Swooping around Scotland- The MagpieGoose Migration

MagpieGoose

MagpieGoose

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
Over the next 2 weeks, I will be visiting various zoos in Scotland and thought I might write my thoughts on each one :)

Five Sisters Zoo Park- 19/08/2017

After leaving home at 6:00, I arrived at Five Sisters Zoo Park at 10:30 (Stopping for an English breakfast on the way ;) ) . I had been pouring down on the way up but the weather had cleared and starting to dry and I went into the zoo.

I headed straight to the ‘The Lost Kingdom’ which is home to some species like Grey Ratsnake, African Pygmy Dormouse, Woma Python and Purple Grenadier. I quite liked the Leaf-cutter Ant exhibit which went from one moated exhibit, over the invert exhibits and into the walk-through enclosure (home to Yellow-footed Tortoise, Red-footed Tortoise, Green Iguana, Pacific Parrotlet, Sun Conure, Mealy Amazon and Yellow-shouldered Parrot). The crocodile monitor enclosure was well-done aswell and I quite liked the Dwarf Crocodile and Yellow-crowned Weaver mixed exhibit, the 2 species didn’t seem to mind each other. Upon leaving the kingdom building, you enter ‘The Castle Zoo’ which is home to mainly birds and domestics along with Egyptian Fruit Bat, Sugar Glider, Black Rats and Kinkajou. My favourite part of this exhibit was seeing the Sugar Glider, I’m pretty sure both are lifers. Other exhibits near-by includes ‘Meerkat Savannah’ (a mixed exhibit of Meerkat, Yellow Mongoose, Sulcatta Tortoise and Stanley Crane), individual enclosures for Cape Porcupine, ASCO, Black-&-White Ruffed Lemur and Ring-tailed Lemur, decent exhibits for each. ‘Birds of the World’ is a walk-through aviary, this being the first place I had been in a walk-through enclosure with Kookaburra which is a nice experience to see them up-close. Highlight species of this aviary also were the Green Imperial Pigeon, White-cheeked Turaco and of course seeing the Kookaburra up-close. The owl and parrot aviaries neighbouring are well-planted and fine for the birds. The primate cages are decent, with my favourite being the mixed Saki, Red-bellied Tamarin and Agouti cage. The zoo also mix the Azara’s Agouti with the Goeldi’s Monkey. It’s always nice to see De Brazza’s Monkey and today wasn’t an exception, the enclosure is tall and provides plenty of space for them, same goes for the spider monkey enclosure. I did go and see the Lar Gibbon enclosure and although it as a very good enclosure for the gibbons, it is very ugly. One thing I also noticed is they are quite keen on over-head tunnels for the primates connecting the indoor and outdoor.

I moved on to the Lynx enclosure which is OK, reminded me of the Ocelot enclosure at Paradise WP. I then moved on to the Ring-tailed Coati, which a densely planted enclosure and very good for the inhabitants. The next enclosure along was home to the Corsac Foxes, a nice species which I was devastated to miss at Paradise but the ones here didn’t disappoint. I counted 9 in total and I am glad I have seen them at the zoo. I briefly spotted the Bat-eared Fox but didn’t see the Fennec Fox in the enclosure neighbouring although I saw 2 in an enclosure by the eagle-owls. I saw the back-end of a European Badger and the also saw the European Polecat quite active. Some work was being done on the Water Vole enclosure which I thought was very nice. The American Mink and Bank Vole were both active aswell as the Northern Racoon. I walked down to the pygmy goat and Barbary sheep enclosure, which I quite liked (I counted 8 individual Barbary sheep). The bear enclosure is very impressive, I really liked it. The densely forested area is home to 3 female ex-circus European Brown Bears. I saw 2 females (Carmen and Peggy), one in the forest enclosure, and the other in the winter pen sleeping. I then went to the Artic Wolf enclosure and this was another lifer for me. The 2 females kept running from one end of the enclosure to the other. I later went back to the Artic Wolf enclosure and watched them being fed. I quite liked the Tapir/Capybara enclosure, which is done nicely. The 2 male tapirs are kept separate and have access to the outdoor on alternate days. I also really liked the Lion enclosure, very well done in my opinion. The castrated males are very large and spent most of today sleeping together. Other enclosures include the squirrel monkey one by the café and in the education room, there is a viewing area into a guinea pig enclosure and a fish tank which had Convict Goby, Chocolate Chip Sea Star, Dusky Angel and Common Clownfish signed although I only saw the clownfish. Construction has begun on a new indoor kids play-area and restaurant.

Overall, I really did like Five Sisters Zoo. It’s got a unique feel about it and somewhere I definitely would visit again in the future :)
 
Just don't forget to visit Scottish Owl Centre - it is only a stone's throw away from Five Sisters and has the biggest owl collection in the world at the present time!
 
TeaLovingDave said:
Just don't forget to visit Scottish Owl Centre - it is only a stone's throw away from Five Sisters and has the biggest owl collection in the world at the present time!
Click to expand...
As much as I would love to, a visit to the Scottish Owl Centre is looking unlikely at the moment :(
 
RZSS Edinburgh Zoo- 20/08/2017

My return to Edinburgh; I first visited the zoo in 2009 and then again in 2014 and on each visit there seems to be loads of changes. I remember on my first visit to Edinburgh, seeing the sea lions upon entering, although now their enclosure has been converted for meerkats which is more than a disappointment. As I was booked into the pandas at 10:30, I headed straight to them. I passed the African Hunting Dogs, which were inside and the African aviary of which I saw the Dik-Dik and a most of the bird species. The monkey house has some nice species like L’hoest’s Monkey, Drill and Diana Monkey but the enclosures are disappointing. The outdoors are fine for height, just lacking in space really. I then headed to the Pandas, the indoors couldn’t be viewed so this involved a lot of waiting around. I had no success in the morning but went back later and saw the male Yang-Guang sleeping on the wooden platform. Although the keeper was telling people to be quiet, people were just ignoring them. This led me to the Penguin Rock, which is a very nice exhibit; home to 3 species of penguin being Rockhoppers, Gentoo and King Penguins. Being honest, I have to say this is probably the best penguin enclosure that I’ve seen. I also saw the famous king penguin, Brigadier Sir Nils Olav III and also saw the all-white Gentoo called Snowflake. Leaving the penguins, I went to the Indian Rhino enclosure, the male Brutus was in the pool when I arrived. The enclosure is OK, but there is room for improvement. I popped to the Malayan Tapirs and both were inside together. The next exhibit was ‘Wee Beasties’ which has some nice species namely Egg-eating Snake and Natal Dwarf Chameleon. My one criticism of this, is the viewing area is quite small and gets crowded quite easily. The Pancake Tortoise exhibit is quite quirky, it’s in the middle of the keeper’s staircase, so the keepers have to walk-through the enclosure to get up the stairs! There is quite a lot of emphasis on snail conservation in the building. I then went back to the bottom of the zoo, to the Pelican walk-through which has been built since my last visit. Two of the pelicans flew towards the public path and stopped just before the glass, causing the crowd to step back. It wasn’t until I saw the Pelican up-close that I could appreciate its size. I went into the Monkey Walkthrough and saw the female Saki had a baby although it was too crowded to get a photo. I stopped by the Chinese Goral, which was a lifer. I counted 2 Goral today.

I then went on to the Budongo Trail which is home to the zoos 17 strong group of Chimpanzees, of-which I saw 16, just missing the one male called Louis or King Louis as he is listed in the studbook. The youngest chimp, Velu was born a couple of months after my previous visit, so got to see him for the first time. Budongo is definitely my favourite Chimp exhibit I have ever seen. I went to the chimp feeding of which was quite interesting. I then went to the Pygmy Hippo house where I was to find the 2 hippos (Otto and Gloria) lying next to each other. Also in this house was a very curious Southern Cassowary and a sandy enclosure with nothing in it. I then went to the Sun Bears and I saw one strolling about the enclosure. I’ll never forget seeing the sun bears at Edinburgh, as it was the first place I ever saw Sun Bears and didn’t see them anywhere else until I visited Colchester in 2015 but now I see them very often with Chester being my local zoo. I saw both the Pudu and Agouti in their enclosure and then went to the Hyrax enclosure which is also fantastic. This then led me to Koala Territory, and upon entering I saw the female Alinga and her little Joey was hanging out of the pouch which was very cute. The 2 males Gonaroo and Yabbra were both sleeping in their enclosures. I then walked through the Wallaby Walk-through, which is home to some Swamp Wallabies and headed to the top of the zoo. I ended up at Tiger Tracks which is a new exhibit which opened last year. The male and female are kept separate, with the female being in the old enclosure and the male in the new one. I quite like the new enclosure, it’s well-planted and plenty of viewing spaces. The male was at the back of the enclosure so only saw a bit of him. I quite liked the tunnel, a concept I don’t think I’ve seen before with Tigers. I did pop past the Asiatic Lions briefly and saw both the male and the female and headed down to the Scottish Wildcat enclosure. Neighbouring the Scottish Wildcats is an enclosure home to some Baer’s Pochard although I’m sure it had the Rockhoppers in on my last visit. The Wildcat enclosure is good, I saw one individual in it. I did look with sadness upon the old carnivore row, which now just been converted into an educational area. I walked down to the Swamp Wallaby/Siberian Musk Deer enclosure, of which I saw the musk deer sitting under a tree in the shade. I came back and it was right by the fence which gave me the opportunity to see and photograph it better. I finally saw Margay, after missing it at the Welsh Mountain Zoo. One thing I must admit is that they are much smaller than I thought of them to be. I liked the Magic Forest but it had a few repetitive species like 2 exhibits for Goeldi’s Monkey and 2 exhibits for Douroucouli. Upon exiting, I entered Living Links which is home to a mixed exhibit of Common Squirrel Monkey and Brown Capuchin. The 2 groups of each species both have tall and grassy areas, providing plenty of climbing for the animals.

Brilliant Birds is still closed for refurbishment but the foyer area, which is labelled on the map as Fishes and Frogs, is home to Atlantic Mudskipper, Mexican Blind Cavefish, Green-spotted Pufferfish, Banded Archerfish, Phantasmal Poison Frog, Blue Poison Dart Frog, Figure-of-eight Puffer, Cardinal Tetra and Leaf-cutter Ants. I was disappointed by the Mudskipper enclosure, as compared to others I have seen (Chester, Bristol, Birdworld, The Deep & Living Coasts) it was tiny. The Golden-cheeked Gibbon enclosure is very impressive, both tall and spacious and brilliant for the gibbons to swing about. Although I didn’t go in the Lemur Walk-through, I did see it from the viewing platform but saw no lemur. The cage for the Crowned Lemurs is similar to that of the Monkey House, tall but not spacious. It appeared that the Crowned lemurs only had access to the long tunnel from their house on this day. The indoor Binturong was shut off today but I saw the neighbouring Red-River Hogs and Taiwan Beauty Snake. I quite like the Banteng paddock, home to quite a large herd. My favourite section of it being the grassy paddock closest to the otter with the stream running into the pool at the bottom. I walked back to the top of the zoo to the African Savannah which is home to the Grevy’s Zebra and Lowland Nyala. It’s a beautiful enclosure but I can’t help but feel that it’s quite empty. I don’t think Giraffes would work due to the steep nature of the exhibit but a few more species would make the exhibit more exciting. I then headed round the top, passing the Giant Anteaters and after a failed attempt to see the Nile Lechwe, I started to go back to the entrance. Although I would like to have stayed longer, the football team I support Tottenham Hotspur were playing Chelsea and my first method of trying to listen to it on the radio through my headphones whilst walking round the zoo failed, I left the zoo and found a pub to watch the second-half. For those who know the score, will know that I should have stayed at the zoo….
 
RZSS Highlands Wildlife Park- 23/08/2017

HWP was in my top 5 UK zoos I want to visit, so I was really looking forward to going. When I arrived, I headed straight for the Wolverine enclosure. This large grassy enclosure is definitely the best Wolverine enclosure I have ever seen. Although I did not actually see any wolverines, I had seen them in the past at Edinburgh, Cotswolds and Whipsnade. I then went over to the Lynx enclosure, which again is very good enclosure. I saw 2 adults and 1 cub on my first visit to the enclosure, then the mother with 2 cubs on the next visit and I counted about 7 individuals on my 3rd visit to the enclosure including the 3 cubs! A neighbouring aviary is home to some Eurasian Eagle Owl but I think it had Pallas Cats in previously, which have either left or gone off-show but are still listed on Zootierliste. Opposite is an enclosure for a couple of Turkmenian Markhor. This was a lifer for me and to see the amazing spiralling horns was a thing of beauty (as was the other Markhor enclosure but I’ll get onto that later ;) ). Someone posted on here that the Snow Leopard enclosure here is the best in the UK by a long way and the best one I had seen up until now was Twycross but this is by far the best. The steep rocky enclosure is home to 2 Snow Leopards (1:1). It was also quite nice to see the female Snow Leopard, ‘Animesh’, as I saw and photographed her as a cub on my first visit to Marwell and was my highlight of that visit and was very glad she now has a home as excellent as HWP. The 2 Leopards spent the whole day in the cage at the top. The Markhor are given access to this enclosure at night. Speaking of Markhor, next along is there fabulous exhibit. The enclosure which features a rocky hill side can be viewed from both the bottom and top. In here was the mothers and calves, who were at the top of the enclosure but later came down and it was nice to see them climb down the rocks. I found it quite amusing to see the zoo has an orange trampoline for the Markhor. The zoo’s 2 male Polar Bears live in an enclosure nearby. I made a claim in the thread ‘Bears!’ that Yorkshire Wildlife Park’s Polar Bear enclosure is the best the UK have to offer but I most definitely wrong. This very large enclosure also has a pool at the bottom at which both Walker and Arktos were swimming in. They both came to the top viewing fence and got to see the 2 males up-close which was an amazing experience.

I then headed down to the Arctic Fox enclosure, of which I saw one curled up and another drinking water out of a bowl, these were a lifer. I then went to the Amur Tiger enclosure which is a lovely forested enclosure with a couple of pools. The pair were pacing along the top whilst I was there. Also near-by is an enclosure for Musk Ox, I saw 3 individuals; 1 of which is kept in a separate enclosure. I headed down the long path, to the female Polar Bear enclosure. Seeing the female, Viktoria, meant that I had now seen all 7 of the UK’s Polar Bear and also the only female. She was staying at the back of the enclosure but when the crowd went away, she came to the front and went to lay in the pool. The enclosure is just as good as the males’ one but viewing is not as good. Hopefully she’ll have some cubs in the future. I walked down to the Japanese Macaque enclosure which is massive. The macaques (lifers) are quite an active bunch, one of them stood on its hind-legs and tried to look into the café through the viewing window. I went down to the beaver enclosure but didn’t see any, if I had seen one it would’ve been a lifer. I went back to this exhibit later and this time there was a beaver sized trap in the enclosure. Following the path along led me to the Great Grey Owl aviary, I saw 2 individuals and further along is the ‘Wild About Scotland’ exhibit. This is mostly made up of to Scottish wildlife. I say mostly as the aviary seen as you enter, called the James P Watson Aviary, is home to Temmink’s Tragopan. Further along is a viewing area for wild Red Squirrels. I saw one Red Squirrel climb a tree close to the wildcat enclosures. The Scottish Wild Cat enclosures are about 3 or 4 cages linked with over-head tunnels. Luckily I went when they had just fed the Wildcats and saw one grab a mouse the keeper had left and take it across the tunnel to where the other cats were. Carrying further along, it lead to the another Markhor enclosure and further along a White-lipped Deer enclosure. They were in a back enclosure and far away so quite hard to see. I also got views of the Mishmi Takin, Bactrian Camels and Yak from the top of this area. I headed over to ‘Wolf Wood’ which is home to the parks very large pack of wolves. I really liked this densely forested enclosure they had, one of the best I have seen for the species. Further along was another lifer in Eurasian Forest Reindeer. Sadly, they only have one now but will hopefully get some more soon. When I arrived, the remaining individual came out the started stripping bark from a branch and I was able to watch it for a good five minutes before it went back under the shelter beneath the viewing area.

I had done most of the zoo by now but had not done a very large chunk of it- the drive-through area. You enter by going into the Main Reserve which is home to the European Bison, Przewalski’s Horse and Red Deer. This reserve is 82 acres in size and the views surrounding are quite simply breath-taking. The next reserve along is a large grassy enclosure for Vicuna of which I saw 4 individuals. Bukhara Deer are in the next reserve, which was home to from what I could see 1 stag, 2 does and 2 fawns. This species were another lifer. The European Elk were next, but I did not see them the first time round but after driving round again I saw 2 being fed. It’s the closest I’ve been able to get to an Elk, so it was amazing to see it up-close. After re-entering the main reserve, further along the road was an unsigned enclosure (Unless you look on the map, on which they are labelled) home to Himalayan Tar. Due to the fact it was unlabelled, quite a few people drove past it which I thought was a great shame. Most of them were lying down together but it was hard to see as they were in a dark part of the enclosure, these were another lifer. I also saw some wild Barnacle Geese and Lapwings in the main reserve. By this point, I had used up the whole of my camera battery and foolishly left my spare one at the place I was staying at. Due to this, I couldn’t really get the photos I was wanting of certain animals (Takins) so gives even more the reason to come back.

It’s not often that a zoo goes straight to my top 10 but Highlands did. I find it hard to compare to any other zoo as it is all outdoor, all big paddocks. Highlands has gone from my top 5 collections I want to visit over to the collection I want to return to as soon as I can!
 
Camperdown Wildlife Centre- 26/08/2017

First all, I would like to say sorry for not updating this thread for a few months, just haven’t found the time to do the write-ups. After spending the night in a Travelodge just on the edge of the Camperdown Country Park, I headed to the zoo for just before 11am. Camperdown is a quite small zoo but one with a lot of character.

Entrance price is very cheap at just £5 to get in which is very good compared to what some zoos will charge. The first enclosure is a large partly forested exhibit for Ring-tailed Lemur and Red-bellied Lemur. It features two very tall trees which provide great climbing for the lemurs. This enclosure has since had the lemurs moved out and a group of Lion-tailed Macaques moved in. Next to it is an enclosure in quarantine for a pair of Lar Gibbons which had recently arrived from a zoo in France. Although in quarantine, they were both visible and active. Further along is a mixed aviary of Violet Turaco (they seem to have a lot of these at Camperdown!) and some Burmese Mountain Tortoise (although not signed, I am sure one was a Red-footed Tortoise). There is also an enclosure for some Eurasian Lynx which was quite big and had plenty of places for them to hide. Next door was an enclosure for a large family of European Wolves. They are due to be moved into a bigger enclosure which is next door to the current enclosure, the new enclosure was having an electric wiring added in preparation for them moving enclosure (the new enclosure is on the site of the current Mara enclosure). There current enclosure is alright but having a new one will be a welcome addition to the Wildlife Centre. Also near-by is a very large aviary for 2 Hyacinth Macaw. Although this aviary is very ugly on the outside, I actually really like it. It is very spacious compared to other Macaw aviaries I have seen in the past and provides them plenty of space to fly or just sit on branches. Two very similar cages near here housed some Dutch Bantam in one and some Ferrets in the other and a bit further along, an enclosure for some Rothschild’s Mynah which had some quite quirky mesh viewing windows in the shape of the Mynah. There are also a few enclosures along the walls of the walled gardens, the two nearest the new Wolf enclosure housed Scottish Wildcat and 2 Common Cusimanse. Since my visit, the Scottish Wildcat have been moved out and a Amur Leopard Cat has moved in. Along from the Wildcats and Cusimanse was an aviary for Lilac-breasted Roller and a Red-billed Chough mixed with some Swinhoe’s Pheasants. There also a few aviaries along the other side of the wall which are home to some Golden Eagles in one aviary, some Guinea Pigs (last time I checked, they couldn’t fly :p) in the next and Waldrapp Ibis and European White Stork mixed in a large aviary at the end. Near-by is also aviaries for Java Sparrow, Polecats, Northern Hawk Owl and some Red-bellied Lemurs. There are also paddocks for European Mouflon and Rhea and a small group of Visayan Warty Pigs.

The next area is the Walled Garden and the first exhibit in was some tall cages home to Pygmy Marmoset, Red-handed Tamarin, Common Marmoset and some more Violet Turacos. Next door is an enclosure for Ocelot. In the past this enclosure had held some Brown Bears but is now much better suited to holding the Ocelots. I was told that the single male Ocelot which they had (they have since received a female from BNC) wasn’t very showy so I didn’t see any Ocelot. A lot of the space in the walled gardens is taken up by the Asian Short-clawed Otter enclosure which was empty at the time of my visit due to the last Otters dying recently (the zoo do now again have otters). Another empty enclosure near the otters was the former Skunk enclosure which was awaiting to be developed in to a new enclosure for the Cusimanse. There is a walk-in house adjacent to this enclosure which appeared to have nothing in, although it looked like it would hold some sorts of reptiles or small mammals. There was also the bat house, which was quite poorly lit and rather empty. This had previously held the zoo’s marmosets up until they moved to their new enclosure but is now just home to a just a group of Seba’s Short-tailed Bat. The former marmoset outdoors are now home to Vietnamese Pheasant and Violet Turaco. The walled gardens also contained a row of owl aviaries, a large enclosure for a pair of Black-and-white Ruffed Lemurs and an enclosure for a group of meerkats. The main attraction in the zoo is the group of Brown Bears. The group is made up of an elderly female called Star and a young male called Brumm and his two sisters Maja and Brumma. Luckily, when I got to the Bear enclosure they had just fed them. As it was a hot summers day, the keepers filled up the bears pool and added loads of apples to encourage the bears into the water. The younger bears did some apple bobbing for about 10 minutes before hopping into the pool. The bear enclosure, in my opinion, is quite good but I have definitely seen worse.

Overall, I really liked Camperdown. I think the weather also helped as I don’t think I would’ve enjoyed it as much due to the lack of indoor areas for the public. My only problem with Camperdown is that there were a lot of empty enclosures but they have plans on filling those enclosures (e.g. Cusimanse going into the Skunk enclosure).

Again, sorry for the long breaks between reviews just haven’t found the time to write them up. After finishing this one, I just have 2 more zoo reviews to finish from my Scotland trip and then I will be all done :)
 
Robertson Museum and Aquarium- 30/08/2017

I had never heard of this collection until I was reading in the smaller wildlife attractions section of the IZES Guide to British Zoos and Aquarium and when I found out it was near to where I was staying so I thought, why not? I caught a ferry over from Largs to the Isle of Cumbrae and from the ferry port, I caught a bus to the only town on the island called Milliport. There isn’t very much to do on the island, along with the aquarium there is a cathedral, golf course and holiday park along with the usual shops. There was also a very nice house called Garrison House where I stopped to have a tea and a cake. I then had to work out how to get to the aquarium and seeing as it was just under 2 miles from my location, I decided to hire a bike. The cost for the hiring the bike was very good as I paid £5 to rent for the whole day. So after cycling along the road, I finally arrived at the Robertson Building. This building was named after David Robertson, who was a naturalist from Cumbrae. The building was built in 1897 as a marine biological station.

The aquarium costs £2.50 to get into and is made up of local marine species. The aquarium is very small with one room full of about 10 tanks. Species like Squat Lobster, Butterfish, Norway Lobster, Yarrel’s Blenny, Great Spider Crab, Plaice, Lesser-spotted Dogfish, Velvet Swimming Crab, Shore Crab, Five-bearded Rockling, Three-bearded Rockling, European Lobster, Corkwing Wrasse and many species of starfish fill up the aquariums tanks. The tanks at the aquarium are very basic and only take around 10 minutes to look around. The museum shows off some of the work that David Robertson did and also features 2 taxidermy Gannets.

After spending a short amount of time at the aquarium, I decided to cycle round the island giving beautiful views of other neighboring islands like the Isle of Bute and the Isle of Arran. After cycling about 10 miles around the island I returned back to bike shop and walked along the sea front and saw one of Cumbrae’s icons called ‘Crocodile Rock’ which is basically just a colorful crocodile painted on one of the rocks by the sea. I also read a sign stating that cycling is the national sport of Cumbrae before returning back to Largs on the ferry.

Just one more review to go now and then all is done ;)
 
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