I spent a little time at ZSL London this morning, I didn't have time for most of the 'houses', but here are a few notes from what I did see:
Gorilla kingdom starts with the new walk-through flight, holding starlings, green wood hoopoe and touracos etc, probably not suitable for breeding but impressive. The zoo say they are letting the colobus onto the island some mornings now, and mixing all three gorillas for short periods each day. They plan to mix all the gorillas with the colobus this summer. Zaire appeared to be far less plucked that she was last year. The island has been planted with new grasses, which aren't hotwired. The one live tree is also not hotwired. The diana monkeys were supposedly being rotated with some ring-tailed lemurs temporarily but there was no sign of the lemurs.
The flamingos and pelicans were separated with a wire fence, I only saw 7 pelicans, they seem to be slowly decreasing in number.
One of the anteaters was continually pacing inside the night quarters, but they had access to the outdoor enclosure the whole time.
The tigers were separated, apparently they have had problems with aggression, she was in the old leopard cage at the back of the lion house and was continually pacing a small section of wire.
The langurs I'm pretty sure have the old clouded leopard cage, the sulawesi macaques the one next to this (held red pandas and ocelot before), the spider monkeys have the old jaguar cage near the tigers which is adjacent to the smallest cat cage (formerly housing caracals, pumas) which holds the serval. Most of the glass viewing for the lions was boarded up. The wildfowl from three island pond (eg the red-breasted geese) now appeared to be held in the wader flight on the lion terraces.
The squirrel monkey area looks now like one huge shrubbery - plently of bushes but very few trees the monkeys can access. The mara are in this enclosure now.
The scarlet ibis are in a flight immediately next to the squirrel monkey sleeping quarters, it is much smaller than the african bird safari they were previously held in.
(I posted notes on the blackburn pavillion on the 'new bird house' thread). Opposite this aviary, the top half of the old australia paddock has become a giant bird-shaped climbing frame/play area for children. The lower half of this paddock and the australia house (old camel house) itself was a building site.
The children's zoo has flights next to the llamas for seriama and black vulture, I assume used in the demonstrations on the lawn nearby.
I could only see 7 bearded pigs in 'Zoo World'. The hippo area is smaller than ever, as the new inner barrier and boxes for tropical plants take up areas of the previous enclosure. A terrible exhibit. Also, what appears to be outside enclosures for the hippos to use (part of the camel paddock sectioned off for this) were both occupied by crested porcupines. One of the 'grottos' on each side was full of temporary small enclosures, which I think had held the clore stock while that was being refurbished and last year the birds from the blackburn pavillion. Now both these areas were sectioned off and empty of animals.
Paths and viewing areas seem to encroach onto the summer hippo paddock more than when I last visited, it could be my memory though.
The smaller Komodo dragon enclosure hold a young aldraban tortoise, apparently until the juvenile dragons still at the zoo are large enough to go into it.
Bear mountain was very quiet, no sign of the langurs and one sleeping bear right at the back of the exhibit. With the birds and most of the monkeys gone, I can see why this exhibit doesn't really work when the bears aren't active.
The tapirs were not visible, which pleases me as I previously thought they had no privacy since the houses reopened in 2004. The tapir and okapi houses basically have false walls built across them so visitors can only see the first couple of stalls on either side, and the back of the houses are now off-exhibit service areas. The old gazelle paddock fence was covered in boards and its occupants therefore not visible. One of the giraffes had damaged it's leg and was inside. One of the okapi was stood sucking the bars of the paddock gate for the entire time I was at the cotton terraces. However, they both seemed far less nervous than Marwell's animals.
The hunting dogs were active and their enclosure is much larger than it appears in photographs, in my opinion one of the best exhibits at the zoo now.
The old beaver enclosure was now empty of meerkats and awaiting refurbishment.
The clore rainforest lookout - The right-hand corridor as you enter was closed off, this included the small outdoor part, but the nearest in this row of exhibits was holding male squirrel monkeys, possibly new arrivals. The agoutis and goeldis have been moved out of the main exhibit, replaced by yellow-footed tortoises. There was a great deal of damage to the trees but it still looks fantastic. I only saw one rather scruffy-looking hen aracari here, possibly it was moulting. The night zone had several reptile and amphibian exhibits, the bat exhibit looks very dated and now only holds six or seven fruit bats, I wish they'd just fill it with sand and a huge group of spiny mice/jerboas...panay cloudrunners were in the old leadbeater's opossum exhibit, potoroo still have the area they have always occupied after the bat enclosure. The run of mouse/shrew tanks were combined and held feather-tailed gliders.
The aye-aye (indoor roundhouse) area was closed for some refurbishment.
The old owl aviaries near the nursery were combined as one and held lovebirds, weavers, combassau finches and a bali starling. The hatchery was closed. The old lorikeet aviaries held burrowing owls in an even smaller area than before, plus a pair of fruit doves, bleeding heart doves etc. The main owl aviaries were still pretty untouched in terms of size, the largest (though not at all large) held spectacled owls with a young chick hatched this year, both breeding pairs of frogmouths, barred, scops and hawk owls. The old pheasant flights were mostly holding hornbills, malayan black, sulawesi tarictic, imperial pigeons, touracos, and a keel-billed toucan.
I've posted photos of some of the enclosures now, if you search London Zoo in the gallery.
