I visited Port Lympne yesterday, and I have to say, I was extremly disappointed with every single thing they have changed, bar one. I am a semi-regular visitor of Port Lympne. And have been for some time. I loved this zoo greatly, and over the years, it has got better and better, with the introduction of Brown Hyenas and Sifakas to their already unusual collection. When they said, "Something is coming" I was very excited. And was coming up with many different ideas of what it could be. With every single one proved to be incorrect.
The first thing which proved a huge disppointment was the fact the you can no longer take a short cut down to the Gorillas from the Lion and Tiger enclosures, by taking the stairs. I really do not understand why they have done this. You now need to walk back on yourself past the entrance, and down the hill towards the Snow Leopard and Lions. And then you now cannot walk past the Howler Monkeys and Baboon towards the Colobus and De Brazza enclosure. Instead you have to walk past the Lions and Snow Leopard enclosures, and then weave in and out of all of the uncontrolled kids in the picnic area. After walking through all of that. You now can no longer walk down towards the Golden Mangabeys, but more of that later. As you walk past the rhinos, and get the baboons. Normal order is, kind of, restored, as I walk past the Bush Dogs, which were very active, and the antelopes. All is well until you reach the Carpathian Lynx and Caracals. As now you can no longer walk over to the Scottish Wild Cats, which is highly disappointing. However, I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of one, I just wish I was closer. You now need to walk through, what was once part of the Bison paddock, or what is now the Bison and Przewalski's Horse paddock, towards the brand new Pallas Cat enclosure, which was the one change I actually liked. I quite like the enclosure, not many places they can climb high, but nice space none the less. As you continue the path down, you reach the never present Margays, and other small cats, which were Ocelots, and Fishing Cats. The old Lion enclosure, above the lower Tiger enclosure, is now part of the Tiger enclosure, so the Bengal tigers now have a lot more space. Then you reach the biggest disappointment of them all, you can now no longer walk down towards the Hyenas, as well as the main pride of Barbary Lions. But I was really annoyed about the fact that they have only fairly recently received these Hyenas, and now you can no longer see them. However I can understand why, but I am still disappointed with the fact that you cannot get close enough so that if one is out, you can at least make it out.
After that it is all fine, you can still view all of the cat enclosures, plus Red Pandas have now returned to their old enlosure in small cat corner. I walked back up past the Gorillas, and primates all the way back to the African Experince stopped.
When I used to go with my dad, we never went on the Africa Experince. Well, once to try it out. It was awful, with an empty safari, and one of the worst reptile houses i have ever been in. So thats why we never did it again. This time I did it, as I was hoping I would get to see some of the animals, you no longer could. As it started, things turned bad already, with a stupid automated "guide" to tell us about the animals. As we drove down past the Golden Mangabys, which are never out, and can only be seen through a window to there indoor housing, which is not visble from the trucks, more disappointed, as the second Brown Hyena enclosure had no Hyena in sight. As the truck past the Rhinos, I had a look to see if the Snow Leopard was out. Which it wasn't. This is an animal, like the Brown Hyena, which you need to stand around for a long time to see, which you can't on a truck full of very annoying little kids, and dumb parents calling a Rhino a Zebra. Yes people, this happened. My face
. Anyway, we then past the Cheetahs, which are normally at the top of the hill resting, and saw nothing.
As the truck drove towards the African Experience, the was a paddock on our left holding two Zebras, I believe Grevy's, and about a dozen Wilderbeest. However there was no commentry to tell us about them, or why they were separate from the others. Just a automated voice trying to convince that the Kent countryside was Africa. As we drove along the very empty safari, we did spot some Nilgai, however again, no live commentry to spot them for you, and give us information about them. This continued, until the truck finally stopped at the top by the Discovery Centre. The Wolves which were ment to be up there were no where to be seen. The Discovery Centre was still as bad as I remembered, apart from the inclusion of Pygmy Marmosets. There is also a new Meerkat enclosure, which is completely different from their old, much more natural, with a lot more places to dig, one. So they now live in a very generic African themed enclosure, like every other Zoo. So after boarding the truck for the journey back, I was greeted by the sound of live commentry
Which was music to my ears. As the truck drove back, I was hoping it would drove to the Lions and Hyenas, but didn't, and drove towards the Lynxs, which is where I got off, walked past the cats, and primates to then exit the Zoo.
Overall I was very, very disappointed with the whole day, not only because of having to be stuck on a truck full of annoying children, but with the fact that the, "improvements" that they have made have in fact made the Zoo worse. Which is a huge shame, as this has now gone from being being one of my favorite zoos to visit, to one that I may never visit again. Which is another massive shame. I have sent an e-mail to the zoo in the hope that, if others do this as well, they will change things again for the better.
Thank you for reading.
The first thing which proved a huge disppointment was the fact the you can no longer take a short cut down to the Gorillas from the Lion and Tiger enclosures, by taking the stairs. I really do not understand why they have done this. You now need to walk back on yourself past the entrance, and down the hill towards the Snow Leopard and Lions. And then you now cannot walk past the Howler Monkeys and Baboon towards the Colobus and De Brazza enclosure. Instead you have to walk past the Lions and Snow Leopard enclosures, and then weave in and out of all of the uncontrolled kids in the picnic area. After walking through all of that. You now can no longer walk down towards the Golden Mangabeys, but more of that later. As you walk past the rhinos, and get the baboons. Normal order is, kind of, restored, as I walk past the Bush Dogs, which were very active, and the antelopes. All is well until you reach the Carpathian Lynx and Caracals. As now you can no longer walk over to the Scottish Wild Cats, which is highly disappointing. However, I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of one, I just wish I was closer. You now need to walk through, what was once part of the Bison paddock, or what is now the Bison and Przewalski's Horse paddock, towards the brand new Pallas Cat enclosure, which was the one change I actually liked. I quite like the enclosure, not many places they can climb high, but nice space none the less. As you continue the path down, you reach the never present Margays, and other small cats, which were Ocelots, and Fishing Cats. The old Lion enclosure, above the lower Tiger enclosure, is now part of the Tiger enclosure, so the Bengal tigers now have a lot more space. Then you reach the biggest disappointment of them all, you can now no longer walk down towards the Hyenas, as well as the main pride of Barbary Lions. But I was really annoyed about the fact that they have only fairly recently received these Hyenas, and now you can no longer see them. However I can understand why, but I am still disappointed with the fact that you cannot get close enough so that if one is out, you can at least make it out.
After that it is all fine, you can still view all of the cat enclosures, plus Red Pandas have now returned to their old enlosure in small cat corner. I walked back up past the Gorillas, and primates all the way back to the African Experince stopped.
When I used to go with my dad, we never went on the Africa Experince. Well, once to try it out. It was awful, with an empty safari, and one of the worst reptile houses i have ever been in. So thats why we never did it again. This time I did it, as I was hoping I would get to see some of the animals, you no longer could. As it started, things turned bad already, with a stupid automated "guide" to tell us about the animals. As we drove down past the Golden Mangabys, which are never out, and can only be seen through a window to there indoor housing, which is not visble from the trucks, more disappointed, as the second Brown Hyena enclosure had no Hyena in sight. As the truck past the Rhinos, I had a look to see if the Snow Leopard was out. Which it wasn't. This is an animal, like the Brown Hyena, which you need to stand around for a long time to see, which you can't on a truck full of very annoying little kids, and dumb parents calling a Rhino a Zebra. Yes people, this happened. My face
. Anyway, we then past the Cheetahs, which are normally at the top of the hill resting, and saw nothing.As the truck drove towards the African Experience, the was a paddock on our left holding two Zebras, I believe Grevy's, and about a dozen Wilderbeest. However there was no commentry to tell us about them, or why they were separate from the others. Just a automated voice trying to convince that the Kent countryside was Africa. As we drove along the very empty safari, we did spot some Nilgai, however again, no live commentry to spot them for you, and give us information about them. This continued, until the truck finally stopped at the top by the Discovery Centre. The Wolves which were ment to be up there were no where to be seen. The Discovery Centre was still as bad as I remembered, apart from the inclusion of Pygmy Marmosets. There is also a new Meerkat enclosure, which is completely different from their old, much more natural, with a lot more places to dig, one. So they now live in a very generic African themed enclosure, like every other Zoo. So after boarding the truck for the journey back, I was greeted by the sound of live commentry
Which was music to my ears. As the truck drove back, I was hoping it would drove to the Lions and Hyenas, but didn't, and drove towards the Lynxs, which is where I got off, walked past the cats, and primates to then exit the Zoo.Overall I was very, very disappointed with the whole day, not only because of having to be stuck on a truck full of annoying children, but with the fact that the, "improvements" that they have made have in fact made the Zoo worse. Which is a huge shame, as this has now gone from being being one of my favorite zoos to visit, to one that I may never visit again. Which is another massive shame. I have sent an e-mail to the zoo in the hope that, if others do this as well, they will change things again for the better.
Thank you for reading.
.