Twycross Zoo Review of Twycross Zoo

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foz

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I the style of my previous reviews (Newquay, Bristol etc).

So visited Twycross for the first time since I was about 5, I went with a view of making up my own mind about the place which has a loosely negative portrayal here on zoochat. I was also with a family cosistig of various ages so it was useful to approach the zoo in this way as well.

So first of all is Himalaya. One does immediatley question the widom in placing practically invisible snow leopards in such a striking first impression of the zoo. This exhibit should be astounding, indeed approaching the warehouse style building with its sloping turf roof and netted attatchments, this is the case, however this is rather deflated by the atural shyness of snow leopards, seemingly empty aviaries..only visible from toilets and the fact that the ticket booths are detatched form the building and are cheap brown 'sheds'. The snow leoaprd itself is very impresive with carefully crafted cliff feature and sweeping waterfalls (if a little unecessary). The visitors view the enclosure through large ceiling to floor windows in close proximity to a rather green pond.

upon entering the zoo it self I was pleasantly suprised by the greenery - My preconceptions ahd been of a rather featureless field of a zoo, instead, particularly this part of the zoo had a leafy, sculpted feel. On the other hand the first animal exhibits are rather unispiring - the wooden and wire cages. Im all for practicality over aesthetics but for the 'world primate centre' and for such an amazing array of species their exhibitry is dull, cheap and boring for the visitor. The gibbon complex is slightly different form the other sets of monkey cages in that the cages teded to be larger and longer whereas the others tended to be shorter and almost clinical. I would normally get excited over the lowe's guenon and such species however the minimalist cages which are all caked in dirty glass winows rather dappened such excitement. The indoor enclosures were dark, dingy and small..very small. the row upon row of primate cages are the biggest blight at Twycross zoo - particularly suprising when given its status as 'world primate centre'. never the less, the collection of exhibits is impressive. My highlights included; crowned guenon & spot nosed guenon (mixed!), francois langur, variegated spider monkey, roloway monkey and pileated gibbon.

zoo signage was particularly distressing and almost embarassing. 'Monkey's of south america' included several old world species, 'out of africa' included new world species. I can understand that species may rotate cages but the signage should reflect this. In my book there can ever be too much signage and one distiguishes a good zoo from a great zoo by how bothered they seem to be in their signs.

next post ..penguins, chimps, bornean longhouse
 
The Humboldt penguin enclosure seems quite decent..good in fact. Never have I got so close to penguins without glass - the enclosure is fenced by waist height stone wall, which has a dry stone moat running on the iside. the penguins tend to follow the people by the wall and showed such behaviour as to make me think they are begging for public feeding. as the path curves around it splits into two levels. closest to the wall the path sinks to provide a couple of panes of underwater viewing into the green opaque water. The back of the enclosure is walled and behind that a large shrubby mound which i was pleasantly surprised to find the penguins have access to. The large pond provides ample swimming space. Unfortunately a mother duck and several young penguins had decided to make home in these were attacked (as in actually thrown about) by several penguins..later on these werent seen and I would assume they were removed by staff. The penguins enclosure overlooks a large grassy pleasant lawn area in close proximity to the glades of the Mary Bancker (?) wetland area.

To the chimps. Well not all of them. Frankly there are tonnes of different chimp enclosures and ive lost count. But whilst the enclosures serve their purpose (and thats about it) the social conditions for the chimps were appalling. Ive heard the particularly terrible row of chimp cages as the 'green mile' and im one to agree. BUT putting these small brick-glass-wire cages to the back of my mind it was even more disappointed to find the better enclosures with the same social conditions i.e. pairs or triplets with no large family groups. I also find the sentimentality of the signs, e.g. 'Danny boy..cheeky...playful..blah blah blah' rather pathetic and not educating in the slightest. A name would suffice! I'd much rather have information on chimp-group composition (though i'd suppose it would be ironic given twycross's woeful chimp situation).

The Bornean Longhouse and wetlands is perhaps one of the gems of Twycross. leading on from the organic curve of the penguins enclosure is a leafy lagoon of Chilean flamingo's. Often i find flamingo's overstated in most zoos however here they really worked. The landscape of this whole wetland area makes it mysterious and intimate. The dirt path wind around the pools and mounds and roots etc. The bornean longhouse consists of a covered walkway on stilts overlooking two aviaires either side of the walkway. on the left is an aviary without any fencig other than waisthigh wooden fence, whereas on the right is glass windows. I was really happy to see the large and very well plated vaiaries were completed with some unusual species such as pied comorant and purple heron (a sad no-show). This area was continued with aviaries and cages dotted about including caracara, wild cats and yellow throated marten (technically offshow) these cages all use glass panels. The sprawling bak overlooks ponds of turtles, cranes, storks and pelicans in this leafy setting. the wild, winding path eventually leads to the 'elephant trail'.

up next; the elephant trail & giraffes
 
The Elephant trail is another example of Twycross at its best. This is a fully immersive long winding dirt track past the elephant’s grassy paddock ad eventually leading up to the main paddock and house. This is all supplemented by the frills and thrills of titbits like a ‘Hindu temple bell’ and a statue of Hindu God Ganesh (may I add a successful example of how religion can be harmlessly integrated into zoo exhibits). Perhaps more remarkable is the landscaping – all the while barriers are hidden by plants and often the track winds quite around, it features steep hills as well as gentle climbs. Most only qualm would be its length from the longhouse aviary area to the main paddock is quite a walk and features very little other than occasional titbits (which are mainly clustered by the main paddock). I would say this area would benefit with some geographically appropriate small species to complement the track (almost like Chester’s Elephant exhibit with the squirrel’s and birds). The track leads to a small hill overlooking the sand/dirt main paddock, the hill descents into a decked viewing area bordering the elephants pond. For both elephants and humans the exhibit is a great success. A viewing lodge further one explains the role of Elephants in Asian cultural celebrations, as well their use in logging camps. This area was also remarkable in its signage being more than adequate as opposed to the substandard levels elsewhere in the zoo. The zoo keeps 4 female cows (2 of which, it was interestingly pointed out were ex-logging camp), 1 of the cows is pregnant. The zoo doesn’t have bull facilities and instead uses AI. Im not sure where I stand on this; clearly the park doesn’t have the bull facilities and thus to house them regardless would be both dangerous, impractical and possibly unethical. But perhaps the cows (and subsequent calfs) are missing out on important social interaction they would only get from a Bull… I’ll leave others to debate this.

The giraffe area is, quite frankly, bad. A gravelly field surrounded by high bars and a lowly count of two. The look isn’t great it does really need to be improved/expanded. Even a spruce up (add something pretty e.g. raised decking) would better this pathetic excuse for an enclosure (a small field!). Without getting emotive and letting my initial disappointment detract from the experience, I would suppose the enclosure is suffice for the two giraffes.

Closeby is the small primate complex. This is pretty similar in design to the rest of the monkey enclosures (brick-wood-wire cages with dingy indoor areas) however these were surprisingly good in that the cages were densely packed with vegetation and there was an enjoyable range of species on offer such as golden lion tamarin, golden headed lion tamarin, silvery marmoset, midas tamarin etc.

up next the great apes and the bottom of the zoo
 
The great ape complexes are basic and adequate, it being more up to the apes themselves to try and inspire, educate and entertain than the exhibits. The best were perhaps the Bonobo and Orangutans down to the group interactions. Each enclosure has roughly the same design; semicircular/circular/near-circular perimeter of glass overlooked a deep dry moat which rises in the middle as sort of an island which will have sturdy climbing equipment on it, each enclosure was completed by the visible entrails of enrichment and the cropped grass. The bonobo’s seemed to be in two groups and I’ve read on here somewhere they were tow gender groups. The mix of adults and the very young was particularly animating in the group. Therefore it was with great disappointment to meet the gorilla enclosure where only two gorilla’s were visible at all with no interactions and nothing stimulating. For the first time in my life I discovered that pomp and niceties of exhibitory and the social interactions really do affect how I feel. In this case it was uninspiring, underwhelming and basically dull. Compare this to Bristol where the pleasant island and the family unit make the gorilla’s truly inspirational and exciting, captivating and dynamic species, truly worthy of all the hyperbole I splurge upon them. The indoor areas for each of the apes were dark, small and dingy, definitely not worthy of the ‘world primate centre’. I was happily spurised by the charms and charisma of the bonobo’s and oragutans which made up for the ‘that’ll-do’ enclosures. The bonobo indoor enclosure also featured indoor areas for aldabran giant tortoise (which were all lapping up the su outside in what looked almost like a pig pen), and also a large tank area for black throated monitors.

Right down towards the very bottom of the zoo is a cages enclosure for the abysinnian ground hornbill, which was a charming and pleasant aviary. However I felt this corner of the zoo to be full of wasted space which could be used far more effectively. Next door are the tufted deer (a no-show), in a small paddock enclosure. Next to that are the enclosure for dholes in a chain-link-fenced enclosure which was pleasant enough, if a little unimaginative. However I did thank for the plentiful indoor viewing at the zoo which was the only way to view these dholes. However perhaps twycross’s obsession with glass panes looking indoors went to far when being applied to the Bactrian camels which has a nice outdoor enclosure but slobbered up the glass viewing until the camels were nothing more than grey masses of indistinct fur.

Next door is the Syrian striped hyena. Naturally being an animal geek it was one of the top on my list to see. The hyena itself was asleep beneath a log all day (nothing wrong with that). The enclosure was of decent size and of decent interest. I did find the viewing windows at the two viewing huts to be so dirty to make it almost impossible to see, and the growth of shrubs around the wire fence made these viewing huts the only way to see into the enclosure. Finally in this row of enclosures is the asian short clawed otter enclosure. A standard, practical enclosure if not amazingly pretty or immersive. It is fenced in at right angles by two large stone walls, whilst a third low stone wall curves between the two. Much like the penguin enclosure this was followed by a small dry moat. Here it was possible to get really close to the entertaining family group .. perhaps too close.

up next the sea lions leopards and birds
 
Okay let me take you back to the penguins enclosures and the grassy laws around it (featuring an ornamental pond and play area). here is another ‘mound-style’ enclosure (i.e. same vertical shape as the penguin enclosure) and featuring a central waterfall. It is the enclosure for the pair of Patagonian sea lions (the male has to be the biggest sea lion ive ever seen). I did feel the pool was alright but could have done with being quite a bit bigger in that both sea lions could do nothing but swim in cootiual circles around their central ‘island’. There is also a seemingly random set of glass panes in the middle of the fencing where a low stone wall had been fine before (???)

Nearby are several small paddock style enclosures which back onto a high brick wall. Each of these are fenced by a low stone wall and dry ditch. Here are aardwolf (looking like road kill) in a spacious, leafy and complex enclosure offering plenty of hiding spaces for this elderly creature. In the other paddock is a sandy venue for bat eared foxes providing a lively display of behaviours. Indoor viewing exists for both of these (although the window’s were so dirty it may as well not have been there). In the next were a large grassy paddock, on the map labelled pudu (the map also still labelled the hyena’s as lions), however the signage had been removed and it was clear pudu were no longer residing here (a bat eared fox turned up later in the indoor area).
Back down by the sea lions, tucked away, is a small set of aviaries for various owl species, all a bit too small for my own personal taste.

The park also houses amur leopards in a spacious, lush, log cage enclosure that is quite a credit to the park. The leopards come into their own prowling through the thick vegetation and surprising the visitors. Also here the signage is clear and it was a pleasure that many of the visitors would repeat in awe “only 40 left!”. Maybe the cage just lacks the vertical space to make it a truly amazing enclosure.

Nearby are wide, grassy rolling paddocks for capybara, tapir, rhea and vicuna. I would have liked a little more access to water for these species. The paddocks were huge and perhaps wasted when we still have those chimpanzee’s stuck in those pokey cages. Babirusas were labelled close by on the map, however only a pygmy goat could be spotted. Also there is a basic stone wall enclosure for prairie dogs, almost mirroring the meerkat enclosure on the other side of the side in design.

At the centre of the zoo is a complex holding most of the zoo’s bird collection with perhaps an obvious collection of species; showy macaws, black hornbill, pied magpie, a couple of amazon parrots and vasa black parrots. These were housed in cages stemming from a central building. These cages were spacious enough but rather lacking in vegetation. The tropical house is next door, however only a limited number of tickets can be acquired..and we didn’t.
 
I would conclude Twycross is quite a zoo of opposites – the fantastic; himalaya, elephant trail, bornean longhouse, and the dire – the chimp cages, the great ape facilities (particularly for gorilla’s) the bog standard monkey cages. The majority of old enclosures seem to be either one of two things: either it’s a cage of wire with wooden panelling and glass windows with a dark, dingy indoor area, or it’s a low stone wall paddock with a dry moat. I had a really good day with my family and in general Twycross remains a good zoo, far behind Bristol, Newquay, London, and Chester but certainly not in the realms of the poor wildlife rescue zoo’s. quite paradoxically it is a large zoo acting and managing animals in conditions of a small cash-strapped wildlife/exotics centre. It is a zoo crying out for some daring and imaginative direction that either abandons the ‘world primate centre title’ or lives up to it by displaying a diverse range of species in truly outstanding conditions.

Hope you've enjoyed this virtual exploration of twycross and that my commentary isnt to full of pomp as to be off putting.:D

what do you guys think?
 
foz said:
I would conclude Twycross is quite a zoo of opposites – the fantastic; himalaya, elephant trail, bornean longhouse, and the dire – the chimp cages, the great ape facilities (particularly for gorilla’s) the bog standard monkey cages........... quite paradoxically it is a large zoo acting and managing animals in conditions of a small cash-strapped wildlife/exotics centre. It is a zoo crying out for some daring and imaginative direction that either abandons the ‘world primate centre title’ or lives up to it by displaying a diverse range of species in truly outstanding conditions.
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I think your review is a fair assessment of Twycross and the above quotes pretty much hit the nail on the head as far as I'm concerned.

Personally I've not got a problem with the newer Gorilla enclosure (which has a pretty spacious indoor area, though ideally would have some kind of covering over, at least parts of, the outdoor area).

You missed out the Pets Corner (possibly purposely) which is very good but missed by a lot of the people due to its position in the zoo (bad forward planning when they built it).
 
Agree, a fair well written review of the zoo, the old chimp houses are definitely in urgent need of replacement and as for the giraffe house, yes definitely in need of a make over, perhaps a different floor covering on the outside paddock would be a good start. I am concerned about what you say about the glass on some of the enclosures being dirty, this is what a colleague of mine said when he visited the zoo with his family recently, no excuse for that as soap and water does not cost much, in years previously the glass in all the enclosures used to be spotless. And as for having to look at one of the new exhibits from the toilets only this is ridiculous, I thought having to go down on your hands and knees to see the indoor accommodation' of the anteaters at The Web of Life, London was bad enough but this toilet only viewing certainly takes the biscuit. The new pets corner is a bit out of the way, however could it not just be a case of we are not used to going to that area of the zoo?, plenty of information and advice displayed here on how children and adults for that matter should look after their pets, very good.
 
Thanks for a very comprehensive review of twycross. It's been my local zoo for a few years now and I'm a regular visitor. There are things I definitely agree and some other things I'd like to comment on further.

I couldn't agree more about the giraffe exhibit it has always seemed very poor and pretty bleak. I really hate the sealion pool too and hope that these animals aren't replaced in that exhibit when they're gone.

I agree that the primate houses need remodelling, but I think the zoo do too and are striving to achieve that - in the short term with exhibit upgrades and in the long term with plans for the new chimp house. I can't stress how much the primate exhibits have been improved in the last 18 months. All the foliage, wood and floor covering (eg bark etc) are new additions. Yesterday oumbie and ozala (gorillas) were getting bark and straw coverings for their indoor enclosure, as have several chimp bedrooms too.

For the chimps I understand that the long term aim is to get them into 2 or 3 larger groups, but the pace of that I presume will be repentant on the chimps, the males in general are fully intact which can cause lots of problems.

I have to disagree about the chimp signage - I love all the little character profiles. They make the animals even more special to me. Though you can't have too much species info too. Though there's a lot in the bonobo house, and if I had a pound for the comment 'there's more chimps' and be on my way to Alton towers now ;)

I had trouble at the hyena viewing too, but I don't think it is dirt on the windows with poor viewing I think it's actually very scratched old glass - it def needs replacing.

All in all I like your fair and unbiased review of twycross. As a regular visitor I'm enjoying seeing positive changes especially amongst the primates that I like so much.
 
mazfc said:
I agree that the primate houses need remodelling, but I think the zoo do too and are striving to achieve that - in the short term with exhibit upgrades and in the long term with plans for the new chimp house. bedrooms too.

For the chimps I understand that the long term aim is to get them into 2 or 3 larger groups, but the pace of that I presume will be repentant on the chimps, the males in general are fully intact which can cause lots of problems.
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Just two points here;

The longterm plan for a new Chimpanzee exhibit (if indeed it happens given the continuing non -appearance of the new Lion/dhole area) won't alter the overall appearance of the exhibits for all the other Primates, just Chimpanzees,. I think the existing buildings for everything else will all stay largely as they are for a very long time into the future, as it would be prohibitive costwise to replace them. Short term improvements like bark-flooring etc are their only option really.

Getting all the Chimpanzees into larger groups, or ideally, one single group may seem an impossible task but with very careful management I think it would be possible over time to get most of them together-there are bound to be a few incompatable individuals though, perhaps among the very oldest ones. But Edinburgh with their Budongo Forest was the most recent place to show how its possible to bring together even entirely unfamiliar chimps, including a number of fully adult males, into one successful colony.
 
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Although I haven't visited Twycross for well over a decade, much of the observations remain true to my memories.

Just a point on the chimps. If Twycross were really serious about mixing those chimps into bigger groups, don't you think they might have done something about it before now? I realise Molly may have a hurdle in the zoo hieracy to doing this in the past, but she has been dead for a few years now! My thoughts are that Twycross would 'love' to mix them into larger groups in new spacious exhibits but don't have the funds or the balls to do it. Even Monkey World have got the experience to constantly mix and add new individuals, so its not as if they couldn't gain experience locally if needed (assuming that the two institutions are talking to each other). Personally I cannot see Twycross doing it.
 
tetrapod said:
Just a point on the chimps. If Twycross were really serious about mixing those chimps into bigger groups, don't you think they might have done something about it before now?.... Personally I cannot see Twycross doing it.
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It seems to me they have made a start- the old Gorilla House now houses a much larger group than previously. There appear to be three main age-related groups of Chimps at Twycross;

1. The oldest pairs and trios in the 'Green Mile' cages.

2. The 'colony' in the newer Chimpanzee House. (This was their first attempt at keeping them more naturally)

3. The newer grouping in the old Gorilla House.

4. Any 'odds and sods' currently living in the Ape nursery-type enclosures.

I think most of the chimps in the Green mile must know each other very well indeed by sight and sound after so many years in those cages, even if they aren't physically together.

I do wonder what the timescale is on this project though, and whether it will really come to fruition.
 
Pertinax said:
It seems to me they have made a start- the old Gorilla House now houses a much larger group than previously. There appear to be three main age-related groups of Chimps at Twycross;

1. The oldest pairs and trios in the 'Green Mile' cages.

2. The 'colony' in the newer Chimpanzee House. (This was their first attempt at keeping them more naturally)

3. The newer grouping in the old Gorilla House.

4. Any 'odds and sods' currently living in the Ape nursery-type enclosures.

I think most of the chimps in the Green mile must know each other very well indeed by sight and sound after so many years in those cages, even if they aren't physically together.

I do wonder what the timescale is on this project though, and whether it will really come to fruition.
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Odds and sods!, Danny and Tommy if you please, seriously, I hope the chimps living in those old houses get a new house in the near future, it was interesting to see how a group were intergrated in the old gorilla house, it would be fantastic if similar could be done with the others, they certainly deserve it, Benjy the ex London chimp being one of my favourites.
 
For those who aren't aware of chimp names these are all chimp moves:

Jambo (the older male with alopecia) and the female Tojo have been moved up a enclosure in the green mile so they are currently next to mongo (jambos son) and his three ladies. I did wonder if this was a prelude to integration. Jambo and the female called Lottie (who he has had offspring with in the past) were grooming quite happily through the mesh.

Flynn is now in with Ricky's group in the old gorilla house, and Rosie his previous female is in with Benji.

I hope these are all positive moves to integration. As far as I know a lady who was involved with the budongo trail at Edinburgh is now currently at twycross, and there has been lots of positive things happening in the last 18 months or so. (sorry I don't know her name or her position though I'm sure someone on here must do).

I always find the keepers at twycross really dedicated and determined to do the best that they can for the animals in their care.
 
Surely it would cost that much to just open up the 'green mile' of cages into one main cage for all the chimps there? clearly it would more rely on the compatibility of the chimps rather than funds?
 
foz said:
Surely it would cost that much to just open up the 'green mile' of cages into one main cage for all the chimps there? clearly it would more rely on the compatibility of the chimps rather than funds?
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That's what I thought too - it would make a good space with some improvements. It's not just a case of opening things up and seeing what happens. There some pretty elderly chimps in there (coco and choppers) plus a youngest (Tuli) and 4 intact adult makes. There's no rush to do this, it's better to take time. Someone told me that the chimps definitely know each but that doesn't necessarily mean that they like each other - well maybe not in the short term but I'm sure that they'll get there.
 
mazfc said:
That's what I thought too - it would make a good space with some improvements. It's not just a case of opening things up and seeing what happens. There some pretty elderly chimps in there (coco and choppers) plus a youngest (Tuli) and 4 intact adult makes. There's no rush to do this, it's better to take time. Someone told me that the chimps definitely know each but that doesn't necessarily mean that they like each other - well maybe not in the short term but I'm sure that they'll get there.
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obviously. it didnt mean to imply we JUST open up the cage, but i do feel that the current pace needs to be sped up a gear.
 
I suspect most of the Green Mile chimpanzees know each other well enough by sight and sound to constitute a single 'clan' structure already. So if they could get (at least the majorityof) them into one group, they would then have three main groups/clans.

Introducing these all together into one large group would be virtually impossible until such time as they have purpose-built housing, as Edinburgh have with Budongo. This is what I believe is planned for the future? In that case, and using the same techniques as Edinburgh did (breaking down the clan structure and rebuilding small alliances till all the individuals from the different clans were familiar with all the others) then I see no reason why they couldn't achieve it- with possibly the odd non-integrated animal or two having to be left out.
 
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Twycross Chimps

Pertinax..... apologies as I;ve obviously missed the chat about a new chimp complex at Twycross. Is this rumour or fact based upon planning applications etc? If so, where in the park will it be built?
Cheers.
 
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