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

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zooboy28 said:
Heart of Africa sounds super exciting, more so than Islands, although that may be because of the wishful species lists being posted here - I imagine the final one will be rather more grounded. Where will HoA actually be? Is it going to be in that corner that currently has the Tropical Realm, giraffes and Jags? Was the jaguar exhibit set to be part of it too? Is the African Savannah and hotel expansion set to be in new land adjacent to that?
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The original plan for Heart of Africa had it on the land outside the current zoo, beyond the Tropical Realm and butterfly house (the access was meant to be from near the butterflies). Not sure if this would still be the case but it would seem a likely spot. I would expect the jags to be unaffected but we have been told many times that if a building isn't listed, don't rule anything out!


Also - if gorillas are included and not pygmy hippos then I will have to send a strongly-worded letter to a certain person! :D
 
What about the African Wild Dogs and Tsavo, there's already an African theme going on in that corner of the zoo.
 
Waddi said:
What about the African Wild Dogs and Tsavo, there's already an African theme going on in that corner of the zoo.
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There wouldn't be anything to stop them having more than one African area, surely?!
 
Waddi said:
What about the African Wild Dogs and Tsavo, there's already an African theme going on in that corner of the zoo.
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That's more of an African Savannah zone at present. Heart of Africa was always going to be more of a rainforest theme.

I suspect that the plans will mirror 'Islands' somewhat, a bit of a 'forest trail' with a large indoor centrepiece for great ape(s). That would be as opposed to keeping a very large number of species in a huge biodome, as was originally planned.
 
Waddi said:
What about the African Wild Dogs and Tsavo, there's already an African theme going on in that corner of the zoo.
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I would have thought that would have been a good area to develop as the African plains part of the zoo too. I've had a little look at the zoo map and the space taken up by the roan antelope looks to be larger than the current giraffe paddock (although there's a good chance the map isn't to scale). If it was up to me (which it isn't and never will be) I'd move the giraffes over to where the roan antelope are. Move the roan antelope in with the zebras. You could even link up the two paddocks by removing the dividing path. Move the bongos from near the zebras to the giraffe house (which could be modified/knocked down/kept as it is). This would mean okapi, bongos, congo buffalo, red river hogs and chimps are all close together (species that would fit the Heart of Africa theme. Given that the HoA development is reported to be built in the area outside of the zoo near the giraffes, everything would be pretty close.

This would leave the zoo with an African savannah area of the zoo and an African rainforest theme in another area.

That's obviously my opinion but I'm sure I will get shot down by someone who is an active 'I know something you don't know' member.
 
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The roan antelope paddok is larger than the giraffe paddock. I don't think roan antelope and zebras would mix, male zebras can be very aggressive.
 
bongorob said:
The roan antelope paddok is larger than the giraffe paddock. I don't think roan antelope and zebras would mix, male zebras can be very aggressive.
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That is true. The roan antelope could go where the bongo are currently (I'm assuming they aren't mixed with the zebra).
 
Re HoA

The original plans were proposed to cost £90m for the HoA development, including a massive bioderm which was significantly bigger than the Islands Monsoon forest. It included several enclosures per species (e.g okapi had several indoor and outdoor enclosures). Their was also a large nocturnal house, and as already mentioned an extended boat ride that went inside and outside of the entire footprint. I would expect the species list to remain very similar to originally planned (minus nocturnal?) but the scale of the inside area and the scope of the project to be reduced significantly. I would like to see a series of smaller interlinked exhibits with indoor and outdoors viewing - on the lines of Congo forest at the Bronx Zoo- rather than one massive indoor exhibit. Will surely be cheaper to build too...

Re Savannah zone
This was originally to have been where Islands is now and included huge indoor house to house giraffe, hoof stock and hippos and crocodile. This will be almost certain not to happen now I expect. I agree with. Mr T that the giraffes and bongos should swap to create a fully complete "savannah theme " alongside the rhinos and painted dogs etc. the original natural vision plans kept the rhinos exactly where they are now so seems unlikely and In my opinion unnecessary to change the theming in this part of the zoo.

Mystery?
On some of the Islands plans the area currently housing the bears is listed as "foothills and flood plains" and the area currently between Islands and the park and ride has been labelled as " Madagascar" so it's anyone's guess as to exactly what the future holds. Anything is possible I suppose!
 
The original Heart of Africa plans

I have just been looking at the original documents in the Heart of Africa planning application. The original design filled the field to the north of the giraffes and the Tropical House from Flag Lane to Caughall Road. Under the biodome there was a central forest zone with a pool for slender-snouted crocodiles and a large aquarium. To the north was a shop and restaurant with offices and services. Then going around clockwise were chimps (double internal & double external enclosures), okapi + duiker (single & triple), mandrill + pygmy hippos (single & single), bongo (single & single), black and white colobus + red river hog (single & single) and finally gorillas + diana monkeys or colobus (double & double). Each exhibit also had off-show holding areas.
My memory played one trick on me, it was the footpath that snaked inside and out around each set of enclosures - the canal ran through the middle of the dome and then looped around the southern side past the hoofstock enclosures back to the boat station at the western end, near the main entrance and the education area.
I still think that a smaller version of this design would probably omit the canal and as all the larger species, except the gorillas and the pygmy hippos, are currently held at the zoo I would guess that one of these two might be omitted (Maguari and I will have to agree to differ about which we prefer). On the other hand there are alternatives, for example the bongo could stay in their present accommodation or move to a separate paddock beside the main dome. That might give room for some smaller exhibits (I'd like to add royal antelope to my previous wishlist). My other thought was about the combinations of species: duiker and okapi seems fine and perhaps red river hogs and colobus would work, but I'm not convinced about the others.
One other point, a redesigned HoA could not be too small. One of the main aims of the development was to provide an all-weather environment to attract visitors in the winter. Obviously Islands will provide this at one end of the zoo, but HoA could still be important at the other (particularly if the Tropical House is closed eventually), so I would not surprised to see
an education area and refreshment area retained in the design.

Alan
 
I have watched the development of the Islands project over the the last five weeks of the summer holiday and progress has seemed very quick. The bio dome is now up in a skeleton form, the bridge at the entrance is constructed and you can see development of many of the enclosures.

I am really excited about the announcement of the HoA plans and that it is expected to follow on so quickly after the Islands project. I would agree with an earlier post that Gorilla (amazing and sad to think that Chester has not had this species for nearly 30 years), Pygmy Hippo and Bonobo would be my choices (not that expect all three of them). This development also excites me because it also means the core of Chester Zoo will be facing many changes as species move out to Islands and eventually HoA, to hopefully be replaced by new species in the core of the Zoo.

I do hope that redevelopment of the core of the Zoo does include the Tropical House sooner rather than later. It does look far better inside the House at the moment than it has in over 10 years but I feel that it is still terribly neglected. I would prefer substantial investment in this building but failing that I would prefer it to be removed entirely.
 
Ickbur said:
I do hope that redevelopment of the core of the Zoo does include the Tropical House sooner rather than later. It does look far better inside the House at the moment than it has in over 10 years but I feel that it is still terribly neglected. I would prefer substantial investment in this building but failing that I would prefer it to be removed entirely.
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I agree, and it is certain this will go at some point in the future. In natural vision I think that area was to be replaced by an extension if HoA (marsh area for sitatunga) and then a new zone to include a large sea lion exhibit.

The new vision I believe uses this area as a rainforest zone - I think it is titled "rainforest adventure" on some of the plans. I have always felt that Chester under plays it's South American stock, and for me this area with all the established trees would be a great 'Amazon' zone. I can imagine bringing the spider monkeys, miniature monkeys, howlers, capuchins, bush dogs, tapir, bird species, coatis, agoutis, reptiles and amphibians etc together from across the current zoo into one geographical area. Add in a couple of smaller cat species and this would be a fantastic new zone leading into spirit of the jaguar.

Having looked at the Islands plans again there is another curve ball in that the area north of the oryx is labelled on one of the plans as 'chimps, gorilla, Bornean orang' !! Safe to say there are a myriad of possibilities and we will wait with baited breath to see what will actually happen in the years to come.
 
If Chester brings in Clouded Leopards, Sifaka, Sumatran Rhino and Aye Aye in the next 5 years I will be a very happy Zoo Geek :O)

...oh yes and Binturong.....and Margay.....and Civets......and Genets.......and honey badger.....and Ethiopian Wolves.......and any small cat species really!!

am I asking too much?
 
karoocheetah said:
am I asking too much?
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No! Not at all! With only one exception. I would love Chester to add a few more species of Cat particularly Clouded Leopard and Snow Leopard.


I would also love Chester to add Black Mamba (of which the specimen at London Zoo was the most active Herp I have ever seen by a mile).
 
Ickbur said:
No! Not at all! With only one exception. I would love Chester to add a few more species of Cat particularly Clouded Leopard and Snow Leopard.


I would also love Chester to add Black Mamba (of which the specimen at London Zoo was the most active Herp I have ever seen by a mile).
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ooo yes I would love to see more snakes - Cobra would be lovely too!

And some more of the rainforest type frogs as well please
 
karoocheetah said:
If Chester brings in Clouded Leopards, Sifaka, Sumatran Rhino and Aye Aye in the next 5 years I will be a very happy Zoo Geek :O)

...oh yes and Binturong.....and Margay.....and Civets......and Genets.......and honey badger.....and Ethiopian Wolves.......and any small cat species really!!

am I asking too much?
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Just binturong would do for me ... :)
 
I'd like to see sun bear introduced to compliment the Rotra once the sumatran orangs move out.
 
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