Hamerton Zoo Park Hamerton

[Sand Cat]

Does anyone else rate this zoo much? I paid it my first ever visit earlier this year as the lure of a few carnivore species I'd never seen previously was just too much to resist. I had heard that the place itself was a bit of a dump and can probably see where this view comes from - its not bad, but they do have some really remarkable animals in some very ordinary enclosures.

The undoubted highlight for me was the Corsac Foxes in a massive grassed enclosure, the substantial safety barrier seemed a bit much but other than that they make for a brilliant exhibit, they are really cute and were very active when I saw them. They also seem to be breeding well - I'm disapointed that more UK zoos don't take some as people did seem quite interested in them.

Seeing my first ever jaguarundis and oncillas was also very special; these two certainly had very simple, and quite small, enclosures, but I felt extremely privilaged to see them. There is also a very good lemur collection, notably Collared Lemurs in several enclosures, and they are breeding well, again despite their cages being nothing to write home about. Some other highlights included aardwolves, binturongs, maned wolves and an unusually large group of sloths.

I should add that having such an imaginative animal collection at Hamerton probably does them no favours at all, apart from a white tiger they have few animals that would be called crowd pleasing. This probably explains why many of their enclosures could be a lot better - however, none of them are terrible and the zoo is pretty tidy, the commitment to conservation and protecting unusual animals is something I really admire.

Any other views on this collection... oh, and does anyone know what happened to the Siberian Weasels they used to keep?

 

[bongorob]

I went for the first time in August, I wanted to see the Oncillas, which I eventually did. I thought it was a strange place, some enclosures were good and some were run-down. I went into the new tiger house trying to see the black-backed jackals and after walking along seemingly endless corridors I came to a building site. It would have been better to have blocked this area off by the last inhabited enclosure, and save visitors a long, fruitless walk. The serval looked nice, as did the Corsac Foxes. I managed to photograph aardwolfs for the first time which pleased me. I also eventually found the Mountain Viscachas in an aviary labelled for macaws.

Like Sand Cat I had hoped to see the Siberian Weasels, but they don't seem to have any.

It is the only time I have ever been bored while visiting a zoo, but I honestly cannot say it was a poor collection.

Also the visitors to Hamerton proved to be the best behaved visitors I've seen in any zoo. No one teased the animals or dropped litter or allowd their children to run riot.

It is somewhere I don't think I will visit again for many years.

 

[zoogiraffe]

I believe that the Siberian Weasels have been taken off show for breeding also believe that some more are coming in but will try to check up on that.

 

[jwer]

I'm sorry to say that this zoo featured in an under-cover lemur purchase movie made by some green journalists. They went there and bought some ring-tailed lemurs.

The movie was very dramatic about it all, even though as far as i know the selling of ring-tailed lemurs is not illegal at all. The only thing they could really say about it was that they are (were?) full EAZA member and as such were not allowed to sell them...

But even that's not against the law, just against EAZA membership. Allthough i don't like zoo's selling animals to the general public, everyone should make up their own mind about it...

 

[bloodycurtus]

ring tailed would be covered by the dwal in england so that would be what would make it illegal

 

[Hadley]

I guess they were ESB animals and therefore EAZA would not permit this without the studbook keeper being informed?

 

[jwer]

I guess they were ESB animals and therefore EAZA would not permit this without the studbook keeper being informed?

EAZA members are officially not allowed to sell exotic animals to the general public. But i would imagine it's hard for them to enforce a rule like this for they seem to lack the manpower nor the possibilty to sanction zoo's...

I mean, what do you do with zoo's who sell a few ring-tailed lemurs but still have a lot of other genetically valuable animals?

 

[zoogiraffe]

If this is the incident i think it is be very carefull what you say as it was fully investigated by EAZA and several other Authorities and the Zoo was cleared of any wrong doing!!!!!!!

 

[Trigger]

Visited this one a couple of months ago. I went purposely to see the unusual stuff. I quite liked it. Pot calling the kettle black but for the space they had available thought some of the enclosures could have been bigger. Despite some of the enclosures being really rather poor, you can see that they are working on it. The new Tiger exhibit looked fab. The cheetah paddock was fab and a couple of the cats kindly showed off their speed having a play about. I too was well taken with the Cossack foxes. Didn't think it was a bad place at all, would visit again and the staff were lovely. Any one know when they are geting the Giant anteater?

 

[zoogiraffe]

Visited this one a couple of months ago. I went purposely to see the unusual stuff. I quite liked it. Pot calling the kettle black but for the space they had available thought some of the enclosures could have been bigger. Despite some of the enclosures being really rather poor, you can see that they are working on it. The new Tiger exhibit looked fab. The cheetah paddock was fab and a couple of the cats kindly showed off their speed having a play about. I too was well taken with the Cossack foxes. Didn't think it was a bad place at all, would visit again and the staff were lovely. Any one know when they are geting the Giant anteater?

It will be coming from Edinburgh when they get the ones they are suppose to be importing from the U.S.A,so you`re guess is as good as mine it was suppose to arrive last year but its still at Edinburgh.

 

[kiang]

When i visited the zoo last year (Edinburgh), ian valentine told me that they were trying to get giant anteaters from the Nashville zoo, but nothing yet.

 

[Trigger]

pictures

Here are some pics I took.
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[Sun Wukong]

How many Northern Viscachas do they have?

 

[PAT]

Is the top picture of pudus. I wish there were some in Australia.

 

[Trigger]

How many Northern Viscachas do they have?

Sorry, it was a while back when I went and I don't rember.


Yep they are Pudus, Thought they were really nice and quite steady.

 

[Paradoxurus]

Hamerton always used to have Mountain Viscachas (Lagidium peruanum). I don't remember seeing Plains Viscachas there but, having said that, it must be at least four years since I was last there.

 

[Sun Wukong]

@Paradoxurus: Thanks, but I do know that Hamerton keeps Northern Viscacha (Lagidium peruanum), not Mountain/Southern Viscacha (Lagidium viscacia) or Plains Viscacha (Lagostomus maximus) or even Wolffsohn's Viscacha (Lagidium wolffsohni). What I want to know is how many Northern Viscachas they keep and whether they breed them. One of the last Northern Viscachas at Halle Zoo died recently of old age, making Halle and Hamerton the only zoos I know of keeping this species (Lagidium peruanum).