Edinburgh Zoo Edinburgh Zoo News 2023

Just concluded perhaps my last visit to Edinburgh Zoo where I’ll see the Pandas , I’m still a little stunned but Darren Mcgarry approached me and I had a 10 minute conversation with him, really friendly man and very unassuming.

Nice bit of closure as well, Sweetie was unfortunately in her treestump/den as she is going through a pseudo pregnancy (typically it’s in September anyway) but got to see Sunshine outside for a bit, he was doing some training earlier apparently (in preparation for the flight which is why Darren was around).

Also, as a side note he seemed to indicate that they are going to hopefully keep in touch with their Chinese colleagues even after the pandas have gone, so it’ll be nice to hear how they getting on.
 
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Oh, I’d forgotten to write my news i saw a couple weeks ago- oops.

Did an offshow tour in Animal antics- ferrets have came from the late Gorgie farm and the ferrets will be in shows by next year. I also saw the civet Fergus for the first time- he is a very nice boy.

The tegu is offshow for the time being as his enclosure is being refurbished

The lemur house hasn’t changed much- some new furnishings are in and it looks like it’s been repainted.
 
Leading energy and solutions provider E.ON has begun the installation of a new solar panel array at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland’s (RZSS) Edinburgh Zoo as part of the wildlife conservation charity’s commitment to reduce its carbon footprint by 60% by 2030 and be net zero by 2040.

Edinburgh Zoo’s solar meadow will feature more than 1,500 bifacial solar photovoltaic (PV) panels1 which can potentially generate up to 880,000 kWh of power a year. The solar meadow is expected to generate around 25% of Edinburgh Zoo’s electricity consumption, with the 1,548 solar panels being installed on the site by the end of 2023.

UK’s biggest zoo-based solar meadow at Edinburgh Zoo | Edinburgh Zoo
 
Tankyboi said:
I was thinking either Africa alive or port lympne on my last visit they had a young male who looks like he’s hitting maturity
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I completely overlooked Port Lympne who of course have by far the largest Drill group in the UK. And unlike a lot of PL's animal stocks, I think they are still accountable to the EEP for their management as the founder stock came from a European Zoo(Stuttgart). So if EEP say, we need you to send this one to here, they have to comply. But anyway, its the young male from AA...
 
Visited today for the first time since 2018, used to be a regular visitor but moved away from central belt.
Was interested to see they have shut off whole left side of the zoo, or am I imagining things? I’m sure the pandas, hunting dogs (when did they go? They had the whole over enclosure platform, monkey house were all on the left side of the zoo. Thought it was a big change in layout.
Disappointed to see the old cat enclosures are derelict now, they weren’t good for the big cats, but smaller species would have been good in there. Seems a lot of empty space.
Particular sad to see the old rock face enclosure that housed the Barbary marquas and I think the rockhoppers at one time is now empty. In fact I think the last time I saw it used was for degus. Looks like it could be a great enclosure for something.
Missed the sea eagles that used to be in the old polar bear enclosure- another one that seems to have vanished.
Think when the pandas are going the zoo could do with another crowd pulling species in there, gorilla, black leopard, Komodo dragon?
Still enjoyed the visit , albeit the prices were a lot steeper than I remember, including a car parking charge that I didn’t even have to pay as the barrier was left open when I was coming out, wasted tenner.
 
Barrie Donaldson said:
Visited today for the first time since 2018, used to be a regular visitor but moved away from central belt.
Was interested to see they have shut off whole left side of the zoo, or am I imagining things? I’m sure the pandas, hunting dogs (when did they go? They had the whole over enclosure platform, monkey house were all on the left side of the zoo. Thought it was a big change in layout.
Disappointed to see the old cat enclosures are derelict now, they weren’t good for the big cats, but smaller species would have been good in there. Seems a lot of empty space.
Particular sad to see the old rock face enclosure that housed the Barbary marquas and I think the rockhoppers at one time is now empty. In fact I think the last time I saw it used was for degus. Looks like it could be a great enclosure for something.
Missed the sea eagles that used to be in the old polar bear enclosure- another one that seems to have vanished.
Think when the pandas are going the zoo could do with another crowd pulling species in there, gorilla, black leopard, Komodo dragon?
Still enjoyed the visit , albeit the prices were a lot steeper than I remember, including a car parking charge that I didn’t even have to pay as the barrier was left open when I was coming out, wasted tenner.
Click to expand...

I was there today and none of the zoo was shut off......the hunting dogs left ages ago and there are red river hogs in that enclosure. Monkey house is closed with only a few capuchins in it now as I believe it is due to be demolished/major overhaul at some stage.
 
The zoo could suit more primates, particularly great apes. I think the zoo could do good for them with the hilly layout which could pave the way for some nice climbing structures. A good crowd puller to replace the pandas would be sloth bear as they're only held in one place in the UK. Similar size and requirements to pandas and are interesting enough to carry the same weight in terms of publicity and marketing.
 
Terrible news about Rotana and Tonami, I’m glad I saw them both on my last visit last month (feels longer than a month now).

Sometimes I do wonder what direction David Field et al is taking the Zoo, I’ve said this before but whenever he has been asked about empty enclosures etc he’s said something along the lines of “going for a natural approach”.

While It could be a good idea to simply renovate some of the older areas and perhaps make them into a garden or picnic area, I do wonder about the long term future of these areas and they seem to be in no hurry to change them, despite the zoo financially being in a very sound position (in 2021 it was the most visited paid attraction in Scotland I believe, more so than Edinburgh Castle).

They do seem to be pushing the Scottish wildcats to the forefront of their marketing lately, which are great but I don’t really see them as a “big draw” like a panda is, I hope that eventually they will get another bear - perhaps a moon bear or something like that.

I also wonder if they will ever bring back their penguin parade, they haven’t done it for a number of years now…
 
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