Twycross Zoo I'm baffled by Twycross Zoo

sooty mangabey

sooty mangabey

Well-Known Member
There's always lots that i don't quite understand at Twycross Zoo: did anyone ever really think it would look attractive to decorate the sides of animal houses with sort of crazy paving? Why do you need to get a ticket to go into the reptile house? Why is the cafe so bad? Why are all the monkey enclosures rectangular? What is the point of that peculiar parrot house thing? I could go on.

However, today i visited for the first time in four or five years, and saw for the first time the new area on the zoo's perimeter, with the Long House and so on. I thought this was quite nicely done - not perfect, but compared to all those horrible things which look like municipal public toilets - all those red brick gorilla houses and so on - not bad at all. However, I'm blown if I can work out what it's all about.
  • Is it a swamp thing? There are some graphics ot this effect, and the inclusion of a display of Allen's swamp monkeys might back up this theory?
  • Is it just a bird display?
    • Is it an Asian thing, to tie in with the nearby elephant house?
  • What are Scottish wildcats doing there? And the caracara? Are the forner just a short term thing in Euro carnivore year? If so, why no signs saying anything about this?
It really does seem to be the oddest choice of species... I've nothing against random juxtapositions, but this seems more random than most.

And talking of odd - the new developments at the entrance look, in terms of their footprint, to be enormous. Have any plans actually been published? And why snow leopards? Isn't this a stange choice of animal as the one attached to the entrance? (a) it's not very active and (b) it's not very Twycrossy and (c) it's not already in the twycross collection and in dire need of rehousing (which many are).

And one more thing. They sell about six different postcards in the shop. Several are of things no longer in the colection. And one is of Seba's bats and is just a bad photo, badly out-of-focus. Why?

As I say, i do find Twycross a pretty rum old place - but these questions occupied my mind as I made the long drive home...
 
sooty mangabey said:
And talking of odd - the new developments at the entrance look, in terms of their footprint, to be enormous. Have any plans actually been published? And why snow leopards? Isn't this a stange choice of animal as the one attached to the entrance?.
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This is one of their most bizarre decisions - illustrating their claim to be a World Primate Centre with snow leopards.
The management don't seem to know what Twycross is - zoo? theme park? - and it looks like they lack focus and direction.
 
I think this zoo needs to sort it's priorities out. We should all buy it ;)
 
Gigit said:
The management don't seem to know what Twycross is - zoo? theme park? - and it looks like they lack focus and direction.
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I concur, they are more worried about attracting more visitors than improving their existing enclosures which many are barely adeuquate for the inmates they house.
 
The charge for the reptile house is because it is so small and they do not want a crowd inside. The last time I went I thought I would be lucky because there were only about 6 people waiting. Then a school party turned up and we went round with about 20 12-13 year olds.

Some of the girls were quite considerate though. They let me go into the bat area first, just in case there were any big spiders in there.

I wanted to photograph the chacalacas but I never got a good enough angle.

I do not like the practice of being led through the exhibit.
 
In my opinion Twycross is way behind most other major animal collections in the UK, in terms of the quality of their exhibits etc. I can't actually think of many redeeming features about it.... I certainly didn't understand the purpose of the 'Borneo Longhouse' exhibit either- it seems totally out of context with their other exhibits and is more like a Museum than a zoo exhibit.

I was hoping for an upgrade generally in the Zoo's standards and animal husbandry techniques when the management changed hands a few years ago, but so far this has not been forthcoming.
 
to be fair the new lion and dhole enclosures look quite good, much improved (from what i've read) than their current enclosures. is there some sort of financial problem at twycross zoo? if not why the hell aren't thye improving every enclosure they can. i too am baffled as to why twycross grows stagnant why old enclosures in need of improvement
 
There is certainly no financial problems , they probably have the biggest cash reserves of any UK zoo and have been in this position for years .
 
... but for some reason they seem reluctant to spend very much of it. Even skimping on the funds raised for a thorough refurbishment of the Orangutan enclosure.:(

... I've always been baffled by Twycross....
 
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Pertinax said:
... but for some reason they seem reluctant to spend very much of it. Even skimping on the funds raised for a thorough refurbishment of the Orangutan enclosure.:(
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......and that is something I can't forgive them for :mad:
 
I forgot it changed management, why haven't they done anything particularly good or worthwhile? Fair enough, the Lions DESPERATELY needed a new enclosure, but why spend a shed load of money on an entrance building and a new species?
How can this zoo regard itself one of the best in the UK, and as the "world primate centre" when the primate exhibits and social groups look like the fell out of the mid 50's?
 
I agree it doesnt need a big fancy entrance! an upgrade would be good but they need to sort out the original enclosures first!
And most importantly the claim to be the World Primate Centre shouldnt the primates be the main focus not snow leopards!
Ive always liked Twycross but they do need to get their prioroties straight!
The orang enclosure needs a serious make over make it taller and add in trees,etc climibing frames. It would be brilliant!
Regards
 
What's annoying is they wouldn't be major changes to the ape exhibits and they wouldn't cost a fortune.
 
Twycross do need a new entrance facility however there enclosures should be higher priority.

Tywcross to me will always be a create collection in terms of species on display however am getting more and more frustrated with the problems there.
 
I agree Ashley H all of the Apes need improvements to the enclosures making the fencing taller with rocks,trees climbing frames wouldnt cost alot at all!
 
I think that Twycross have not had very clear priorities in the past. There may be signs that they are working some things out now; we may not agree with all of them - but any plan is better than none.
I think it's probably beyond their scope to be both 'The World Primate Centre' and the best general purpose zoo in the Midlands for the next few years. I can see the point of a big new 'shop window' entrance and of ensuring better design of the new enclosures. My choices wouldn't have been upgrading the lions or getting new snow leopards - but once they are sorted, perhaps they will turn to the things we think are so important.

Alan
 
gentle lemur said:
I can see the point of a big new 'shop window' entrance
Alan
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their entrance area is in bad need of an upgrade and its where all the visitors are drawn into so it is a priority for them,I can see that. In many zoos animal exhibits have to take their turn with other commitments as far as upgrades etc are concerned and I can accept that too.

What I do find rather perplexing is knowing they are a financially well off zoo yet some of the buildings and enclosures most in need of replacement just stay as they are. The Tapir house for example- very basic.
 
It's very interesting to see the amount of disquiet that intelligent zoo visitors who know their stuff feel about Twycross. As Isaid in my original post, it really is a zoo which baffles me - and it looks as if I'm not alone.

Just a few comments further to what has been said above:

  • I think the Malayan Long House could be quite good. it's just the oddness of having wild cats and caracara in the same development. What on earth is the idea there?
  • The entrance, I think, is justified - but it should not be at the cost of animal exhibits and husbandry. The route into the zoo was, in the past, just unbelievably naff - crappy cafe, crappy shop, a few abandoned portacabins... just horrible. It didn't really smack of professionalism in any way at all. If the entrance is it, not to be followed by loads of other stuff, then it is a major mistake. If it is just a beginning to the wholesale renovation of the zoo, then fine.
  • Why do they just give rubbish - really, rubbish, that's not a metaphor, it's old cardboard boxes and empty drinks bottles - to the apes. i can't believe that it is effective enrichment, and it looks horrible.
  • The booklet which has been produced to celebrate the life of Molly Badham is an odd one. Loads of pictures of chimps in tea party mode - and no sense of this being something slightly embarrassing. If I were the zoo today, i'd be a little bit bashful about all this stuff - but not a bit of it. Apparently.
  • Would agree that there are few enclosures which are worth keeping, long term, but in many ways it's the whole concept of the place, the (apparent) husbandry ideas, and so on which are worrying.
  • Not sure about the hous, but the elephant paddock is pretty good. Shame there's a couple of dumped-looking portacabins on the perimeter. It just looks ghastly (again).
  • It's interesting that two good people (at least) who have come into fairly senior positions in recent years have moved on pretty pronto, not exactly thrilled by the way things are done here.
  • The financial thing is interesting. The word has always been that the place is sitting on a heap of cash, but things have been done on the cheap for much longer than they have ever needed to be. It only takes another foot and mouth outbreak to make the policy of keeping a "war chest" seem a sensible one, but at the same time I would have thought that it was worth investing some cash. And while the zoo does get a decent number of visitors - half a million or so, i believe - when you think how close it is to the motorway network, and when you look at how many big cities are close by, that really doesn't seem to be so very many at all. The marketing of the zoo is just dire, certainly.

I'd be very interested to hear someone who is sympathetic to Twycross saying what it is about the zoo which is to be valued. The collection, obviously (although this is not as special as it once was).
 
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