I was wondring if anyone on here has had any positive or negative experiences when visitng zoos that they weren't expecting. I.e. they thought a zoo was going to be good/bad and it turned out to be the opposite.
For me, I had heard and read loads of negative things about Dudley and yet when I visited, although I can see the run down areas and where's there's room for improvement, it wasn't half as bad as I was expecting. The lemur walk through (I'm not a huge fan of these) was brilliant and there were numerous families in there enjoying the experience. Also the tropical house down the bottom was good if you took the time to actually try and spot all the species in there. For me personally, the gibbon enclosure was probably my favourite as it was one of the most natural I've seen and the gibbons were swinging the length of it at amazing speeds.
On the flip side when I visited Twycross I went with the perception of it being a world class primate facility. What?! I'm not going to pretend I know the reasons behind it but chimps kept in small groups in small, tiled indoor exhibits and boring outdoor ones? Enrichment just a pile of boxes or sheets stacked up. And row after row of gibbon/swamp monkey enclosures, just plain old rectangular houses. I was SO disappointed. Again, would I have been had I not had such high expectations?
Also on the unexpected positive side was Blackpool (thought it was gonna resemble the rest of the resort
) but to my surprise I really enjoyed it. Also enjoyed Whipsnade more than I expected and thought London was poor (although again maybe I was expecting too much from a zoo just because it's in the capital).
Anyone else had unexpected visits?
For me, I had heard and read loads of negative things about Dudley and yet when I visited, although I can see the run down areas and where's there's room for improvement, it wasn't half as bad as I was expecting. The lemur walk through (I'm not a huge fan of these) was brilliant and there were numerous families in there enjoying the experience. Also the tropical house down the bottom was good if you took the time to actually try and spot all the species in there. For me personally, the gibbon enclosure was probably my favourite as it was one of the most natural I've seen and the gibbons were swinging the length of it at amazing speeds.
On the flip side when I visited Twycross I went with the perception of it being a world class primate facility. What?! I'm not going to pretend I know the reasons behind it but chimps kept in small groups in small, tiled indoor exhibits and boring outdoor ones? Enrichment just a pile of boxes or sheets stacked up. And row after row of gibbon/swamp monkey enclosures, just plain old rectangular houses. I was SO disappointed. Again, would I have been had I not had such high expectations?
Also on the unexpected positive side was Blackpool (thought it was gonna resemble the rest of the resort
) but to my surprise I really enjoyed it. Also enjoyed Whipsnade more than I expected and thought London was poor (although again maybe I was expecting too much from a zoo just because it's in the capital).Anyone else had unexpected visits?