Went to Edinburgh Zoo today.
Building work going on at the foot of the African Plains, which is obviously the Giant Panda exhibit, but they were putting hard standing down at the foot of the hill. I would imagine the walkway which looks down over the plains will be extended to head down to this area.
Koala's are offshow due to Veterinary reasons.
Only one hunting dog left alive and she is spending a lot of the time in her den, and the area which see's into the den is fenced off.
Remaining Sumatran Tiger the keeper said is very old now, but they have two new Tiger's lined up for when she passes away.
There looks to be a exhibit being built behind the Living Links section. There is a lot of wooden frames and climbing poles so I would imagine it is going to be a Monkey of some sort, but the keeper I spoke to couldn't say what was going on there as it's not been revealed yet.
Lorikeets section was closed, don't know why.
There was loads of empty exhibits. Two empty in the Monkey House, the rock face enclosure next to the Wildcat also empty, the last section of the Magic Forest empty. The pen next the Wallaby's empty. No birds in sight up where the bird shows are done. Pen next to the Red Panda's empty and those were just the ones I could remember off the top of my head.
Both Rhino's appeared to be there.
First time I've been when the Giant Panda's were actually actve, both inside and outside.
King Penguin's are no longer allowed to take part in the Penguin Parade as they get tired quickly due to age.
Red Panda enclosure is impressive but they seem to just stay right at the top of the tree's so you struggle to see them.
Window's in Chimp house were minging which made seeing the chimps inside difficult and near impossible to get good photo's.
Saw a few things not seen before, and got some nice photo's. One was a monkey with huge eyes and was mega cute in the Magic forest. Douroucouli or something like that, reminded me of Gizmo from the Gremlins before he touched water!
Keeper I spoke to said there would be a few new additions to the collection within the next year or so and to watch this space, but couldn't confirm too much but advised joining membership as there were some exciting things happening in the next 12 months.
I had an enjoyable day to be honest, it was a bit disappointing that a large number of things I would have liked to have seen were off show and so many empty exhibits, but I got some nice photo's and seeing the Panda's active for the first time for me, made the day worthwhile and was very much the highlight of my day.
Think I'll wait a good few months before I go again, when new exhibits and new additions will be on show and the Panda's have been moved, but not an un-enjoyable day and the weather was glorious. Backs in bits now though after all walking up hill especially with a bad knee at present !
