I think Tarzan is being too hard on Edinburgh.
The hunting dog exhibit and the Steller's sea eagle aviary are favourites of mine. The monkey walk-through and Living Links for capuchins and squirrel monkeys are also excellent and I quite like the Magic Forest for smaller primates. I think the sun bear exhibit is pretty good too, but I wish they had demolished all the old aviaries behind it to give a little extra space.
I also really like the row of cat enclosures, although I agree that they are too small for big cats (except for the tiger enclosure) - I think that the vertical space they provide is often unfairly overlooked and so I consider them quite suitable for golden cats and smaller species.
It is also unfair to ignore Budongo, the penguin pools and the African Plains (for Grevy's zebra, nyala and lesser kudu) which are, I would suggest, the best exhibits in Britain for their species. By default the same thing applies to the koalas too - I haven't seen the revamped exhibit yet, so I won't comment further.
Of course there are some old and ugly buildings, like the monkey house, and some undistinguished ones like the house for small deer etc opposite it, but the animals do pretty well in them.
I do agree that the interior quarters of the old gorilla house were horrible, but the outdoor enclosures were better. They were palatial in comparison with the old ape houses at Chessington and Dudley (which admittedly were older).
Alan
The hunting dog exhibit and the Steller's sea eagle aviary are favourites of mine. The monkey walk-through and Living Links for capuchins and squirrel monkeys are also excellent and I quite like the Magic Forest for smaller primates. I think the sun bear exhibit is pretty good too, but I wish they had demolished all the old aviaries behind it to give a little extra space.
I also really like the row of cat enclosures, although I agree that they are too small for big cats (except for the tiger enclosure) - I think that the vertical space they provide is often unfairly overlooked and so I consider them quite suitable for golden cats and smaller species.
It is also unfair to ignore Budongo, the penguin pools and the African Plains (for Grevy's zebra, nyala and lesser kudu) which are, I would suggest, the best exhibits in Britain for their species. By default the same thing applies to the koalas too - I haven't seen the revamped exhibit yet, so I won't comment further.
Of course there are some old and ugly buildings, like the monkey house, and some undistinguished ones like the house for small deer etc opposite it, but the animals do pretty well in them.
I do agree that the interior quarters of the old gorilla house were horrible, but the outdoor enclosures were better. They were palatial in comparison with the old ape houses at Chessington and Dudley (which admittedly were older).
Alan
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,What sticks in my throat as this zoo now stands is that it is the nearest"proper zoo" from the North East, 120 miles, other members in other parts of the country are more fortunate as they are in a position to be living nearer to other good zoos, eg. Chester, Colchester etc. Some lads with young families tell me about there visit to Edinburgh, not all are complimentary unfortunately, they don't think they have had value for money, even if they saw the giant pandas, not enough to see, remember we are not all zoo enthusiasts, even if we were, what has happened to Babirusa,, Bactrian Wapati, Arabian Oryx,hec cattle, before I even mention some of the more A.B.C. stuff, Bactrian camel, cheetah, ostrich and more. Our member Bele recently posted a list of species that left the collection in 2012, coincidently the year after the giant pandas arrived, perhaps they were hoping nobody would notice!?15, yes it is an average price to get into a decent zoo, Blackpool and Twycross are similar in price, today I paid ?20 each to get into Chester, and no car park charge neither, certaianly worth the extra fiver compared to what Edinburgh has on offer
