Chester Zoo "Superzoo"- rumours, confirmed etc...

B

brokehalo7

Member
Hello there,

Im a new member but have been lurking for a month or three, really enjoy the website.

Just thought id start this as there seems to be lots of info being put in other threads, so we can have a thread specifically for the "superzoo" expantion.

Information i know of from reading on here:

The zoo is set to expand 3 fold from its current size.
Realm of the red ape, and the new ele house(?) are the first parts to be implemented.
The "beginnings" area at the zoo entrance ( a bit pointless really, IMO)
"origins" aquarium.


the rest im a bit hazy about:

Are the okapi part of the superzoo plans?
I heard about some form on new transport is to be put in place?


and of course the cheetah's!!!??- cannot wait!

Are Gorillas/ any other species of bear planned for the super zoo?(would really love polar bear and sun bear!- but reallistically, with the "witch hunt" of zoos keeping polar bears i doubt it)

is it realistic to think this will all be ready by 2020?

sorry for such a long post!!!

Nathan
 
The so-called "witch hunt" for keeping polar bears out of zoos is somewhat justified by researchers and biologists. All bears, and especially those from the arctic, suffer badly in zoos. Not enough enrichment, too small of a space, a lack of substrate in the enclosure, and far too much pacing on concrete.

Having said all that...it's interesting to note that the Calgary Zoo in Canada is spending about $135 million on an arctic/antarctic complex that will feature several species of penguins, arctic foxes, and of course polar bears. If any zoo can pull off such a task it's the Calgary Zoo, due to its high latitude and freezing winter temperatures.

It's been a black mark on the eye of the usually great Singapore Zoo that they still maintain an algae-infested, green-coated polar bear that pants all day in the heat. That zoo has already stated that as soon as their solitary bear dies then they won't bring any more into the tropics.
 
But with the increase of global warming, and the very public plight of the polar bear, do you not think it would be more 'socially' acceptable?

I am sitting on the fence with this one, although it would be nice to see such a beutiful creature in the flesh, i understand where the concerns come from.
 
Polar bear exhibits are starting to pop up in more North American zoos, and I've seen them in San Diego, Denver, Portland, Tacoma, Calgary and San Francisco. There are at least 5 more North American zoos ( including Pittsburgh ) that have just recently built or are in the process of building polar bear exhibits. It's interesting to note that the U.K. only has the one bear. Isn't the Edinburgh Zoo the only zoo out of hundreds to have a bear?

Reportedly the largest polar bear enclosure in the world is at the Detroit Zoo (I've never been but might go next summer) where there is also an acrylic overhead tunnel that the bears can swim across. The bears are separated from a few seals by glass, and so are constantly tempted by a nearby dinner. The Detroit Zoo website has some great info on that large, award-winning enclosure.
 
Polar bears can be kept in zoos, but they require som extra effort, as opposed to the other bears. The Scandinavian Wild Animal Park in Denmark has the biggest polar bear enclosure ever. It doesn't have anything fancy dedicated to the visitors, such as artificial rock or polar scenery. It doesn't even have underwater viewing! But the exhibit is absolutely huge, and the bears have a whole lake to swim in. They do a lot of work to enrich the animals lives (uge rubber balls and such), and even an ice machine in one part of the enclosure, that sprays out 5 tons of ice every day. The zoo even imported some seal-meat for the polar bears, but since they are all captive-bred, they didn't like it :p. So it looks like polar bears will pick cow or pig rather than seal ;)
 
The Detroit Zoo's arctic complex is 4 acres in size, but I'm not sure how much of that is exclusively for the bears. The tunnel is 70 feet long, and if you enter "Detroit Zoo" on wikipedia then there is a great overhead photo of a bear swimming over the heads of zoo visitors.

Toddy: that Scandinavian Wild Animal Park in Denmark sounds terrific...you've mentioned it a couple of times on here and so I'll try to look it up online. Thanks!
 
There are actually two Polar bears in the UK, the private zoo run for 'Amazing Animals' in oxfordshire own one as well as edinburgh.

The global warming 'issue' as justification for more polar bear exhibits is nonsensical. If their habitat is literally vanishing, there is no point in breeding more in captivity. Climate change is not going to be halted now, regardless of our actions, most scientists publishing on climate accept that, so there is little point using such a complex and wide-ranging animal to raise awareness on something we are all fully aware of anyway.

There is a flipside to the anti-bear campaign in the UK, certainly dudley and chessington both sent their bears to similarly bad enclosures in europe, which is just as cruel as keeping them on in the same exhibits in england. They should have improved facilites and retired the animals they had within their own site.
 
Wow, this topic went off at a tangent after one reply!

On the subject of the Superzoo, I'm not sure there's much more information publicly available than what you've already stated, and most of that has trickled through over the last few years from local news articles and Chester Zoo's annual reports.

One or two of our members are 'in the know' and have discussed the plans with people high up at the zoo or seen the plans on display in the zoo's Education office. As to which species are being sought, Chester are deliberately keeping their cards close to their chest.

As for the programme, 2020 is the targetted completion date. The zoo invited submissions from a range of consultants (architect, landscape architect, project manager, quantity surveyor etc) earlier this year. That process closed in March and we've heard very little since, but I assume they now have a design team in place to take the design forward to the next stage which will be to prepare a planning application.

The plan is to deliver the project in a phased way which makes sense given the timescale and budget, and the need to keep the zoo operational during construction work.
 
Oh, as for polar bears I hope that Chester don't get back into this species. Conservation should in the first instance be concentrated on the 'front line', i.e. continental margins of the Arctic sea, which could provide a viable habitat for the bears long after the Arctic warms so much that the sea ice completely melts during the summer.
 
there was an article in the latest izes news letter which reported there will be four main areas in the superzoo plan, an African plains exhibit, with a drive through area in trucks. A water and islands area where the new aquarium will be placed, the tropical forest area with a 9000msq indoor biome and an area to replicate the Ngorongoro crater in Africa that will have huge towering cliffs.
 
Thanks kiang, it sounds exciting.

Isn't there quite a bit of overlap in terms of species between the Ngorogoro Crater and African Plains?

The 9000sqm indoor biome sounds huge. Isn't this about 3-4 times the size of the current Tropical Realm building?

We've also been told previously on Zoobeat (can't recall which thread) that the new aquarium has been delayed and the zoo will concentrate on a number of smaller projects over the next 12 months such as the bridge and the cheetah enclosure.
 
just double checking the article the area of the zoo will encompass around 400 acres, £3.8 million has already been committed to the planning stage and there is "provisional private funding for a hotel".
 
I always thought a hotel would figure in their plans. They already advertise 'Chester Zoo holidays' using a range of local hotels. Makes sense to build your own when you have that much land available. And given that it already takes a full day to see the whole zoo, it will easily occupy a weekend when it has tripled in size!

I wonder if the Superzoo will have an easy passage through the planning process. It has the backing of the NWRDA but local council planning departments are sometimes a law unto themselves....
 
$135 million??? Isn't that a "bit" too much? How much could be done for wild polar bears (and the whole arctic ecosystem) with only a tenth of that amount...
I tell You how to build a polar bear exhibit that won't cost that much and will result in happy polar bears: fence in a huge property with trees, bruhes, clean water basin, grass, sand, stones, rotten logs etc. and let just one or two bears inside; let them search for their food more and give them whole carcasses, let them dig, roll around in the mud and get dirty. If You had to walk all day long in a white sterile concrete area imitating "ice", You'd also develop stereotypic behaviour... I remember seeing a polar bear in that kind of naturalistic exhibit I envision ( I think somewhere in France) long ago: 't was the happiest polar bear I ever saw, though she sure wasn't snow-white anymore...;)
About the Danish exhibit:
Skandinavisk Dyrepark
 
Sun Wukong said:
$135 million??? Isn't that a "bit" too much? How much could be done for wild polar bears (and the whole arctic ecosystem) with only a tenth of that amount...
I tell You how to build a polar bear exhibit that won't cost that much and will result in happy polar bears: fence in a huge property with trees, bruhes, clean water basin, grass, sand, stones, rotten logs etc. and let just one or two bears inside; let them search for their food more and give them whole carcasses, let them dig, roll around in the mud and get dirty. If You had to walk all day long in a white sterile concrete area imitating "ice", You'd also develop stereotypic behaviour... I remember seeing a polar bear in that kind of naturalistic exhibit I envision ( I think somewhere in France) long ago: 't was the happiest polar bear I ever saw, though she sure wasn't snow-white anymore...;)
About the Danish exhibit:
Skandinavisk Dyrepark
Click to expand...


I feel a bit naughty dragging this Chester Zoo thread off topic but what you are saying here is something very interesting that I really agree with. Zoos need to stop trying to replicate the open snowy pack ice of the far Northern Arctic and try building some more tundra style exhibits with mosses, lichens, rocks, logs and pine trees etc. It'd probably be as cheap and twice the fun for the animals. As I understand it Detroit's bear enclosures features an area like this and it looks great.

More this sort of scene:
http://www.nanukpolarbearlodge.com/images/66762.jpg & Image:Ursus maritimus 3 1999-07-11.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anyway, back on topic, what does anyone know about the Masterplan? I remember reading about hippos and I guessed underwater viewing. Has this since been scrapped?
 
I do wonder where Chester are going to get the money from. After all, most of the £3.8million they are spending on the planning/design stage has come from the NWRDA, and is a drop in the ocean compared to the total capital cost of £300m. That's nearly 100 Realm of the Red Apes!

Edinburgh Zoo's masterplan budget has been sneaking up recently, and as we all know that project suffered a serious setback recently when the council blocked the sale of land for development. Do you think Chester will be going down the same route? They do own some 400 acres altogether.

Bristol Zoo seem to be struggling with their new wildlife park. Three years ago the budget was set at £30m and the opening date for 2009. Now, the budget is £62m and the opening date is 2012 (from the zoo's website).

For comparison, the proposed NiRAH aquarium in Bedfordshire had a projected budget of £250m orginally. That spiralled to £375m before the project had even got off the ground and now it seems to be trapped in limbo.
 
That depends which "schedule" you believe!

For example, the developer's website says it will open in 2010, but the ZSL website says 2011.
 
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