Focus of UK’s next feature exhibit?

TriUK

TriUK

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
You may have seen in the Paignton thread, a major new exhibit will be announced in July.
I was wondering what this will be, or possibly should be?

Paignton have been working hard, apparently, behind the scenes in securing the underpinning infrastructure of the zoo, to enable it to survive future weather and disease complications.
The loss of Croc Swamp and the fragile nature of the tropical/desert house structure may lead them to build a modern indoor tropical exhibit?

However, can they ‘compete’ with Chester, Eden Project et al, do they indeed have to?
Bristol Wild Place is relatively close so a ‘Bear Wood’ styled exhibit may not work?
Paignton & Newquay have successful conservation links with Vietnam (Owstons Civets etc) and in-situ projects in Nigeria & Zimbabwe. Should the focus of the new exhibit highlight this work?

Nationally, what does the U.K. lack?

Is Longleat & Hamerton providing a solid Australasian experience? Is Paignton too warm to use RSS’s Highland WP model?

Will Paignton think ‘out the box’ and use a transport method (Chester’s Island river cruise) to showcase a new hillside exhibit - cable-car/chair lifts?

Increasingly on Trip Advisor and zoo social media pages, touristic guests are readily comparing collections like Paignton & Twycross to Chester, YWP and Colchester.

I’m interested to see what zoochatters think about what new U.K. exhibits should focus on?
 
Panthera1981 said:
The trouble is the general public will always want the big, charismatic species. However, considering how nature deprived the British Isles has become, why not focus on UK wildlife?
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The possible issue here is the relative number of Wildwood type collections? Paignton has Escot and Wild Place relatively close, for example.
I agree though. Red squirrels, Pine Marten etc actually make fine exhibits.
 
Panthera1981 said:
The trouble is the general public will always want the big, charismatic species. However, considering how nature deprived the British Isles has become, why not focus on UK wildlife?
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TNT said:
*Cough Banham Cough*
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Yes, Banham announced a major investment in UK wildlife displays - then had to issue a statement to reassure people they would still have big exotics. While I'm excited to see what they do with UK wildlife (it has the potential to be very good indeed), I think that probably says a lot about the wider public reaction to such exhibits, rightly or wrongly.
 
I guess it maybe slips out of the sphere of the thread a) by already being under construction, and b) by being Chester when the thread is partly about other zoos keeping up with Chester, but worth noting that we already know one very big development that will be opening in the coming years, and what its focus is - and it's the ol' zoo classic of the African savannah with Heart of Africa (né Grasslands) at Chester.

So I guess, for this thread, the question is - does that make similar developments at other UK zoos more or less likely? Would other zoos want something different for a few years if they're looking to build something brand new (obviously sometimes the need to replace or expand an existing enclosure takes precedence)?

It does feel like there has been a bit of a resurgence of broadly South-east Asian mammal exhibits in the UK now that Islands is no longer brand new (see Paradise WP and Whipsnade, for example) - but there are probably other factors at play than simple marketing..!
 
Ideally I would like to see an exhibit with a one or two large, attractive species to pull in the public, some species of conservation value and a walk-through area with plants and commoner species from the same geographical area. In addition I would love to see a species I haven't seen in the UK before.
For example, an Indian exhibit could feature India rhino or gaur or genuine Bengal tigers, gharial or Indian pangolin or pygmy hogs, and a walk-through with shamas, mynahs, vernal hanging-parrots etc with star tortoises etc. I would also like to see four-horned antelopes again and other species that could be added include fishing cat, dhole, sloth bear, chital or nilghai.
The other thought that occurred to me is that, apart from cetaceans, the only large group of large mammals that we can't see in the UK is the sirenians: hands up if you want to see a manatee :)
 
gentle lemur said:
Ideally I would like to see an exhibit with a one or two large, attractive species to pull in the public, some species of conservation value and a walk-through area with plants and commoner species from the same geographical area. In addition I would love to see a species I haven't seen in the UK before.
For example, an Indian exhibit could feature India rhino or gaur or genuine Bengal tigers, gharial or Indian pangolin or pygmy hogs, and a walk-through with shamas, mynahs, vernal hanging-parrots etc with star tortoises etc. I would also like to see four-horned antelopes again and other species that could be added include fishing cat, dhole, sloth bear, chital or nilghai.
The other thought that occurred to me is that, apart from cetaceans, the only large group of large mammals that we can't see in the UK is the sirenians: hands up if you want to see a manatee :)
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God i wish somewhere would get manatees in the UK, they make a great exhibit from my experiences at Burger’s and Wroclaw, and they would most certainly be a crowd pleaser too:)
 
pangolin12 said:
God i wish somewhere would get manatees in the UK, they make a great exhibit from my experiences at Burger’s and Wroclaw, and they would most certainly be a crowd pleaser too:)
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I don’t think it’ll happen now, seeing as manatees require such specific care and everything and even transporting them is difficult when a zoo can get a carnivore species and still draw in guests but it would be cool
 
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