I went to Whipsnade today for the first time. Although I have mixed feelings about some elements of the park, this is a very nice zoo with some enormous enclosures.
Firstly I found the map to be a bit vague, this style seems to work for London but for somewhere on the scale of Whipsnade it was rather confusing and I like to think I have a good sense of direction. It was a very quiet day and in some areas I was the only person around.
It felt a bit nostalgic visiting the zoo, it feels old-fashioned in a way, very British and a bit make do and mend and mustn't grumble if that makes sense! Expected there to be bunting and a cake sale with people doing the hokey cokey somewhere.
Maybe this is due to the somewhat utilitarian feel of the park and a no-nonsense approach to the enclosures.
The first exhibit I saw - or entered was the ring tailed lemurs. This was nice and I liked the set-up here, I'm not always a fan of getting close to things that jump around a lot but it was great to get so close to them and see them hopping around. I noticed what looked like Lubetkin's elephant house nearby and intended to go back for a closer look but I forgot.
Next the chimps. This is a nice moated enclosure but not especially outstanding for what seemed a small group. It appeared that despite the large amount of land at Whipsnade that the enclosure isn't much bigger than Gorilla Kingdom in Regent's Park.
It was great to see the European bison close up although I was annoyed by a man talking about the 'millions' it cost to save animals from extinction and how he thought it could have been better spent. First experience of the ubiquitous mara (rabbits or deer to some visitors around me but fair enough, you can't know everything) getting chased away by the bison
who were noisily eating from big heavy metal dishes which they dragged around as they ate.
I was impressed with the brown bears exhibit, an excellent example of a good basic enclosure that takes advantage of what is already there. One bear was determined to get an apple from under a large rock even though others were scattered nearby.
The deeper penguin pool had been drained and was very smelly.
Luckily some wood was burning nearby and the autumnal smell was nice on a gloomy morning. Equally gloomy was the bongo house. I'll talk about buildings later on but this long, narrow corridor was quite spooky and not at all a nice place to view these wonderful antelope via mesh covered windows. Fortunately most of them were outside.
The male white rhino was inside his barn which was good as all the others were far away and difficult to see. I like Whipsnade's 'who's who at the zoo signs which help identify many individuals.
I went back to see the reindeer and many more mara before walking around the rhino and antelope paddock to the scimitar horned oryx and kudu and the hippo house.
I'd like to see this area on a warm summer's day. All the hippos were fed which allowed me to see the pygmies outside of their Anderson shelters and get a look at their massive teeth.
Great to see common hippos inside their house - they seem to be unusual in the UK for some reason. A cabbage was thrown in and I got a bit splashed with hippo bath water which is a brown soup with plenty dung. Yuck. Although the outside enclosures were nice, from an aesthetic point of view I hated the hippo house, I just felt it was unattractive with murals on the walls and planting which just lacked something for me. Not unpleasant for the animals but just not particularly attractive.
I understand that Whipsnade is not about buildings but the buildings which are there aren't at all attractive. I understand that many buildings are amazing looking but totally unsuitable for their occupants - as London knows only too well - but I wish there could be a happy medium. It's great that the Asian one-horned rhino house is so environmentally friendly but it is ugly and pedestrian in design from the outside and not very inspiring inside in terms of design elements beyond those serving the needs of the rhinos which I'm sure are excellent.
I've seen attractive, simple buildings in many zoos, it doesn't have to be like a Copenhagen elephant house but why not be a bit more aspirational? It's fine if it's just a stable in the distance but if it's open to the public I think things should be a bit more ambitious.
Copenhagen's (new, I admit) giraffe house is simple, elegant and functional. Whipsnade's is depressing - like the bongos, the animals are viewed through mesh covered windows from a dreary corridor with an artex ceiling. seriously ugly. But - and here I fear is the controversial bit - I think this reflects a different attitude towards prioritising design in these countries and the average sitting room in the UK and Denmark would have exactly the same comparison.
Anyway, I'm not being deliberately provocative, it's just that my visit today highlighted to me how design is viewed in this country and made me think about the many discussions I've read on here about how to balance practicality, animals' needs and making things pretty, natural looking or immersive.
Ok,more to come later about the rest of my visit including the lion and cheetah exhibits which seem to signify a change in exhibit design at Whipsnade.
Firstly I found the map to be a bit vague, this style seems to work for London but for somewhere on the scale of Whipsnade it was rather confusing and I like to think I have a good sense of direction. It was a very quiet day and in some areas I was the only person around.
It felt a bit nostalgic visiting the zoo, it feels old-fashioned in a way, very British and a bit make do and mend and mustn't grumble if that makes sense! Expected there to be bunting and a cake sale with people doing the hokey cokey somewhere.
Maybe this is due to the somewhat utilitarian feel of the park and a no-nonsense approach to the enclosures.
The first exhibit I saw - or entered was the ring tailed lemurs. This was nice and I liked the set-up here, I'm not always a fan of getting close to things that jump around a lot but it was great to get so close to them and see them hopping around. I noticed what looked like Lubetkin's elephant house nearby and intended to go back for a closer look but I forgot.
Next the chimps. This is a nice moated enclosure but not especially outstanding for what seemed a small group. It appeared that despite the large amount of land at Whipsnade that the enclosure isn't much bigger than Gorilla Kingdom in Regent's Park.
It was great to see the European bison close up although I was annoyed by a man talking about the 'millions' it cost to save animals from extinction and how he thought it could have been better spent. First experience of the ubiquitous mara (rabbits or deer to some visitors around me but fair enough, you can't know everything) getting chased away by the bison
who were noisily eating from big heavy metal dishes which they dragged around as they ate.
I was impressed with the brown bears exhibit, an excellent example of a good basic enclosure that takes advantage of what is already there. One bear was determined to get an apple from under a large rock even though others were scattered nearby.
The deeper penguin pool had been drained and was very smelly.
Luckily some wood was burning nearby and the autumnal smell was nice on a gloomy morning. Equally gloomy was the bongo house. I'll talk about buildings later on but this long, narrow corridor was quite spooky and not at all a nice place to view these wonderful antelope via mesh covered windows. Fortunately most of them were outside.
The male white rhino was inside his barn which was good as all the others were far away and difficult to see. I like Whipsnade's 'who's who at the zoo signs which help identify many individuals.
I went back to see the reindeer and many more mara before walking around the rhino and antelope paddock to the scimitar horned oryx and kudu and the hippo house.
I'd like to see this area on a warm summer's day. All the hippos were fed which allowed me to see the pygmies outside of their Anderson shelters and get a look at their massive teeth.
Great to see common hippos inside their house - they seem to be unusual in the UK for some reason. A cabbage was thrown in and I got a bit splashed with hippo bath water which is a brown soup with plenty dung. Yuck. Although the outside enclosures were nice, from an aesthetic point of view I hated the hippo house, I just felt it was unattractive with murals on the walls and planting which just lacked something for me. Not unpleasant for the animals but just not particularly attractive.
I understand that Whipsnade is not about buildings but the buildings which are there aren't at all attractive. I understand that many buildings are amazing looking but totally unsuitable for their occupants - as London knows only too well - but I wish there could be a happy medium. It's great that the Asian one-horned rhino house is so environmentally friendly but it is ugly and pedestrian in design from the outside and not very inspiring inside in terms of design elements beyond those serving the needs of the rhinos which I'm sure are excellent.
I've seen attractive, simple buildings in many zoos, it doesn't have to be like a Copenhagen elephant house but why not be a bit more aspirational? It's fine if it's just a stable in the distance but if it's open to the public I think things should be a bit more ambitious.
Copenhagen's (new, I admit) giraffe house is simple, elegant and functional. Whipsnade's is depressing - like the bongos, the animals are viewed through mesh covered windows from a dreary corridor with an artex ceiling. seriously ugly. But - and here I fear is the controversial bit - I think this reflects a different attitude towards prioritising design in these countries and the average sitting room in the UK and Denmark would have exactly the same comparison.
Anyway, I'm not being deliberately provocative, it's just that my visit today highlighted to me how design is viewed in this country and made me think about the many discussions I've read on here about how to balance practicality, animals' needs and making things pretty, natural looking or immersive.
Ok,more to come later about the rest of my visit including the lion and cheetah exhibits which seem to signify a change in exhibit design at Whipsnade.
