Chester Zoo Evening opening

gentle lemur

gentle lemur

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
I visited Chester today and stayed for the evening, leaving about 8.20pm
It was quite low key, but there were a reasonable number of visitors. Not very many wandering around the western half, but more in the eastern half, particularly around the lions and tigers, which were active and showed well.
Some of the animal houses were open, including the Elephants, Tsvao house, Islands in Danger, warty pigs & buffalo and the Butterflies. The Tropical House, Bats and Chimps were closed - not sure about the others.
The barbecue stand was open beside the Roman Garden, but there didn't seem to be anywhere to get a hot drink, which would have been nice.
Apart from the big cats, many of the birds were showing well and the kangaroos were more active than they are in the daytime. All the hoofstock in the west zoo were active and easy to view, except for the gemsbok - there was a cute roan antelope calf too. As I left I saw rhinos in all three of the 'off-show' paddocks beside the entrance road.

Other developments that I noted:-
  • a new fast track entrance for members and ticket holders, just to the right of the toilets by the main entrance
  • work has started on the new warty pig pens under the new bridge
  • the babirusa & otter enclosure is ready, but no animals in it yet
  • the path through Miniature Monkeys is open again - but there were no animals on show (I don't know why)
  • the old otter pen and all the Oakfield aviaries are empty - for refurbishment?
  • the male bongo was not on show

Photos downloading now ;)

Alan
 
RoRA & Monkey Islands was closed.

Also the I believe the Male bongo has left and Chester will not be acquiring another for the time being.
 
The was a babirusa in the new exhibit last Friday. A sticky label on the otter sign said something like 'coming soon'

Taun is right, the male bongo has left Chester.

The old otter enclosure and the aviaries are going to be demolished.
 
Are the Illigers Macaws & Vasa Parrots off-show then if the aviaries are empty. It was mentioned the Macaws would be moved back to the Macaw Aviaries, has this happened?
 
Illiger's Macaws are no longer kept at Chester. I hope the vasa parrots have stayed. It looked as though they were nesting at the end of May.
 
CZJimmy said:
gentle lemur, how busy would you say the zoo was?
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Very hard to say - hundreds not thousands - but there were three or four people at each exhibit, and more at some. I got the feeling it was a bit of an experiment - I don't know how much local publicity there had been.
There were quite few staff around and the monorail kept running (without many passengers). At one stage I heard someone ask over his radio for the lights to be switched on in the main toilet block (by the lions & tigers).

ZooMania said:
Are the Illigers Macaws & Vasa Parrots off-show then if the aviaries are empty. It was mentioned the Macaws would be moved back to the Macaw Aviaries, has this happened?
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I didn't see either of them, but I didn't look at the currasow aviary next to the blue-throated macaws.
I shall miss the vasa parrots if they don't come back on show. They are great favourites of mine.

Alan
 
It's funny you should talk about this, for I was at an member's evening opening at Marwell this night from 6:30 to 9:30. I conclude evenings are one of the best times to see a zoo.
 
We (family of 4) went to the evening opening at Chester last night. We were there from about 5pm-9pm. The primate houses and the Bat house were all closed, but all the others that we tried were open. (Jaguar, Elephant, Tropical House, Giraffe, Tsavo, Aquarium.)

At first, it was about as busy as a normal term-time day, but by the end it was very quiet indeed. One of the highlights for me was having the Tropical House to ourselves for a short while at about 8.15. We sat on the bench near the bird identification board and watched the birds - some scurrying up and down the paths, some flying very close to us, some swooping overhead, some roosting. The lights were off in most of the reptile exhibits by this time. The tortoises seemed a little more active than in the daytime.

We watched 3 male cheetahs sunning themselves on their roof shortly after we'd arived, but they'd gone when we crosed the bridge on our way home later. As we crossed the bridge, however, the male Anoa came right up to the fence and stood looking at us - a very beautiful animal. Earlier the two Servals had done the same. We managed to see both tigers fairly easily.

Asha and Asoka seemed to spend the whole evening sitting still in the grass. It was fairly dark in the Rhino house, and Asani was asleep in the back corner with his mum standing watching next to him. We saw the other baby too, though in the far distance. It was good to see the owls awake too - especialy the baby Spectacled Owl. The Pudu were also fairly active.

I think that for me our two visits to the elephants were the absoulute highlights of the visit. We went to their house as soon as we arrived. Sheba and Upali were both eating from nets of grass strung above them. On one side, Sheba was pulling out a trunkful, neatly folding and twisting it, and putting it in her mouth carefully, hardly dropping any. Over in his enclosure, however, Upali was stuffing it in his mouth any old way, throwing it on his head and on the floor as well as into his mouth! At the end of the evening we arrived at the door at the same time as the keeper who'd come to lock up. He said we could come in for a few minutes, and stayed with us to chat about the elephants. Some of the elephants had been allowed back outside at this point.He said that Birma is very happy at her new home, though she definitely benefited from her stay at Chester. They also feel that though they got on well, Sheba is benefiting from Burma's departure as she was a very demanding elephant, constantly pestering Sheba.
We plan to go to the evening opening again next year - it was a very special evening, especially later on when it was so quiet. I especially enjoyed hearing all the zoo noises that are usually drowned out in the daytime.
 
Woodbine said:
We (family of 4) went to the evening opening at Chester last night. We were there from about 5pm-9pm. The primate houses and the Bat house were all closed, but all the others that we tried were open. (Jaguar, Elephant, Tropical House, Giraffe, Tsavo, Aquarium.)

At first, it was about as busy as a normal term-time day, but by the end it was very quiet indeed. One of the highlights for me was having the Tropical House to ourselves for a short while at about 8.15.
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You were more adventurous than I was. I saw the lights were out in the Tropical House at 8pm (and the notice saying that it closed at 5 was up all day) - so I didn't bother to try the door :mad: I particularly wanted to see if the tuataras are active at night.
Interesting comments about the elephants; I saw Sheba and most of the others outside eating browse around 6pm - but I noticed that Jangoli and Tunga were separated and kept in the House. Upali was eating the hay that had fallen on the floor at that time.

Alan
 
Is this evening opening only for zoo members or for everyone and can you literally go to the zoo from the opening time and stay to 8.30pm?? If so I would love to go next time.
 
I was there too, and didn't leave until 9:10pm. It was a lovely evening, just a shame I didn't get to see the orangs because I went round anticlockwise and didn't reach RoRA until 5:30pm, by which time it had closed for the day.

Lots of photos, I'll upload a few soon.
 
Doddy said:
Is this evening opening only for zoo members or for everyone and can you literally go to the zoo from the opening time and stay to 8.30pm?? If so I would love to go next time.
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the next one is in august if you're interested
 
I would love to go but I am away in America in August (hopefully visiting the Bronx Zoo!!!!!!!!!!). But maybe next time there's one on I will try and come along, it sounds like a really good idea, especially for those of us who like lingering at each exhibit!!:D
 
gentle lemur said:
You were more adventurous than I was. I saw the lights were out in the Tropical House at 8pm (and the notice saying that it closed at 5 was up all day) - so I didn't bother to try the door :mad: I particularly wanted to see if the tuataras are active at night.

Alan
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We had a look at the Tuataras at about 8ish. They were all sitting in the mouths of their burrows - partlyvisible, but not exactly active! :)
 
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