As there isn’t much written about this tiny zoo on the forums and it recently doubled in size after a £150,000 extension, I decided to write a walk-through review to give my fellow zoochatters a better idea of the place. This will be posted in two halves, the first detailing the new area and the second the older section.
So leaving the entrance building (that looks not unlike a large shed), visitors find themselves on the new boardwalk raised around a foot above the ground. A short way along is a viewing window into the indoor area for Pygmy Marmoset which, although small, has a wealth of climbing opportunities for the monkeys. Around a corner is the netted outdoor enclosure which is around twice the size of the indoor area and again has lots of enrichment for the animals. Altogether, this is a nice exhibit but nothing very special.
Next is a much larger enclosure for a family of Squirrel Monkeys. As before, it consists of both indoor and outdoor areas, though here the outdoor enclosure especially is a very good size for these active monkeys. Having said that, a few more logs, ropes, hammocks or whatever could have been included to make the environment more enriching for the monkeys. On the opposite side of the path is a small but well planted pen for Red- and Yellow-footed Tortoises in addition to a peep-hole into their indoor area.
Further on still is the largest of the new enclosures, this is home to a large group of Ring-tailed Lemurs. Or at least, that’s what the signs say – I don’t know because they remained inside the whole day. The reason for this, I suspect, is that the enclosure is situated beneath a dense canopy, allowing little light to enter the enclosure of these sun-loving animals. I can’t help but think that perhaps the ruffeds seen later would have been a better choice of inhabitant, especially as this enclosure has a lot of vertical space which they would utilise better.
Anyway, past there is a good-sized enclosure for Meerkats. This is terraced to give the animals exercise and the ground layer is soil and leaf litter to encourage digging. A rather unfortunate design choice, however, is the so-called “Meerkat Mountain” in the centre of the enclosure, a mound of concrete that would have been better named “Meerkat Monstrosity”! Next to the Meerkat enclosure is a raised viewing area which serves little purpose other than to take up valuable exhibit space in this small zoo, whilst opposite is a netted Saki enclosure which is not yet inhabited. This is at the lower end of the spectrum size-wise, but has a number of wooden poles crossing the area to utilise its vertical space. One improvement to this enclosure would be the addition of ropes to create a more dynamic environment, though this may be done before the monkeys arrive.
The last enclosure viewed from the boardwalk is another netted exhibit for a small family of Yellow-breasted Capuchin, as well as a few peep-holes into their indoor area. This is reasonably (though not “too”) small, and has numerous climbing opportunities in the form of wooden poles, ropes, swings and eucalyptus branches which I assume are changed periodically to provide enrichment.
And that’s pretty much it for the new area, though a map posted by zoogiraffe suggests that there may be future exhibits for Red-billed Hornbill (on the opposite side of the raised viewing area to the Meerkats), Dwarf Mongoose (there was a sign saying “Mongoose House” opposite the capuchins, but no building work was evident) and Tree Shrews (on the site of the tortoise enclosure) which are now housed in another area of the zoo. Overall, this is a nice addition and there are no particularly bad enclosures, though little that could be called special either. My main gripe is that, for such a small zoo, the exhibits are quite spread out and the space really should have been used to either increase the size of smaller enclosures or add more animals. Speaking of animals, I mentioned earlier that Ring-tailed Lemurs where not a very good choice of species and, when looking at the area as a whole, there will soon be five species of primate, two species of mongoose and two species of tortoise. A greater diversity of small, active species would, I am sure, have increased visitor stay time and if the future mongoose exhibit was instead built to accommodate short-clawed otters visitors would be more interested than they would seeing “just some more meerkats”. But that’s just me being critical and, as I said, I did like the new extension and it is a great improvement to the zoo.
Coming up in part two, I’ll go through the older section of the zoo which is around the same size.
So leaving the entrance building (that looks not unlike a large shed), visitors find themselves on the new boardwalk raised around a foot above the ground. A short way along is a viewing window into the indoor area for Pygmy Marmoset which, although small, has a wealth of climbing opportunities for the monkeys. Around a corner is the netted outdoor enclosure which is around twice the size of the indoor area and again has lots of enrichment for the animals. Altogether, this is a nice exhibit but nothing very special.
Next is a much larger enclosure for a family of Squirrel Monkeys. As before, it consists of both indoor and outdoor areas, though here the outdoor enclosure especially is a very good size for these active monkeys. Having said that, a few more logs, ropes, hammocks or whatever could have been included to make the environment more enriching for the monkeys. On the opposite side of the path is a small but well planted pen for Red- and Yellow-footed Tortoises in addition to a peep-hole into their indoor area.
Further on still is the largest of the new enclosures, this is home to a large group of Ring-tailed Lemurs. Or at least, that’s what the signs say – I don’t know because they remained inside the whole day. The reason for this, I suspect, is that the enclosure is situated beneath a dense canopy, allowing little light to enter the enclosure of these sun-loving animals. I can’t help but think that perhaps the ruffeds seen later would have been a better choice of inhabitant, especially as this enclosure has a lot of vertical space which they would utilise better.
Anyway, past there is a good-sized enclosure for Meerkats. This is terraced to give the animals exercise and the ground layer is soil and leaf litter to encourage digging. A rather unfortunate design choice, however, is the so-called “Meerkat Mountain” in the centre of the enclosure, a mound of concrete that would have been better named “Meerkat Monstrosity”! Next to the Meerkat enclosure is a raised viewing area which serves little purpose other than to take up valuable exhibit space in this small zoo, whilst opposite is a netted Saki enclosure which is not yet inhabited. This is at the lower end of the spectrum size-wise, but has a number of wooden poles crossing the area to utilise its vertical space. One improvement to this enclosure would be the addition of ropes to create a more dynamic environment, though this may be done before the monkeys arrive.
The last enclosure viewed from the boardwalk is another netted exhibit for a small family of Yellow-breasted Capuchin, as well as a few peep-holes into their indoor area. This is reasonably (though not “too”) small, and has numerous climbing opportunities in the form of wooden poles, ropes, swings and eucalyptus branches which I assume are changed periodically to provide enrichment.
And that’s pretty much it for the new area, though a map posted by zoogiraffe suggests that there may be future exhibits for Red-billed Hornbill (on the opposite side of the raised viewing area to the Meerkats), Dwarf Mongoose (there was a sign saying “Mongoose House” opposite the capuchins, but no building work was evident) and Tree Shrews (on the site of the tortoise enclosure) which are now housed in another area of the zoo. Overall, this is a nice addition and there are no particularly bad enclosures, though little that could be called special either. My main gripe is that, for such a small zoo, the exhibits are quite spread out and the space really should have been used to either increase the size of smaller enclosures or add more animals. Speaking of animals, I mentioned earlier that Ring-tailed Lemurs where not a very good choice of species and, when looking at the area as a whole, there will soon be five species of primate, two species of mongoose and two species of tortoise. A greater diversity of small, active species would, I am sure, have increased visitor stay time and if the future mongoose exhibit was instead built to accommodate short-clawed otters visitors would be more interested than they would seeing “just some more meerkats”. But that’s just me being critical and, as I said, I did like the new extension and it is a great improvement to the zoo.
Coming up in part two, I’ll go through the older section of the zoo which is around the same size.
