.
We got a paper map, but I also downloaded the app, and it looked straight forward, but once there it really wasn't. Not sure if really due to the construction/closed bits, but sometimes the app would actually take us to a bush-bit in the middle of a space where you couldn't even get too at all (Red Bellied Lemurs comes to mind when looking for them).
Also a few times the app showed we were there and couldn't see anything around us which we were looking for.

Anyway ... first place we went to were the Leopards, and the cubs were being very playfull playing with mom's tail. For about 20 minutes or so, then they kind of dissapeared.
After that we spotted both White Lipped Tamarin babies and the Titi Monkey baby.
I also do love the Tamandua's and both were super active walking and climbing (in their little dungarees, lolz).

I really liked the "underwater" walk through at the Sealions, it's so nice to see them swimming around you.
We then headed towards the Lions, and walked past the Mangabey which we hadn't seen elsewhere before.
We saw 1 male Lion, is the only one or are there any more?
Same with the Fennec Fox, we saw 1.

Headed over to the Cheetah, of which we saw 1, but noticed on the map there are 2 enclosures.
At the Vultures there was a sign saying to be quiet as they have been seen nesting.
We saw the baby Aardvark, though it was sleeping in between it's parents (I presume the 2 big ones were both parents).
Didn't spot any Tiger. Then made our way via the Wolfs to the Lemurs as I wanted to try and spot the Red-Bellied Lemurs, but as mentioned quite strange how the app tells you to go, eventually didn't see them in both big enclosures, did see the Ring Tails and Crowned Lemurs.

Headed back to the Lion, who was more visible now as earlier in the day he was sleeping behind a rock.
And made our way back to the Leopards to see if we could spot them again, a little bit from the small windows on the other side, we would see the mother lying on the platform, no sign of the cubs.

And we left around closing time, which was 4.30 pm.

We thought many enclosures seemed really good and quite big.
Food wise, we didn't eat on day 1, but I had a look at what they had to offer and I felt for what you get the price was quite reasonable.

Animals we didn't manage to see / go to: the Orangutans, Elephants, Chimpazees, Lorikeets, Bush Dogs, Crocodile, Smooth Coated Otters, Hyrax and the entire end where the Alpaca's and Llama's are.

During the day we thought we would manage to see it all, but we did feel a bit rushed to try and see it all, so we made the decision to go back the next day.
We managed to some animals we didn't see the day before, the Orangutans and Chimpanzees, and the crocodile.
We left out the Alpaca's on purpose this time, and couldn't spot the Hyrax on this day either.

We did get there for 9.30 am but as it's over a 3 hour drive back (including stops) we didn't want to stay until 4.30 pm and did skip the Cheetah/Hyena's.
Starting off at the Leopard cubs again, and once again both were playing with mom's tail, and it was for about 15 minutes until they all dissapeared.

We did manage to see the baby Aardvark being active for just a few seconds, and the Bush Dogs right before we went on the train ride.
After there was a Tiger encounter, and both Tigers were visible.
The Smooth Coated Otters were all outside in the water playing.

We did buy food on day 2 at "The Gourmet Sausage". We both had the curryworst loaded fries, it was so much food and really good. I took half home in my lunchbox because it was so much, lol. (wasn't going to waste food or money, lol)

We tried looking for the Rufous Hornbill for both days, and couldn't spot them through the big window from the outside. Only to find out on day 2 that you can see them via the inside viewing bit with the Sun Bears, which we found very confusing finding them looking on the app.

I'm sure we still missed some pathways or inside viewing spots on both days.

No show animals on both days: Asian Small Clawed Otters, Binturong, Red-Bellied Lemurs, Hyrax
We've seen these in other places, so it's not bad, just nice to see them in other places, hehe.
 
Colchester Zoo have put out an update on the attempts to breed their cheetahs. So far there have been no successful matings, although the female (Anika), who had never encountered a male cheetah before her arrival at Colchester in 2023, has been showing very positive behaviours towards both of the brothers (especially Abasi).

The update can be read here. It is not necessarily news per se, but it is very pleasant that the zoo is providing all this information.
 
Moorhunhe said:
We went here Thursday 20 + Friday 21 March.
We had never been before and knew nothing about it.
The only thing I knew was that there were Leopard cubs, as it randomly popped up on my FB a few weeks back.

As Colchester is about 2,5 hours away and only the boyfriend can drive, he found a Travelodge very cheap only 12 minutes away from the zoo, so we booked an overnight stay. We used the Spring offer for just over 18£ and thought if we can't manage to see it all in 1 day we might go back the next day.
We planned getting there for opening at 9.30 am but there was much more traffic along the way then before we left looking at google maps, and had to take a longer break in between, we didn't pull up at the car park until about 10.30 am and by the time we were all settled and actually in, it was almost 11.

First impressions when walking in, it immediately looked really nice, lots of foliage.
We got a paper map, but I also downloaded the app, and it looked straight forward, but once there it really wasn't. Not sure if really due to the construction/closed bits, but sometimes the app would actually take us to a bush-bit in the middle of a space where you couldn't even get too at all (Red Bellied Lemurs comes to mind when looking for them).
Also a few times the app showed we were there and couldn't see anything around us which we were looking for.

Anyway ... first place we went to were the Leopards, and the cubs were being very playfull playing with mom's tail. For about 20 minutes or so, then they kind of dissapeared.
After that we spotted both White Lipped Tamarin babies and the Titi Monkey baby.
I also do love the Tamandua's and both were super active walking and climbing (in their little dungarees, lolz).

I really liked the "underwater" walk through at the Sealions, it's so nice to see them swimming around you.
We then headed towards the Lions, and walked past the Mangabey which we hadn't seen elsewhere before.
We saw 1 male Lion, is the only one or are there any more?
Same with the Fennec Fox, we saw 1.

Headed over to the Cheetah, of which we saw 1, but noticed on the map there are 2 enclosures.
At the Vultures there was a sign saying to be quiet as they have been seen nesting.
We saw the baby Aardvark, though it was sleeping in between it's parents (I presume the 2 big ones were both parents).
Didn't spot any Tiger. Then made our way via the Wolfs to the Lemurs as I wanted to try and spot the Red-Bellied Lemurs, but as mentioned quite strange how the app tells you to go, eventually didn't see them in both big enclosures, did see the Ring Tails and Crowned Lemurs.

Headed back to the Lion, who was more visible now as earlier in the day he was sleeping behind a rock.
And made our way back to the Leopards to see if we could spot them again, a little bit from the small windows on the other side, we would see the mother lying on the platform, no sign of the cubs.

And we left around closing time, which was 4.30 pm.

We thought many enclosures seemed really good and quite big.
Food wise, we didn't eat on day 1, but I had a look at what they had to offer and I felt for what you get the price was quite reasonable.

Animals we didn't manage to see / go to: the Orangutans, Elephants, Chimpazees, Lorikeets, Bush Dogs, Crocodile, Smooth Coated Otters, Hyrax and the entire end where the Alpaca's and Llama's are.

During the day we thought we would manage to see it all, but we did feel a bit rushed to try and see it all, so we made the decision to go back the next day.
We managed to some animals we didn't see the day before, the Orangutans and Chimpanzees, and the crocodile.
We left out the Alpaca's on purpose this time, and couldn't spot the Hyrax on this day either.

We did get there for 9.30 am but as it's over a 3 hour drive back (including stops) we didn't want to stay until 4.30 pm and did skip the Cheetah/Hyena's.
Starting off at the Leopard cubs again, and once again both were playing with mom's tail, and it was for about 15 minutes until they all dissapeared.

We did manage to see the baby Aardvark being active for just a few seconds, and the Bush Dogs right before we went on the train ride.
After there was a Tiger encounter, and both Tigers were visible.
The Smooth Coated Otters were all outside in the water playing.

We did buy food on day 2 at "The Gourmet Sausage". We both had the curryworst loaded fries, it was so much food and really good. I took half home in my lunchbox because it was so much, lol. (wasn't going to waste food or money, lol)

We tried looking for the Rufous Hornbill for both days, and couldn't spot them through the big window from the outside. Only to find out on day 2 that you can see them via the inside viewing bit with the Sun Bears, which we found very confusing finding them looking on the app.

I'm sure we still missed some pathways or inside viewing spots on both days.

No show animals on both days: Asian Small Clawed Otters, Binturong, Red-Bellied Lemurs, Hyrax
We've seen these in other places, so it's not bad, just nice to see them in other places, hehe.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a fun visit! I agree it's very windy I found I couldn't find everything easily for a few visits. Great planting though. They have the one male African lion, Bailey who will be 18 in June I believe.
 
Lafone said:
Sounds like a fun visit! I agree it's very windy I found I couldn't find everything easily for a few visits. Great planting though. They have the one male African lion, Bailey who will be 18 in June I believe.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info!
Yeah, we did enjoy both days! I'm glad we went.
 
On 14th March, three male warthog piglets were born at Colchester. They are the fifth litter of mother Hermione, who arrived in 2019 from Munster Zoo, and father Moja, who was born at Colchester in 2014. The piglets are now starting to emerge from their nest box.

This brings the warthog group up to eight individuals. As well as the three piglets and their parents, another three males from a previous litter remain at Colchester (named Dodge, Bentley and Ditch).

More information can be found in this link.
 
Moorhunhe said:
We went here Thursday 20 + Friday 21 March.
We had never been before and knew nothing about it.
The only thing I knew was that there were Leopard cubs, as it randomly popped up on my FB a few weeks back.

As Colchester is about 2,5 hours away and only the boyfriend can drive, he found a Travelodge very cheap only 12 minutes away from the zoo, so we booked an overnight stay. We used the Spring offer for just over 18£ and thought if we can't manage to see it all in 1 day we might go back the next day.
We planned getting there for opening at 9.30 am but there was much more traffic along the way then before we left looking at google maps, and had to take a longer break in between, we didn't pull up at the car park until about 10.30 am and by the time we were all settled and actually in, it was almost 11.

First impressions when walking in, it immediately looked really nice, lots of foliage.
We got a paper map, but I also downloaded the app, and it looked straight forward, but once there it really wasn't. Not sure if really due to the construction/closed bits, but sometimes the app would actually take us to a bush-bit in the middle of a space where you couldn't even get too at all (Red Bellied Lemurs comes to mind when looking for them).
Also a few times the app showed we were there and couldn't see anything around us which we were looking for.

Anyway ... first place we went to were the Leopards, and the cubs were being very playfull playing with mom's tail. For about 20 minutes or so, then they kind of dissapeared.
After that we spotted both White Lipped Tamarin babies and the Titi Monkey baby.
I also do love the Tamandua's and both were super active walking and climbing (in their little dungarees, lolz).

I really liked the "underwater" walk through at the Sealions, it's so nice to see them swimming around you.
We then headed towards the Lions, and walked past the Mangabey which we hadn't seen elsewhere before.
We saw 1 male Lion, is the only one or are there any more?
Same with the Fennec Fox, we saw 1.

Headed over to the Cheetah, of which we saw 1, but noticed on the map there are 2 enclosures.
At the Vultures there was a sign saying to be quiet as they have been seen nesting.
We saw the baby Aardvark, though it was sleeping in between it's parents (I presume the 2 big ones were both parents).
Didn't spot any Tiger. Then made our way via the Wolfs to the Lemurs as I wanted to try and spot the Red-Bellied Lemurs, but as mentioned quite strange how the app tells you to go, eventually didn't see them in both big enclosures, did see the Ring Tails and Crowned Lemurs.

Headed back to the Lion, who was more visible now as earlier in the day he was sleeping behind a rock.
And made our way back to the Leopards to see if we could spot them again, a little bit from the small windows on the other side, we would see the mother lying on the platform, no sign of the cubs.

And we left around closing time, which was 4.30 pm.

We thought many enclosures seemed really good and quite big.
Food wise, we didn't eat on day 1, but I had a look at what they had to offer and I felt for what you get the price was quite reasonable.

Animals we didn't manage to see / go to: the Orangutans, Elephants, Chimpazees, Lorikeets, Bush Dogs, Crocodile, Smooth Coated Otters, Hyrax and the entire end where the Alpaca's and Llama's are.

During the day we thought we would manage to see it all, but we did feel a bit rushed to try and see it all, so we made the decision to go back the next day.
We managed to some animals we didn't see the day before, the Orangutans and Chimpanzees, and the crocodile.
We left out the Alpaca's on purpose this time, and couldn't spot the Hyrax on this day either.

We did get there for 9.30 am but as it's over a 3 hour drive back (including stops) we didn't want to stay until 4.30 pm and did skip the Cheetah/Hyena's.
Starting off at the Leopard cubs again, and once again both were playing with mom's tail, and it was for about 15 minutes until they all dissapeared.

We did manage to see the baby Aardvark being active for just a few seconds, and the Bush Dogs right before we went on the train ride.
After there was a Tiger encounter, and both Tigers were visible.
The Smooth Coated Otters were all outside in the water playing.

We did buy food on day 2 at "The Gourmet Sausage". We both had the curryworst loaded fries, it was so much food and really good. I took half home in my lunchbox because it was so much, lol. (wasn't going to waste food or money, lol)

We tried looking for the Rufous Hornbill for both days, and couldn't spot them through the big window from the outside. Only to find out on day 2 that you can see them via the inside viewing bit with the Sun Bears, which we found very confusing finding them looking on the app.

I'm sure we still missed some pathways or inside viewing spots on both days.

No show animals on both days: Asian Small Clawed Otters, Binturong, Red-Bellied Lemurs, Hyrax
We've seen these in other places, so it's not bad, just nice to see them in other places, hehe.
Click to expand...
There is one male Fennec Fox, Otis and the adult Aardvarks you saw were the females Oni and OQ (mum). Oni and dad of the new youngster Koos arrived on breeding loan from Chester in October 2023 and he returned earlier this year while she has moved back since your visit.
DesertRhino150 said:
On 14th March, three male warthog piglets were born at Colchester. They are the fifth litter of mother Hermione, who arrived in 2019 from Munster Zoo, and father Moja, who was born at Colchester in 2014. The piglets are now starting to emerge from their nest box.

This brings the warthog group up to eight individuals. As well as the three piglets and their parents, another three males from a previous litter remain at Colchester (named Dodge, Bentley and Ditch).

More information can be found in this link.
Click to expand...
Really nice news to round off a good month for the zoo, that's 5 litters (18 offspring total) in 5 consecutive years for Moja and Hermione! They are one of the regular breeding groups at the zoo now and I'm guessing there is demand across other zoos in the UK and Europe as the youngsters keep on finding homes, I certainly won't be complaining if the species becomes better represented in the UK. Dodge and Bentley were born in 2023 and Ditch was from 2024's litter, along with the 3 females who recently went to Chester.
 
There is a new Coppery Titi Monkey youngster in Worlds Apart. It is very small so can’t be very old. It was very vocal. Apart from its tail, you wouldn’t notice it unless you look close enough.

Some barriers have been taken down from around the Capuchin enclosure. You can’t go to the inside housing viewing or the main outside viewing area but you can view the enclosure from other windows. The surrounding area has had all the path redone. Looks much nicer. Capuchins haven’t moved in yet. Won’t be too long though
 
One pleasant thing I have just noticed on the zoo's website is that a page of the future masterplan has gone online over the past couple of days, including the masterplan map. Since the new website went online, there had been no mention of the plans, which I admit had left me a bit worried over whether the plans were still going to happen.

It is good to see that the zoo still seems to be committed to it, and the text still mentions the three major planned new animals (gorillas, bonobos and okapis).
 
DesertRhino150 said:
As anyone who clicks the link above is probably aware, the news article about the coppery titi birth has been removed. In its place is news that Tombe, the male chimpanzee born at Colchester Zoo in August 1996 and recently transferred to Belfast Zoo, died of a suspected heart attack on 28th March.
Click to expand...

That's sad news, particularly given he was not an elderly chimp and had lived at Colchester since his birth. It can't be easy moving animals that have lived in a zoo all their lives to another location. Must be a sad time for the Keepers who worked with him for a long time in his old home as well as for the new team - far from ideal to have animals die shortly after transfer.
 
DesertRhino150 said:
As anyone who clicks the link above is probably aware, the news article about the coppery titi birth has been removed. In its place is news that Tombe, the male chimpanzee born at Colchester Zoo in August 1996 and recently transferred to Belfast Zoo, died of a suspected heart attack on 28th March.
Click to expand...
Really tragic news, my heart goes out to the staff involved at Colchester and Belfast. This was always going to be a difficult set of moves for a group of chimps that hadn't had any transfers in or out for 30 years, and were all born at Colchester, and one of my first thoughts upon hearing the news of the transfers was wondering how the Colchester animals would cope.

Tombe was an impressive male chimp, as well as one of the most interactive in the group. He was often sitting next to the glass indoors on my visits in recent years, allowing for many photo opportunities and nice experiences for visitors and he will be very big loss for many Colchester regulars (me included), with the announcement yesterday coming as a bit of a shock. However I am grateful I was able to visit when his 28th birthday was being celebrated last August.

This is a very unfortunate scenario as castrated male Tumba (chocolate chimp) who moved with Tombe is settling into the Belfast group well by the sound of it. However I wonder if it is the case that he moved more as a companion for Tombe rather than as another male who would compete with the incoming Napoleon, it would be theoretically possible (though quite unlikely and not in the plans of the zoo as far as I'm aware) for him to return to Colchester.

As highlighted above all we can hope for is that this very sad blow to the situation is softened by the very imminent arrival of Napoleon going smoothly, and the EEP recommendation achieving what it intended when these transfers were originally proposed.
 
I went for a visit to Colchester Zoo this morning. These are the things that I noticed:
  • Capuchin Climb seems to be pretty much done now, with the signage all now in place as well. It seems that all that remains is to move the capuchins and let them settle before the exhibit is opened. The old Parrot Rock has got its new glass front, but no other work has been done to it, which leaves me thinking it will just be a garden area.
  • When I went through the Worlds Apart outdoor walkthrough, I saw no sign of the baby coppery titi. The adults and their grown offspring were out together, but at no point did I see the baby.
  • The nesting basket has been put back up in the Feathers of the Forest display, so presumably they may try breeding the crowned pigeons again.
  • The pair of crowned cranes have moved back in with the dik-diks, with one of the cheetahs back in the large enclosure opposite the Komodo dragons.
  • Unless I have missed it for some reason, there is a new little kiosk in Kingdom of the Wild, at the near end of the weaverbird and leopard tortoise enclosure (next to the giraffe indoor area). It looks to be some sort of visitor facility. The glass case with the water monitor skeleton has now moved to one side of the weaverbird enclosure.
  • Also in Kingdom of the Wild, I noticed a tailspot squirrelfish is back in the marine aquarium. I have not seen one for probably over a year now, so I am not sure if it is a new individual or I have just been insanely unlucky.
  • I saw at least a couple of new young fledglings in the rainbow lorikeet walkthrough.
  • Was good to see most of the flock of Chilean flamingos were doing a courtship dance at the end of the lake.
  • A small upgrade - the glass windows at the outdoor viewing area of the lion-tailed macaque enclosure have had a lot of macaque and vine-shaped stickers (stencils? I do not know exactly what they are) put on them.
  • Napoleon, the newly-arrived chimpanzee, was on display in Chimpanzee Lookout. He has access to all the linked dens, while the three females were being kept in the larger indoor area. Chimpanzee Lookout also delivered for the slender-snouted crocodile - for the first time, I saw her being fed.
 
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