Marwell Wildlife Roof Of The World & Surrounding at Marwell what was it like?

GaryA said:
Unfortunately the the millennium coincided with the emergence of my health problems, which severely curtailed all physical activity for some years, but I have been back a few times through the "Cretney years" when frankly I was a bit disappointed.
Sadly I didn't get my planned visit in this month as Covid has been kicking me in the ass for the last 3 weeks, with after affects, but maybe if the weather holds, I can get an autumnal visit in, and get a personal update.
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Some notes -
-All of the owls have now gone, and there is no plan to re-use their aviaries.
-The snow leopard area is planned to see a major expansion within the coming months.
The area from what I gather is a bit more tired than it used to be, especially with the South Road being still accessible but of course all is empty. Though it is my fervent hope that whoever takes the lead for Marwell following Cretney will have exciting plans for the animal collection - so far some good developments have been done, but Marwell is in need of another major push. Though I don't expect to see much new animals arrive during the Autumn term - it seems the focus is more on shoehorning one last major character event for the year [PAW Patrol], and the impending Glow Marwell event.
 
I’m happy to see the snow leopard enclosure expand. When I visited in August I have to say it looked a bit outdated, if still aesthetic. Would love to see them build up as well as our, and add more climbing opportunities. Aside from the back wall there’s not much there.

Those events are good for the zoo, as much as they aren’t a priority or interest for us on the forum. Here’s hoping they are successfully executed and they bring in enough revenue for more animals!
 
Newzooboy said:
But were they still in the enclosure under discussion then, or offshow?
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There was still a pair of Asiatic Lions on show in 1996, the male died that year, the female then lived on her own till her death in 2001, I saw her a number of times, so think she stayed in the enclosure till her death.
 
Does anyone have any information on the "Forest Herbivores" area that used to exist at Marwell? Working on a project based on Marwell's History and cannot find any information! Thanks.
 
HelloCrossy67 said:
Does anyone have any information on the "Forest Herbivores" area that used to exist at Marwell? Working on a project based on Marwell's History and cannot find any information! Thanks.
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From what I understand this was an area that existed before the time of Cretney. It was where the okapi area is today and also held I believe Bongo.
When Cretney came in 2005 he greenlit Heart of Africa the following year which moved the bongos closer to the giraffes where they are today.
Hopefully someone can tell me whether what I said is accurate
 
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About to say the same thing, although I couldn't remember when it was.

Instead of having two paddocks for okapi like today, one was okapi and the other was bongo.

Also out of interest, what is the project?
 
dillotest0 said:
From what I understand this was an area that existed before the time of Cretney. It was where the okapi area is today and also held I believe Bongo.
When Cretney came in 2005 he greenlit Heart of Africa the following year which moved the bongos closer to the giraffes where they are today.
Hopefully someone can tell me whether what I said is accurate
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and it had also Nyala in one of the paddocks I think. They were there for a decent amount of time before moving around a bit and eventually the last ones went into the sitatunga paddock with the females. When the last nyala died they got a male sitatunga.
 
Got it, thank you very much.

My project is an analysis of Marwell over the last 20-30 years, and I'm basically breaking down each development, addition and year indepth. The nerdiest thing I've ever done but I'm enjoying it very much so far haha
 
HelloCrossy67 said:
Got it, thank you very much.

My project is an analysis of Marwell over the last 20-30 years, and I'm basically breaking down each development, addition and year indepth. The nerdiest thing I've ever done but I'm enjoying it very much so far haha
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The Nyala were held where the single Anoa is today, going back in time where the Okapi house and paddock used to be Deer species Axis , Hog, and Barasingha.
 
NMM said:
About to say the same thing, although I couldn't remember when it was.

Instead of having two paddocks for okapi like today, one was okapi and the other was bongo.

Also out of interest, what is the project?
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The twin buildings originally housed both okapi and bongo; today both are used for okapi. There is a total of 4 (not 2 ) paddocks and there is a gate system that allows animals to be walked from one building to the other. As Okapis stated in the previous post, the nyala were for many years in another building where the anoa now is but, for a period the remaining nyala and sitatunga were kept together and shared the south-eastern okapi house paddock until they were relocated along the South Road.
 
A couple of questions:

There is currently a dinosaur education area inbetween wild explorers and the old leopard lookout, did this used to be an enclosure?

Does anyone know where this exhibit was for Common Cusimanse? (Image by MagpieGoose) Or where the Red Crowned Crane exhibit was? (Image by Nanook)


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I don't recall that dinosaur area having been an exhibit. It seems to have been a leftover from when they had a lego dinosaur exhibition several years ago. It may have been not long after Wild Explorers was built.

I think that cusimanse enclosure might be what was the Roof of the World red panda enclosure. I do remember it briefly holding them.
 
HelloCrossy67, The Cusimance enclosure you mentioned and shown used to have Red Panda from 1983 until circa 1987. It then had Rock Hyrax, Meerkats, Dwarf Mongoose? and Meerkats again. It was located if you go past the entrance and playground of Life Among The Trees and it is now demolished. The Secretary Bird enclosure you also mentioned and shown had Secretary Birds before and it is located opposite Marwell Hall.
 
AdamT said:
HelloCrossy67, The Cusimance enclosure you mentioned and shown used to have Red Panda from 1983 until circa 1987. It then had Rock Hyrax, Meerkats, Dwarf Mongoose? and Meerkats again. It was located if you go past the entrance and playground of Life Among The Trees and it is now demolished. The Secretary Bird enclosure you also mentioned and shown had Secretary Birds before and it is located opposite Marwell Hall.
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This enclosure never held red pandas, but there was a sign, in the empty enclosure in the latter years before it was demolished, incorrectly suggesting it was Marwell's first red panda enclosure.. It was not and anyone looking at the enclosure could see why. Marwell's first (used) red panda enclosure was the one, still there but empty for many years, in the vicinity of the walk-through aviary. The first Marwell guidebook (1972) shows red pandas but they did not arrive until 1975. It had originally been intended to accommodate them in the enclosure that became home to coatis for many years.
 
Zooboy, you can see the Swift Parrot and Potoroo enclosure in the background and I remember seeing signs of it that it used to have Red Pandas.
 
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