Chester Zoo The Animals Of Heart Of Africa

GouldianFinch

GouldianFinch

Well-Known Member
I Was Just Wondering What Would Happen To The Giraffe, Okapi And Chimp Houses After Heart of Africa Is Built As It Is Rumoured That These Animals Will Be In Heart Of Africa, Does This Mean That New Species Will Go In These Houses Or Will They Just Aquire More Of The Same Species, Some Please Tell Me Anything You Know...
 
Species I have heard slated for HoA are: Gorilla, Chimp, Okapi, Red River Hog and Mandrill. There will probably also be a number of free-ranging animals.

In answer to your question, I would imagine they would move the animals that they currently have into HoA, as it will be easier and make it more of a draw as the species cannot be seen elsewhere. After that, I guess their previous accomodation will either be demolished are used for a different species.
 
I thought They Were Going To Put Girafes In There Too, Let Me Check (Currently Checking Websites)

Chester Zoo - Natural Vision

No, No, Im Wrong, They Are'nt Putting Giraffes In, Although What Does Really Sound Exciting Is The Free Range Birds, Amphibians, Reptiles And Fish,

It Will Be Like A Eden Project, But Zoo Instead Of Garden, Although Eden Project Has Birds And Lizards In Ther Biomes...
 
Aswell This Has Probably Been Posted Before On Zoochat But This Video Is More Informative Than The Website...

 
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GouldianFinch said:
I Was Just Wondering What Would Happen To The Giraffe, Okapi And Chimp Houses After Heart of Africa Is Built
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According to a senior member of zoo management, it's highly likely that the entire Tropical House area - including giraffe house and paddock, okapi house and paddock, chimp house and island and the Tropical House - will be completely re-landscaped when Heart of Africa is built. This will include the demolition of the Tropical House, which is now believed to have a limited life (I don't know why, even though large areas are now closed it's fine for what it is and doesn't look to be falling down). Supposedly all this is slated for the next five years. I'd like to see them finish Realm of the Red Ape first.

PS. Just a friendly suggestion but could you please limit your capital letters to the start of sentences and proper nouns, it makes your posts quite difficult to read otherwise.
 
Tropical Realm is 46 years old. I assume that maintenace costs are hugely expensive.

The only thing that amazes me is that the zoo still have not made anything public despite saying planning permission would be submitted in September. It wasn't. I'm becoming concerned as to the delay.
 
bongorob said:
Tropical Realm is 46 years old. I assume that maintenace costs are hugely expensive. The only thing that amazes me is that the zoo still have not made anything public despite saying planning permission would be submitted in September. It wasn't. I'm becoming concerned as to the delay.
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I wouldn't like to guess at running costs, but being a mature structure probably counts for and against the Tropical House. It wasn't built in a time when energy efficiency was important, but conversely it's a far more permanent and structurally strong building than any recent addition.

The scope of and funding for Natural Vision concerns me. The zoo has taken a long time to get where it is today, building piece-by-piece. Realm of the Red Ape was the last major build but it is unfinished due to a lack of funds and its total cost is a drop in the ocean compared with NV's first phase, which includes the Heart of Africa exhibit itself, the main entrance development and the second access road. Almost all the costs for the consultancy and planning came from grants - £486K and £3.8M from the North West Development Agency - but I've no idea where the £95 million required over the next three years to fulfil all the plans is coming from, and you can bet they'll end up being well over budget. To put things in perspective, you'll have seen that the zoo's blurb states that over the last fourteen years, the total investment for all projects has been £33M.

I would hope someone with a level head takes a step back and looks at things realistically, perhaps deciding to build each individual element on a year-on-year basis over the next decade, rather than jumping in with both feet. These are exciting plans and I'd hate to see them fail because of an unrealistic budget and schedule.
 
Did anyone else get an email recently to participate in a survey about Natural Vision?

It seemed very much geared up towards building a set of data that could be used to attract corporate sponsorship.

There were questions questions about how often you currently visit zoos in the UK, would Heart of Africa encourage you to visit Chester Zoo again, do you visit other Cheshire based attractions when you go to Chester, is Chester zoo your main reason for visiting Cheshire. Also questions about which of the current and recent sponsors are you are of, do you feel that businesses/corporations have a duty to help the environment, would you feel more favourably to an business/corporation that invested in helping environmental/conservation issues, etc.
 
GouldianFinch said:
What Do You Think
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Personally, I'd take that with a huge pinch of salt and not get too carried away, it's probably just a rough artist's impression and there are quite a few different versions floating around, the one in the Cheshire and Warrington Economic Alliance PDF prepared from the zoo's Powerpoint by Robert Dillon is quite different.

Look at your map and ask yourself where all the animals that need under cover or indoor enclosures are going to live. Most of the houses in the east zoo have gone, including many of the important ones, including Islands in Danger. They forgot to draw on the monorail too.
 
Besides the bongo and okapi, will there be any other hoofstock, such as duiker included in the new habitat?
 
Richie Hell said:
Did anyone else get an email recently to participate in a survey about Natural Vision?

It seemed very much geared up towards building a set of data that could be used to attract corporate sponsorship.

There were questions questions about how often you currently visit zoos in the UK, would Heart of Africa encourage you to visit Chester Zoo again, do you visit other Cheshire based attractions when you go to Chester, is Chester zoo your main reason for visiting Cheshire. Also questions about which of the current and recent sponsors are you are of, do you feel that businesses/corporations have a duty to help the environment, would you feel more favourably to an business/corporation that invested in helping environmental/conservation issues, etc.
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I got one and filled it in.
 
Heart of Africa should include many species that Chester keep already, but there are also some unusual species which would be appropriate and which would excite even the most hardened ZooChatter
  • otter shrew
  • otter civet
  • spot-necked otter
  • Cape clawless otter
  • royal antelope
  • African chevrotain
  • any number of duikers
  • crested manageby
  • any number of guenons
  • Picathartes
  • puffback, wattle-eyed and paradise flycatchers
  • waxbills, whydahs and firefinches
  • any number of shrikes, bush-shrikes and cuckoo-shrikes
I know that most of these species are highly unlikely to be available. But Chester does not keep very many small mammals or even birds from Central Africa, so just a couple of these species would add to the exhibit. I'd also like to see some of the really cool fishes from Lake Tanganyika and the Congo/Lualaba river system too.

Alan
 
Animals like the chevrotain would be fascinating additions, although in large themed enclosures they're only likely to reward the most patient - or lucky - visitor. Although a great choice, I don't think there's any chance of otter civet given so little is known about them and the fact that they're nocturnal, but another water-dwelling species would work well as there seem to be many water features in the planned exhibits.

Any thoughts about smaller cat species? That's another area where the zoo is currently somewhat lacking. African golden cat maybe, although notoriously skittish in captivity they may do well in naturalistic environments.

How about African tiger fish to keep people away from the canals? ;)
 
SMR said:
Personally, I'd take that with a huge pinch of salt and not get too carried away, it's probably just a rough artist's impression and there are quite a few different versions floating around, the one in the Cheshire and Warrington Economic Alliance PDF prepared from the zoo's Powerpoint by Robert Dillon is quite different.

Look at your map and ask yourself where all the animals that need under cover or indoor enclosures are going to live. Most of the houses in the east zoo have gone, including many of the important ones, including Islands in Danger. They forgot to draw on the monorail too.
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true, i do agree with you but it coulds also be a possible outlook on what the zoo may look like

sure a few buildings and the monorail is missing but could this be the future shape of the zoo, it is a possibility
 
GouldianFinch said:
sure a few buildings and the monorail is missing but could this be the future shape of the zoo, it is a possibility
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These plans are still very much likely to change, developments like this go through several stages to get to its final design (even than in construction things may change). It's also usually very unlikely for the original plans to remain unchanged.

Chester are looking at all sorts of different ways to get around the zoo, that probably also included a study on the monorail to see if it could be improved, should continue in current format or be scrapped.
 
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