Notes and Observations
From a visit on wednesday:
- Firstly the new interactions: the feeding the meerkat. I fel this offers a unique experience and makes brilliant sense from a commercial point of view. As does the lemur experience, particualrly as the zoo doesnt have any walkthrough primate exhibits.
- Last time i went the red Panda-cusimanse-amphibian exhibit was partially completed. This time i could the red panda enclosure looks fabulous, it seems to have eaten up the old agouti enclosure as well as offerign better views. Overall the enclosure seems more spacious and carefully ladnscaped, offering some good views of the pandas. Thecusimanse are a great improvement of the priare dog enclosure, its bigger and the cusimanse offer better viewing. the unnel that runs beneath the red panda enclosure, named 'Toad Hall' was closed off to visitors although looks enarly complete - by peering in one could see all the tanks inserted and i read a label for 'cane toad' (i think).
- The phillipine exhibit has matured really well, particualrly the phillipine deer which appear very confident and suprisingly interesting to watch - whether its scaling a tree or bathing in their ponds. the family herd were particualrly attractive. The visayan warty pigs were as fun as ever and had triplet piglets in tow. the fishing cats were elusive as ever, and only a third cycle of the zoo offered views of them.
- The Oriental garden looked really fabulous..many of my friends commented on how good it looked. It had been re-ladnscpaed in 2010 and the results are really really good. They were building a new aviary attatched to the hornbill one, does anyone know what this is for? They have also installed a video into the civet hut showing the in-situ work supported by the zoo in vietnam.
- The meerkat clan had really grown and they all look stunning in what has to be the best enclosure for meekats in the UK.
- the madgascan walkthrough aviary looked more sparse than i remembered.
- the tropical house seems to have decreased in occupants. The Golden lion tamarins no longer seemed present or the scorro toad (the signs for both species were moved). The toucans were in the netted enclosure above the waterfall. however the hoffmanns sloth was extremely close and offered the best views ive ever had of a sloth. I still feel that, particularly with the loss of lion tamarins, the tropical house needs free roaming small monkeys - they used to have pygmy marmosets but these were replaced.
- Swinhoes striped squirrel were found in the 'farm' of the zoo, they were energetic and fun to watch much like chipmunks.
- still yet to see all the animals mix on the african exhibit. the ostriches were no where to be seen, (have they been moved?)
No-shows: owstons plam civet (presumably offshow getting busy), golden lion tamarins, madgascan lovebirds, red fronted macaw, kinkajou and paca.
Highlights: narrow striped mongoose, swinhoes striped squirrel, feeding meerkats, black wildebeast, getting lost in the dragon maze, getting feet nuzzled by a warty pig.