ZSL London Zoo London's Gorilla Kingdom and Sobell Pavilions

P

Pertinax

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Again, a clever mixture of old and new, with the old Sobell pavilions sort of incorporated into the new exhibit.

Gorilla Kingdom contains very good viewing areas- among the best I've ever seen so design wise as far as SEEING the animals someone did their homework very well. Its a pity its such a poor group( only 3 animals) at present but they are adding one or more females soon. The new female 'Effie' has been with the male okay but they can't live as a trio yet. They are very positive Bobby/Effie will breed together but I am far less so (again I do want to be wrong...) poor old Zaire- who is Motaba's older sister- looks awful, she is heavily plucked and still doing it- no doubt from the stress of close confinement in the animal hospital while G.K. was being constructed.
They say she is now too old to breed- but its not true...

You've all seen the photos of GK in the gallery so no need to describe it except to say that the fake 'access' tree for the Colobus monkeys looks even uglier and worse in real life!- its surrounded by a tangle of electric wires and I feel they got this it bit rather wrong. The grass has grown a lot since it opened and the 'cave' blends in better too- as I guessed, the gorillas(or two of them) are shut out at present in the daytime. I saw the male use the cave- he needs it if they are shut out like this. The 'dayroom' is well designed, light and roomy too.

The Gorilla exhibit is sort of dovetailed with the other monkey blocks of the Sobell pavilions. They are still there but 'disguised' as part of the Gorilla walkway. The Colobus live in the one that used to house the Giant Pandas(later Langurs) The Mangabeys and Dianas are in the one nearest the Elephant house. The Gorillas have a new(breeze block) block of night dens which are 'behind the scenes' and not open to the public- its rather confusing trying to orientate everything but I think this stands next to the Colobus's den- so must the site of the Sulawesi Macaques outdoor enclosure.

The remains of the Sobell block nearest the Zoo entrance is now the indoor area for an aviary(Spreo Starlings etc) which is part of the entrance to the Gorilla Kingdom area. You really need a map to figure all this out.

The old blocks still have the same outdoor cages, except 1. the Mangabey cage has a glass window outdoors- makes excellent viewing. 2.The Diana monkey cage nextdoor has a completely new outside cage,much higher, roomier, netted, not rectangular- shaped and with woodchip, planted floor- big improvement and I hope perhaps a prototype they'll use on the other cages..

Monkeys in Sobell pavilions; 1.2. White naped Managebey
1.1(?) Diana monkey
1.3 b/w Colobus (?) Francois Langur.
(?) White-cheeked Gibbon

Other monkeys formerly there are now, rather oddly, held in the 'Cats' area in former leopard cages; Sulawesi Macaques and Red faced Black Spider Monkeys.

MY favourite exhiibit in Gorilla Kingdom was actually the Mangabeys!
 
I'm not sure but I think the zoo may have one white cheeked gibbon and one hybrid gibbon.

I'm surprised how many of the old Sobell Pavillion survives. Sounds interesting-but I have to say I expected much of it to have gone to make way for the gorillas.
 
London have a male Southern White-cheeked Gibbon and a male Southern White-cheeked x Buff-cheeked Gibbon.
 
gibbons.

'I saw one of these, I don't know which. That outside cage is still there- almost directly behin the new Gorilla night quarters which is an 'offshow' area.

The Sobell inside enclosures have been quite cleverly blended in so the viewing windows form the opposite side of the walkthru' area past the Gorilla exhibit- this naturally means it takes you round a right angle between th two main blocks that are left.. Much of the brickwork fronting the indoor areas has been hidden with information and interpretative material, wood batten etc.
 
^Chris^ said:
I'm surprised how many of the old Sobell Pavillion survives. Sounds interesting-but I have to say I expected much of it to have gone to make way for the gorillas.
Click to expand...

Whats actually gone is the whole 'Ape' block- while the outside island is on the site of the wide main path which ran from the zoo entrance area towards the elephant house. That's now gone almost totally.
 
so is it actually very big? to be honest, from the photos and from what ive heard about it i thought gorilla kingdom was going to stretch from the old vulture aviary right accross to the african safari aviary, down to the picnic grounds near the casson pavillion and back accross to the covered ampitheatre.
a big area i know, but thats what i was thinking. any photos of the magabey aviary?
 
glyn said:
so is it actually very big? to be honest, from the photos and from what ive heard about it i thought gorilla kingdom was going to stretch from the old vulture aviary right accross to the african safari aviary, down to the picnic grounds near the casson pavillion and back accross to the covered ampitheatre.
a big area i know, but thats what i was thinking. any photos of the magabey aviary?
Click to expand...

No, it certainly isn't as big as you describe- obviously that would have meant no Sobell cages left at all. It is bounded by what's left of the 'Panda' block(now the Colobus) on one side and the Mangabey/Diana block on the other. The Gorilla dayroom is spacious and light, but not enormous- six gorillas would fill it up... The island reaches nearly over to the African flight aviary- it is pretty spacious and better than I expected from the photos (more undulating) but as usual, I think its a bad mistake to provide a large outdoor area they would prefer not to use that much- and only a relatively small inside viewing area.

Nearly all new Gorilla enclosures follow this pattern nowadays- people THINK the animals are happy because they have masses of space- but the Gorillas would really(psychologically) prefer to be under cover...

As I said, (two of) the Gorillas were shut outside- the public don't realise that off course. At Bristol where they have 'freechoice' they use the outdoors very sparingly...
 
Sorry,No photos of the monkey'aviary'. Its actually the Dianas(and Hornbill) that use this one. The Mangabeys still have one of the old standard outdoor cages but repainted and with a large glass viewing window on the visitor side which is very effective.
 
in 2005 the zoo did upgrade one block of the sobell, which housed francois, diana, owl faced monkeys and sulawesi macaques. the wire was replaced and new glass panels let in. this might be the upgrade youre referring to?
'aviary' lol i was tired
 
just checking out the photo gallery. i know the new outdoor exhibit isnt humungous, i know its not stacks shady, and i know the animals dont have alot choice at the moment about where they want to be in terms of indoor or outdoor.
but, after pioneering the whole concept of zoos, surely im not the only one who smiles when you see london zoo with a spectacular new flagship exhibit, especialy on such a grand scale!
 
glyn said:
in 2005 the zoo did upgrade one block of the sobell, which housed francois, diana, owl faced monkeys and sulawesi macaques. the wire was replaced and new glass panels let in. this might be the upgrade youre referring to?
'aviary' lol i was tired
Click to expand...

Was this the block nearest the Elephant House? If so its the same one.
 
glyn said:
just checking out the photo gallery. i know the new outdoor exhibit isnt humungous, i know its not stacks shady, and i know the animals dont have alot choice at the moment about where they want to be in terms of indoor or outdoor.
but, after pioneering the whole concept of zoos, surely im not the only one who smiles when you see london zoo with a spectacular new flagship exhibit, especialy on such a grand scale!
Click to expand...

I'm not knocking the basic design, just the balance- about 1:20- of inside(covered) versus outside(open) areas- given how I've seen Gorillas' preferences in other places.

What did impress me was how you can see the complete outdoor exhibit fully either across water,or through glass from floor level, from three sides of the exhibit. I think the same design firm as did Whipsnade's Lions of Serengeti exhibit, have done the London Gorillas and the Hunting Dogs too. Their speciality is in creating vistas.

I suspect the Gorillas will probably be allowed 'freechoice' to be in or out once they are living in a compatable group. But they may have to start a daily 'public feeding' session once or twice a day, in order to get them to go outside...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top