I've just got back from Newquay Zoo, it's been a few years since my last visit so much has changed. Here, as this zoo has already been quite well covered, I'll mainly write about new births/arrivals/exhibits and a few opinions and personal experiences. If you want a review, then I recommend this very comprehensive one by foz:
http://www.zoochat.com/38/review-newquay-zoo-74389/
Births:
Arrivals:
As well as the Black-tailed Monitors, Luzon Bleeding Heart Doves have been added to the tropical house.
Exhibits:
Apparently no major developments are planned, but they do intend to build a new fossa exhibit in the next couple of years and apparently the penguins are due for an upgrade (new rocks, shelters, etc - nothing too exciting).
Thoughts:
Overall, I was very impressed and it's a toss-up between Newquay and Exmoor as to which is my favourite small zoo. I do like visiting little zoos as you are able to stay and watch animals rather than hurry to see everything, this was very much the case here and I think Newquay's species list is inspired. They are almost exclusively either crowd-pullers (lions, zebra and fishing cat), cuties (red panda, harvest mice - my mum now wants one - and agouti) or small, active animals (lemurs, penguins and yes meerkats
) with a few rarities for us zoochatter's (Owston's Palm Civet 
).
I also thought the enclosures were well designed, the Geoffrey's Marmoset, for example, have three small but densely planted islands with a wealth of climbing oppurtunities and it's brilliant. The new Phillipines exhibit is also really nice, it's good to see a bit of landscaping in a deer enclosure and the fishing cat and warty pig exhibits were good too. One thing I would like to see is something to tie it together a bit more and make it feel as though you are in the phillipines - some wood fencing and a few signs would have done this well, but that's just a small criticism of, overall, a nice exhibit. I was not so impressed by the grandly named "African Savanna" which is essentially an average-sized field with a lot of fencing and bad sight-lines; having one viewing are over the hard-standing (very african) doesn't help. Yet, it is not just that it is poorly done, in a zoo the size of Newquay, this exhibit takes up about a quarter of the area. Could that space not have been put to better use by turning it into a series of smaller enclosures for more charismatic species?
And lastly a few observations:
And that's about it. If you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them and, while I think on it, if you want me to find out anything at Dartmoor then now's the time to ask as I'm going there on Friday.
PS. There was one major disappointment on my visit (besides the African Savanna). When visiting last time I remember the best thing in the zoo was the brilliantly named Cafe Bara, it was genius! Now the Capy's have gone and it's become Cafe Lemur, what's that all about?!
http://www.zoochat.com/38/review-newquay-zoo-74389/
Births:
- Meerkat
- Capybara (possibly the cutest things you'll ever see)
- Agouti
- Geoffrey's Marmoset
- Penguin
Arrivals:
As well as the Black-tailed Monitors, Luzon Bleeding Heart Doves have been added to the tropical house.
Exhibits:
Apparently no major developments are planned, but they do intend to build a new fossa exhibit in the next couple of years and apparently the penguins are due for an upgrade (new rocks, shelters, etc - nothing too exciting).
Thoughts:
Overall, I was very impressed and it's a toss-up between Newquay and Exmoor as to which is my favourite small zoo. I do like visiting little zoos as you are able to stay and watch animals rather than hurry to see everything, this was very much the case here and I think Newquay's species list is inspired. They are almost exclusively either crowd-pullers (lions, zebra and fishing cat), cuties (red panda, harvest mice - my mum now wants one - and agouti) or small, active animals (lemurs, penguins and yes meerkats
) with a few rarities for us zoochatter's (Owston's Palm Civet ).I also thought the enclosures were well designed, the Geoffrey's Marmoset, for example, have three small but densely planted islands with a wealth of climbing oppurtunities and it's brilliant. The new Phillipines exhibit is also really nice, it's good to see a bit of landscaping in a deer enclosure and the fishing cat and warty pig exhibits were good too. One thing I would like to see is something to tie it together a bit more and make it feel as though you are in the phillipines - some wood fencing and a few signs would have done this well, but that's just a small criticism of, overall, a nice exhibit. I was not so impressed by the grandly named "African Savanna" which is essentially an average-sized field with a lot of fencing and bad sight-lines; having one viewing are over the hard-standing (very african) doesn't help. Yet, it is not just that it is poorly done, in a zoo the size of Newquay, this exhibit takes up about a quarter of the area. Could that space not have been put to better use by turning it into a series of smaller enclosures for more charismatic species?
And lastly a few observations:
- One of the zoo's red panda was the most active I have ever seen; I looked in on this enclosure around seven times, and of those it was walking around for about five. This individual really is a disgrace to its species!
- Also, the zoo seems to have an abundance of agouti (azara's and red-rumped), is there any particular reason for this?
- And finally, what do Owston's Palm Civet eat? I was wondering because I would imagine it's small mammals and birds, yet they seem to be displayed with Prevost's Squirrel and Northern Tree Shrew (I cannot verify this as I did not see it in the exhibit, but there was a tree shrew sign on the front of the aviary and the individual which used to reside in the tropical house has now gone). Could it be that the civets use the exhibit at night whilst the other species access it during the day...
And that's about it. If you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them and, while I think on it, if you want me to find out anything at Dartmoor then now's the time to ask as I'm going there on Friday.
PS. There was one major disappointment on my visit (besides the African Savanna). When visiting last time I remember the best thing in the zoo was the brilliantly named Cafe Bara, it was genius! Now the Capy's have gone and it's become Cafe Lemur, what's that all about?!
- it is a flat rather badly drained field full of dead weeds- with a backdrop of houses and other buildings it looks like a horse paddock. Some artificial hillocks or mounds would help, plus tree planting. As someone else commented, in a small zoo, this valuable extra land area might have been used to better effect in other ways.
