My August zoo tour of the south of England

[Pertinax]

Other zoos where you can possibly 'do two in a day'

Howletts & Port Lympne- it gives you around three hours at each with a half hour drive in between- but whichever one you visit 2nd you can stay quite late so you get longer. I often do these in one day nowadays.

Twycross & West Midlands or Dudley. Gives you half a day at Twycross plus a shorter visit to one of the others.

Bristol & Cotswold (or Longleat) Gives you half a day at each though Bristol can be done in a lot less (2 hours). About an hour's drive between them.

Whipsnade & Woburn. Only 12 miles apart. Gives you half a day or more at Whipsnade and an hour or two at Woburn (which is all it needs).

Marwell & Monkeyworld or Marwell & Chessington..Marwell has far more than the other two.

Banham & Kessingland/AA..but further than you expect in between...

Paignton & Sparkwell/Dartmoor WP. s

some of these 'two in one day' visits would create a bit of a rush to get round but they are all quite possible.

 

[gentle lemur]

Gentle Lemur: how do you think London has changed in recent years?

As you will have seen, I have some sympathy with your views. I'm not sure of the direction the Zoo is taking. I have no objection to a greater emphasis on small children if this is an important market, but it cannot be not their only aim. I don't like seeing empty enclosures - allowing that there must always be some undergoing renovation. I don't like seeing monkeys in enclosures which were designed for cats - particularly when they are nice species like Francois Langurs.
It seems to me that their new projects are either overblown and too fancy like the Blackburn Pavilion, or so cheap and understated as to be almost thrown away like the new penguin pool.
I would like to see them use some of the empty space in the zoo (on the north bank of the canal or the 'display area') for a simple enclosure for monkeys or to rehouse the gibbons. I believe that they could claim some extra land from Regents Park, but that has been the case for many years and they have never done it.
I understand your point about the Giraffe House, but I don't think the house is too bad and they have tried to improve the paddock. The other listed buildings - Tecton Penguin Pool, Round House and above all the Casson pavilion are bigger problems.

Alan

 

[gentle lemur]

great review, i am very jealous of you seeing the echinda at Paignton, ive never seen them

are they ever hoping to breed them there?

After 3 pm on a very grey and rather damp day. I had to boost the ISO setting much higher than I would like, but I got some photos (as I hope you have seen). I only saw one, but ISIS says they have two. I'm sure they'd like to breed them, but it is unusual (I think we had a thread about this a while ago).

Alan

 

[Pertinax]

I don't like seeing monkeys in enclosures which were designed for cats - particularly when they are nice species like Francois Langurs.

Alan

I had presumed the monkeys at ZSL exhibited in the cat enclosures was a temporary measure for the species that didn't fit the African theme of Gorilla Kingdom. It certainly looks as if its a temporary measure but perhaps not... The Francois Langurs in particular deserve a much better exhibit to show them off- or be moved to a zoo that would do this.

 

[kiang]

I would like to see them use some of the empty space in the zoo (on the north bank of the canal or the 'display area') for a simple enclosure for monkeys or to rehouse the gibbons.
Alan

The North bank area of the zoo seems to be a wasted area of land in a zoo that could utilise more of the gardens for animals, is this area of the zoo quite steep leading down to the canal?
Looking at the map on the zoo website i thought it could make an excellent area for the Sumatran tiger, langurs, a gibbon species and Malayan tapir, leading on to the Snowdon aviary which could be used for Asian species with the Bornean bearded pig on the floor of the aviary.

Perhaps this should be a new thread?

 

[zoogiraffe]

I'm not surprised they are losing visitors to NAZF- its probably a less expensive day out, more 'large' animals to see and the play areas too. Bristol is still a quality collection but that's not necessarily what people want nowadays.

Actually if i had paid to go into Bristol on my last visit it would have cost me less than what i had to paid out to go round NAZF,and for me Bristol is far bettervalue for money than NAZF will ever be.

 

[JamesB]

After 3 pm on a very grey and rather damp day. I had to boost the ISO setting much higher than I would like, but I got some photos (as I hope you have seen). I only saw one, but ISIS says they have two. I'm sure they'd like to breed them, but it is unusual (I think we had a thread about this a while ago).

Alan

thanks! have you got any of the photos on here?

 

[Pertinax]

Actually if i had paid to go into Bristol on my last visit it would have cost me less than what i had to paid out to go round NAZF,and for me Bristol is far bettervalue for money than NAZF will ever be.

Of course Bristol is better value for a zoo specialist- I still hugely enjoy my visits there while I've never even bothered to visit the NAZF. But for all those families with small children, which is the better venue I wonder?

 

[zoogiraffe]

Of course Bristol is better value for a zoo specialist- I still hugely enjoy my visits there while I've never even bothered to visit the NAZF. But for all those families with small children, which is the better venue I wonder?

Don`t know but will look into it when i visit the 2 of them at the end of October,wil be intresting to see the developments at the 2 collections and compare them.

 

[Pertinax]

Don`t know but will look into it when i visit the 2 of them at the end of October,wil be intresting to see the developments at the 2 collections and compare them.

There's not a lot new at Bristol at present- since the new Monkey enclosures, and the covered-in Flamingo Aviary near the entrance.

I wasn't trying to compare the two places in terms of animal collections, as I'm sure Bristol Zoo is far superior- but I wondered which place 'family' zoogoers prefer for their day out? Maybe they alternate...

 

[tetrapod]

... I don't like seeing monkeys in enclosures which were designed for cats - particularly when they are nice species like Francois Langurs...

This happens in zoos far more often than one could imagine. I think what happens is that a zoo will look to redevelop their cat enclosures first (big crowd puller) and then decide that they need to fill the empty enclosure with another species. Primates being smaller than big cats (smaller animal = more space), but requiring similar safety requirements, fits the bill.

 

[gentle lemur]

That wasn't what happened at London. They demolished several monkey exhibits, to make room for the new, larger gorilla exhibit (plus associated walk-through aviary, reptile exhibit and educational displays). So they moved some of the cats out to let three groups of monkeys use their enclosures. The outdoor enclosures are rather small and low, but the indoor enclosures look decidedly cramped to me.

Alan

 

[JamesB]

Don`t know but will look into it when i visit the 2 of them at the end of October,wil be intresting to see the developments at the 2 collections and compare them.

I always wanted to visit Noahs Ark, it seems a nice location and a family friendly enviroment, judging by what i saw on zoo babies the housing looks good though the siamangs enclosure looked unatural.

I suppose that this collection will suffer big time when the national wildlife park opens in cribbs causeway.... but this is not for a long time!

 

[Pertinax]

So they moved some of the cats out to let three groups of monkeys use their enclosures. The outdoor enclosures are rather small and low, but the indoor enclosures look decidedly cramped to me.
Alan

Those monkeys just don't look right in what were originally small cat enclosures. I also wonder how they like being in the vicinity of Tigers and Lions but are probably used to that by now.

General visitors will have seen enough Monkeys in the Gorilla Kingdom area so I'm not sure why ZSL persist with keeping these other groups- the Sulawesi group is so small they would be better added to another group elsewhere. I think I'd prefer to see the other two species go elsewhere too if they can't devise something better.

 

[tetrapod]

... So they moved some of the cats out to let three groups of monkeys use their enclosures. The outdoor enclosures are rather small and low, but the indoor enclosures look decidedly cramped to me...

Where did the cats go (which species) and did they move into better accomodation?

 

[zoogiraffe]

I always wanted to visit Noahs Ark, it seems a nice location and a family friendly enviroment, judging by what i saw on zoo babies the housing looks good though the siamangs enclosure looked unatural.

I suppose that this collection will suffer big time when the national wildlife park opens in cribbs causeway.... but this is not for a long time!

Looks on the telly can be mis-leading because personnaly i think it makes Twycross primate exhibits look excellent yes its family friendly but some parts of the place are just plain shocking the bit they showed was the best part of the NAZF.

 

[ANyhuis]

Thanks, very interesting.