Edinburgh Zoo Edinburgh Zoo News 2016

It's all just a massive pity really; if one reads back a few years I used to be one of Edinburgh's biggest cheerleaders. Much as many Zoochatters - yourself included - have criticised collections such as Marwell and London for diminishing collections, I think few could now dispute Edinburgh is by far the collection to have slipped the furthest in recent years.
 
Agree 100%, this is a total waste of an area that should be used for displaying smaller carnivores (of which the zoo has lost many since my first visit in 2009). Alternatively the whole area might have been knocked into one or two larger enclosures.

Absolutely!
To amplify my comment on the latest photo of the old cat area. The management of any other zoo in the country, except possibly HWP, would have plenty of imaginative ideas for exhibits using a south-facing, natural rock terrace. It's not hard to imagine aviaries for choughs, wallcreepers, keas, stone partridge, koklass or other montane birds, alternatively enclosures for rock wallabies, mountain viscacha or klipspringer.
Are they seriously wanting to turn it into a garden?

Alan
 
It's all just a massive pity really; if one reads back a few years I used to be one of Edinburgh's biggest cheerleaders. Much as many Zoochatters - yourself included - have criticised collections such as Marwell and London for diminishing collections, I think few could now dispute Edinburgh is by far the collection to have slipped the furthest in recent years.
I think in the gap between my 2 visits 2009-2015 only Marwell could compete with Edinburgh for lost species (a net loss of at least 8 for Carnivores in 6 years!). When I visited Edinburgh in 2009 I had it as easily my 2nd best UK zoo, now it has fallen a few places.
 
I have some more recent photos of the old cat enclosures - will post shortly.
 
Looking at the last studbook both Cindy & Emma are PTT
Andy

Was unaware of Emma being a PTT, but knew for sure that Cindy was one. Sophie, Lianne, Eva, Heleen, Pearl, Edith, Louis, Velu, Paul, Rene and Frek are PTV and David, Qafzeh, Kilimi, Kindia, Liberius and Lucy are non-subspecific.

In regards to the PTT breeding programme, I'm all for it! Know of quite a few collections that keep them and they definitely should be bred. PTS and PTE would be impossible though what with only a single zoo in Italy keeping the latter and all of the former in captivity in Europe being females (six of them I believe in Copenhagen, Antwerp, Twycross and Amsterdam).
 
http://www.zoochat.com/61/former-site-cat-enclosures-240815-a-424692/

Looking at that is just depressing. Garden does seem likely lets face it the head of community conservation did many years at the Royal Botanics.

Pictures from February posted now, with a few different views - in the winter it looks more barren, making it look a bit tidier but even more obviously missing something.

The actual displays themselves aren't bad, but they're very visibly a cheap stopgap.

http://www.zoochat.com/61/former-cat-row-edinburgh-06-02-a-438550/
http://www.zoochat.com/61/former-cat-row-edinburgh-06-02-a-438551/
http://www.zoochat.com/61/former-cat-row-edinburgh-06-02-a-438549/
http://www.zoochat.com/61/former-cat-row-edinburgh-06-02-a-438552/
 
Not sure whether "heartbreaking" or "infuriating" is the better word for it.....
 
Roughly equivalent to the % loss of species, perchance?

Oh, the species loss rate since the pandas arrived is closer to 15-20% - maybe if the visitor rate did drop as much they might actually realise they have a problem......
 
Visitor numbers down for 2015,

Edinburgh Zoo - 633,500 -5.7%

How does this figure compare to those in the years before the arrival of the Pandas?

From an old thread, 2011 visitor numbers were 535,573 -so numbers are still significantly up on pre-Giant Panda days.

Given they arrived (on show? I can't remember) in December 2011 it's also possible the "Panda increase" is even slightly better than the difference above.
 
They did not go on show until Jan 2012 I seem to recall.
 
Likely that Chris West and his cronies and team of peopl who love saying yes, whilst having noses that on first glance appear to have been tanned but are not actually, will not pay attention to the drop and blame it on something other than the one simple fact that their biggest "attraction" was animatronics.
 
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