Chester Zoo The Islands development - planning, development and build (2012-2015)

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Bembe/Tsavo, we ate their once and never again. The noise is horrible, even with only a few people in there. The design is stupid.

When it was first posted on Facebook, it stated this development was going to be in the middle of the zoo. Which I thought couldn't be correct. They have since changed the posting though.

I can't imagine all of the present exhibits will just be emptied though. It would be such a was of space and resources. In fact from the look of the pictures on the site, the Tigers are staying exactly where they are and everything is going to be built around them. They'll just dig out some of the enclosure to make the pools you can see in the images.

Cannot imagine they would build something as big as this and not have it incorporating the monorail. That would be a silly thing to do.
 
Satan said:
I can't imagine all of the present exhibits will just be emptied though. It would be such a was of space and resources. In fact from the look of the pictures on the site, the Tigers are staying exactly where they are and everything is going to be built around them. They'll just dig out some of the enclosure to make the pools you can see in the images.

Cannot imagine they would build something as big as this and not have it incorporating the monorail. That would be a silly thing to do.
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'Islands' is not being built around the tigers. As stated earlier in this thread this development will be on currently undeveloped land behind the Zebra/Oryx paddocks, extending to the A41.

Not sure why it would be silly not to incorporate the monorail. This new area will include different modes of transport (boat tours etc.). The monorail is irrelevant to this project.
 
Satan said:
In fact from the look of the pictures on the site, the Tigers are staying exactly where they are and everything is going to be built around them. They'll just dig out some of the enclosure to make the pools you can see in the images.
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A little research is in order... reading one of the dozens of posts on the subject perhaps?
 
As soon as I read the words "Sumba" and "Sulawesi", I was thinking Sumba Hornbill & Red-Knobbed Hornbill........
Are there any Sumba Hornbills in captivity?
 
I can't wait to see this exhibit finished! It will be really interesting to see if new species will arrive to fill gaps or indeed the zoo decides to keep second groups of different species! A large proportion of the bird collection in the tropical realm may in theory be moving too! I wonder if is the beginning of the end for this building too! As for RotRA, I always thought the addition of sunbears and/or proboscis monkey would be a nice addition! Even the moving of the Sulawesi macaques from the monkey islands would be interesting as it will leave a sizeable primate enclosure free! Any thoughts on what would be a likely replacement?

On a second thought is this a first phase of the islands development to which others will be added to in the future? Madagascar etc?
 
Borneo orang utans, proboscis monkeys, gibbons and sun bears would be a FABULOUS combination for Rotra. If Apenheul is sucessful with their newly-imported proboscis monkeys, it could even be possible..

I`d love to see a large group of guenons/mangabeys in the monkey house once the sulawesi macaques have left. Red-capped, gold-bellied, back or white-crowned for example... owl-faced monkeys is dreaming since the numbers in Europe are so low nowadays. Chester doesn`t have any (have they?), and these monkeys are super attractive for the visitiors, really engandered in the wild and rare in captivity.
 
No animals from Sumba are to be exhibited. Sumba is the retail area and ticket office for the boat ride.
 
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The Islands development looks amazing. I too can't wait to see it all come to fruition. I think it will certainly be a very worthy 'replacement' for HOA. I have not seen the plans but expect that a large portion of Islands is likely to be inside. It has been mentioned that the zoo would like the increase in visitor numbers required to finance the cost of this and future developments to come largely from the colder months, thus requiring the exhibit to be weather proof. How soon will Chester reach 2 million visitors!?

Re: Monkey Islands: I think the zoo would aim to create geographical zoning, as this is clearly the strategy for the future vision. Could it house African species, to link into Tsavo etc? Drill? Baboons?
 
ChesterZooFan said:
The Islands development looks amazing. I too can't wait to see it all come to fruition. I think it will certainly be a very worthy 'replacement' for HOA. I have not seen the plans but expect that a large portion of Islands is likely to be inside. It has been mentioned that the zoo would like the increase in visitor numbers required to finance the cost of this and future developments to come largely from the colder months, thus requiring the exhibit to be weather proof. How soon will Chester reach 2 million visitors!?

Re: Monkey Islands: I think the zoo would aim to create geographical zoning, as this is clearly the strategy for the future vision. Could it house African species, to link into Tsavo etc? Drill? Baboons?
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Colobus and mangabey perhaps.
(HOA species ...)
 
Well having visited Leipzig which is a zoo that has very close to 2 million visitors,Chester is coping about as well if not better than Leipzig was the day I visited,the que to get food was about a good 25 minutes while on a adopters day at Chester que time to get food was about 15 minutes,and i would gues the numbers of visitors for the 2 days would have been about the same!!
 
bongorob said:
No animals from Sumba are to be exhibited. Sumba is the retail area and ticket office for the boat ride.
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Occam's Razor would cut that idea right out. Surely there are enough islands whose animals are on display without confusing the public with another location without any animals. If that's not multiplying entities without necessity, I don't know what is :rolleyes:
This will be Chester's first major zoogeographical display, so I hope it will provide some proper zoogeographical features. That means displaying animals from the same island close to each other and never putting animals from different islands in the same enclosure. I would like to see a clear frontier running across the whole exhibit to represent Wallace's Line, perhaps with little bridges where the path crosses it, with signs saying something like 'You are now entering the Australian Region - look out for marsupials and lots of parrots' and 'Welcome to the Oriental Region - populated with placental mammals and pheasants'.
I do hope that the vast majority of the species from these islands in the Zoo end up in this complex. For example, the zoo has chosen to show animals from New Guinea in Islands, so that should include the crocodile monitors and green tree monitors from RotRA, the pheasant pigeons and crowned pigeons from the Tropical House and Islands in Danger (plus any birds of paradise that might happen to arrive *touches wood*) as well as the cassowaries that are on the published list. It would be even better if they could add cuscus, forest wallaby or tree kangaroo ;). If this doesn't happen, at least in the majority of cases, I think the whole concept would lose its point.

Alan
 
gentle lemur said:
Occam's Razor would cut that idea right out. Surely there are enough islands whose animals are on display without confusing the public with another location without any animals. If that's not multiplying entities without necessity, I don't know what is
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that was my thought exactly, but does Chester do in-situ work in Sumba? If that is the case then there may be informational signage in this area to that effect. But yes, otherwise it does seem a little too much like they are just over-filling the bowl.

I like all the rest of your post very much also. :)
 
gentle lemur said:
Occam's Razor would cut that idea right out. Surely there are enough islands whose animals are on display without confusing the public with another location without any animals. If that's not multiplying entities without necessity, I don't know what is :rolleyes:
This will be Chester's first major zoogeographical display, so I hope it will provide some proper zoogeographical features. That means displaying animals from the same island close to each other and never putting animals from different islands in the same enclosure. I would like to see a clear frontier running across the whole exhibit to represent Wallace's Line, perhaps with little bridges where the path crosses it, with signs saying something like 'You are now entering the Australian Region - look out for marsupials and lots of parrots' and 'Welcome to the Oriental Region - populated with placental mammals and pheasants'.
I do hope that the vast majority of the species from these islands in the Zoo end up in this complex. For example, the zoo has chosen to show animals from New Guinea in Islands, so that should include the crocodile monitors and green tree monitors from RotRA, the pheasant pigeons and crowned pigeons from the Tropical House and Islands in Danger (plus any birds of paradise that might happen to arrive *touches wood*) as well as the cassowaries that are on the published list. It would be even better if they could add cuscus, forest wallaby or tree kangaroo ;). If this doesn't happen, at least in the majority of cases, I think the whole concept would lose its point.

Alan
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I'm imagining the hordes of visitors clamoring to go find the "placental mammals." Not to mention the pheasants...

Only kidding. I agree that--if accurately arranged and well-interpreted--a "both sides of the Wallace line" exhibit could be wonderful.
 
zoogiraffe said:
...i would gues the numbers of visitors for the 2 days would have been about the same!!
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There were ~7,000 at Chester on Saturday, but I've not got actual figures for Leipzig to compare, do you know what they were? Remember though that it's still only early March and things are going to get a whole lot worse.

The queues for food at Chester on the last Members' Day were horrendous and the wait far longer than twenty-five minutes in June's Pavilion. You can stand in line for at least fifteen minutes on any day in the Jaguar Coffee House, but that's a whole 'nother complaint.
 
SMR said:
The queues for food at Chester on the last Members' Day were horrendous and the wait far longer than twenty-five minutes in June's Pavilion.
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Thank goodness I didn't go. There were no seats inside at June's Pavilion when I went the Saturday before last, I had to sit outside, it hailed! I couldn't believe it was that busy in early March. On the plus side the hail woke the tigers up.

The only place I'd queue for 25 minutes is immigration!
 
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