dropped into the zoo this morning, will post properly on 'london zoo notes' thread....
I see what you are saying, especially about the floors. I suppose people will insist on wearing high heels to the zoo
but yes it also massively alters the acoustics of an enclosed space with that much hard surface. There is a deafening waterfall in the main flight space which can be heard throughout the house. Zoos so often install huge waterfalls in new exhibits, why?!
The worst section of the house is as you enter, this hall has all the individual flights, and there are three large aviaries in a row holding a pair of Toco toucans, a single grey-winged trumpeter, and a pair of keel-billed toucans. The toucans are new pairs. Keeping large birds such as these in entirely indoor flights gives the house an old fashioned feel; you almost feel as if yr seeing footage of a zoo in some old movie, if you get what I mean? The tocos can only move constantly between two upright branches about 3 metres apart. Also, you can see visitors moving through the flight area through the wire of these cages, I don't understand why they didn't make the back walls of these solid to give the birds a little more security. Also in this first hall were small aviaries, (resembling what was there before) in the corners for lorikeets, congo peafowl, madagascar partridge, bali starlings and pekin robins. One of the mount apo lorikeets was severly plucked.
An unfortunate feature of the house is that in the main flight area and some of the smaller aviaries, a wire roof prevents the birds from reaching the apex roof space, or perching on the horizontal supports up there.
The main area is slightly underwhelming but possibly when the vegetation matures this will change. Certainly the doves and waders looked very relaxed, although there was a very sickly looking hooded pitta.
I have to say what none of the videos showed me was how good the nectar-feeder space is. This is a separate space you enter after the main flight, full of epiphytes..bromeliads and 'airplants' etc', mosses and other plants in both the aviaries and the visitor space, and you have two hummingbird aviaries on the right and a row of sunbird aviaries on the left. They have 3 female hummingbirds, bred in germany and the netherlands by private keepers, and are awaiting a male. Once the birds in this area are used to their space and the public, they are going to open the hatches and gradually allow them to use the public area. Given the agressive nature of some sunbirds, I imagine they won't be mixed. The room was misted constantly, and there are rope barriers to prevent the public crowding the birds. Some of the sunbirds appeared to be quite stressed, but most seemed relaxed, as did the hummingbirds.
The outside has the breeding toco toucan pair, buff-necked ibis, frogmouths, green aracaris, and the scarlet ibis have been removed from the african bird safari back to a less spacious home in a flight just before the squirrel monkey exhibit. I'll set up a gallery and post the photos over the weekend.
