Water Dragon
Well-Known Member
Despite living relatively quite close to this collection, I had never visited it before so this was a completely new experience for me. I hadn't really studied into the zoo either, so I didn't really know what to expect but @Komodo99 has told me quite a lot about it; and said that it was a really good zoo. As for me, I can say that it is a very small zoo but very nice, nonetheless. The zoo is separated into two different parts: the indoor area and the outdoor area. I will start with the indoor area.
Invertebrate Room
Usually when you visit a zoo the "invertebrate room" displays a few "classic pet-shop inverts" but this room was a bit more unique. The room had two tanks for echinoderms, with one for snakelock's anemones and the other for spiny starfish. It is very nice to see these species represented in an invertebrate room rather than just arthropods. Also included in this room was some red cherry shrimps and some giant African land snails. All of the invertebrate enclosures were spacious enough and set up nicely.
Butterfly Hall
The butterfly hall is the centre of the zoo's arthropod species and as the name suggests, it features free-flying butterflies. The butterfly hall isn't as big or as packed with butterflies as Chester's but to be honest I liked it better because there was more moving space and more species of arthropod on display. One thing that I really liked was the leaf-cutter ant display, as they were also free-roaming but the nest has several ropes leading from it which the ants crawled across to get to little feeding stations. I liked this ant exhibit a lot better than Chester's as well (not to put Chester down in any way, their ant exhibit is still good as well). Little insectariums were scattered around the room with exhibits for various stick insects, cockroaches, millipedes, tarantulas, forest scorpions, beetles and katydids. There was also signage for whip spiders on a table but there was no exhibit there, and I doubt that they were a free-roaming species as well. I have been rather fond of butterfly halls in the last few years but I am always nervous that I am going to step on one!
Aquarium
The aquarium is not a massive room but they do have a few interesting exhibits on display. When you first enter, there is a large tank for Red-Bellied Pacu. These are one of my favourite fish species and it found it very nice to see another piranha species other than Red-Bellied Piranhas all the time. The pacu share their tank with rainbowfish, cichlids and tinfoil barbs. Also in the aquarium are a few other tank for species such as African lungfish, blind cavefish, more cichlids and a mixed marine tank for blue green chromis, peacock clownfish, schooling coachman, golden damselfish and yellow tang. The old mudskipper exhibit has been converted into an exhibit for Portugues Fire Salamander.
Tropical Hall
The tropical hall was my favourite part of the zoo as it was the centre of the reptile collection as well as a few mammal species and free-flying birds; but what I really loved about it was that they had six free-flying Rodrigues fruit bats. Other free-flying species include: Java sparrows, Roul-Rouls and a pair of violet turacos.
The reptile collection was quite good as well. They had an Asian water dragon but it was sharing with a cane toad which was slightly odd but the water dragons I work with are sharing with red-footed tortoises, so I guess that I can't really say anything. Other reptile species I saw included Tokay geckos, electric blue day geckos, Jamaican boas, Argentine black-and-white tegus and the rare Short-Tailed Alpine Garter Snakes. Lakeland is the only collection in Europe to hold this garter snake species. There was also a large mixed exhibit for red-footed tortoises, collared iguanas and a panther chameleon. Amphibians on display include poison dart frogs, golden mantellas, knobby newts, waxy monkey frogs, fire-bellied toads and an axolotl.
In addition to birds, reptiles and amphibians, the tropical hall also had a large enclosure for long-nosed potoroos. It was a very nice exhibit with a large waterfall and logs for them to hide in. There was another potoroo exhibit but it also held pygmy marmosets.
Small Mammal Room
A small room in the Tropical Hall was home to some small mammal species. There was an exhibit for a lot of Egyptian Spiny Mice, and some more for Lesser Hedgegog Tenrecs, Eurasian Harvest Mice, and short-tailed chinchillas. The small mammal room was nice but it had a really noisy cog puzzle that kids kept on playing with and was really annoying
This is everything that was in the Indoor area. I will continue with the outdoor area in a part 2 later.
Invertebrate Room
Usually when you visit a zoo the "invertebrate room" displays a few "classic pet-shop inverts" but this room was a bit more unique. The room had two tanks for echinoderms, with one for snakelock's anemones and the other for spiny starfish. It is very nice to see these species represented in an invertebrate room rather than just arthropods. Also included in this room was some red cherry shrimps and some giant African land snails. All of the invertebrate enclosures were spacious enough and set up nicely.
Butterfly Hall
The butterfly hall is the centre of the zoo's arthropod species and as the name suggests, it features free-flying butterflies. The butterfly hall isn't as big or as packed with butterflies as Chester's but to be honest I liked it better because there was more moving space and more species of arthropod on display. One thing that I really liked was the leaf-cutter ant display, as they were also free-roaming but the nest has several ropes leading from it which the ants crawled across to get to little feeding stations. I liked this ant exhibit a lot better than Chester's as well (not to put Chester down in any way, their ant exhibit is still good as well). Little insectariums were scattered around the room with exhibits for various stick insects, cockroaches, millipedes, tarantulas, forest scorpions, beetles and katydids. There was also signage for whip spiders on a table but there was no exhibit there, and I doubt that they were a free-roaming species as well. I have been rather fond of butterfly halls in the last few years but I am always nervous that I am going to step on one!
Aquarium
The aquarium is not a massive room but they do have a few interesting exhibits on display. When you first enter, there is a large tank for Red-Bellied Pacu. These are one of my favourite fish species and it found it very nice to see another piranha species other than Red-Bellied Piranhas all the time. The pacu share their tank with rainbowfish, cichlids and tinfoil barbs. Also in the aquarium are a few other tank for species such as African lungfish, blind cavefish, more cichlids and a mixed marine tank for blue green chromis, peacock clownfish, schooling coachman, golden damselfish and yellow tang. The old mudskipper exhibit has been converted into an exhibit for Portugues Fire Salamander.
Tropical Hall
The tropical hall was my favourite part of the zoo as it was the centre of the reptile collection as well as a few mammal species and free-flying birds; but what I really loved about it was that they had six free-flying Rodrigues fruit bats. Other free-flying species include: Java sparrows, Roul-Rouls and a pair of violet turacos.
The reptile collection was quite good as well. They had an Asian water dragon but it was sharing with a cane toad which was slightly odd but the water dragons I work with are sharing with red-footed tortoises, so I guess that I can't really say anything. Other reptile species I saw included Tokay geckos, electric blue day geckos, Jamaican boas, Argentine black-and-white tegus and the rare Short-Tailed Alpine Garter Snakes. Lakeland is the only collection in Europe to hold this garter snake species. There was also a large mixed exhibit for red-footed tortoises, collared iguanas and a panther chameleon. Amphibians on display include poison dart frogs, golden mantellas, knobby newts, waxy monkey frogs, fire-bellied toads and an axolotl.
In addition to birds, reptiles and amphibians, the tropical hall also had a large enclosure for long-nosed potoroos. It was a very nice exhibit with a large waterfall and logs for them to hide in. There was another potoroo exhibit but it also held pygmy marmosets.
Small Mammal Room
A small room in the Tropical Hall was home to some small mammal species. There was an exhibit for a lot of Egyptian Spiny Mice, and some more for Lesser Hedgegog Tenrecs, Eurasian Harvest Mice, and short-tailed chinchillas. The small mammal room was nice but it had a really noisy cog puzzle that kids kept on playing with and was really annoying
This is everything that was in the Indoor area. I will continue with the outdoor area in a part 2 later.
) to peer through into the meerkat exhibit.
as this species is not even present in private hands within Europe to the best of my recollection, and LWO has held Long-tailed for several years.