Definitely do!
Bristol Zoo (Closed) The last crusade: Bristol
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What species reside in the second enclosure?
African penguin, Inca tern and common eider.
Wow. Quite a nice, large enclosure for them. Might be one of the best in the world for African Penguin..
Ye it’s fantastic. Definitely one that will be missed!
Yesterday, I had what may well be my last ever visit to the zoo on the Clifton site.
I would say it was solidly good, but things felt as if they were starting to wind down for September..
A ladder was found within the Kea exhibit - and the birds were seemingly using this to climb.
The Reptile house was, again, good, but felt also rather uneventful.
Same goes for Aquarium - no sign of Mudskipper or Piranha ?
Monkey Jungle - again good, but nothing amazing.
If anything, perhaps this description could describe a number of exhibits in the zoo over the years - the Pygmy Hippo exhibit [when they were still there] was rather unchanged from Rhino days..
The Zona Brazil exhibit [when that was still there] was also fairly lacklustre - even with superficial South America theming, the exhibit for Tapir + Capybara looked more reminiscent of a Brazillian farmyard with a patio than wilderness.. And from what I hear, perhaps my favourite exhibit in the zoo, the Twilight World, was rather lacklustre in its last days - no dasyures, though the aye-aye were still there.. and according to ZTL, the animals are presumably still at the zoo, albeit off-show.
The Seal and Penguin coasts also felt a bit left behind, but was nice as always - the seals in particular were a good show.
I didn't bother with the Gorillas so I cannot comment on that - though the Monkey Islands seemed fairly static - everyone was indoors, or outside not doing much - the Agile Gibbons were certainly there, just not very *agile*... The Golden Lion Tamarins were nice to see and add to the photographic collection however, after a no-show at Marwell. [Those animals were apparently more visible in the past but grew rather aggressive from public interaction - maybe that is why Marwell's last GLT is in a heavily foliated exhibit?]
In all, I perhaps am lead to think a fair part of the fall of Bristol Zoo is simply, as I said, its current dullness - Twilight World in its better years had an interesting array of species for sure, but the lighting was not good at all. [The aye-ayes, unfortunately, were little more than motional shadows] The west part of the zoo is solid, but lacks in confidence that can be found elsewhere. And with various zoos nearby such as Noah's Ark Zoo Farm - which seems to be laying back a bit on religious agenda these days and has large animals - it seems only natural the public would be more attracted to elephants etc than a pair of Tartaric Hornbills. The site was ultimately too small to do anything profound, 21st century wise with it - much a product of its time. If anything, Bristol is a shining example of difficulties city zoos may face as time progresses - such exhibits as the Monkey Temple [which was apparently disapproved by some even in its era] and Polar Bear pits may have been viewed as groundbreaking in their times, but as attitudes to multi-culturalism and animal welfare progressed, these exhibits were looked at as prejudiced and incredibly lacking respectively. Though part of me also wonders - where was London - also a fairly puny zoo, able to succeed where Bristol could not? The answer, I believe, is adaptability - London, at the capital of the country, is able to look into current ideas of how animal welfare and culture should be approached - and so has more of an outlet available. Even if similarly prejudiced and inadequate exhibits once existed in the zoo, such exhibits were easily altered - and the zoo, in later years, also had areas where it could expand. [I.e. Penguin Beach, Land of the Lions etc] If anything, with the current mindset of the Bristol Zoological Society in mind, I look forward to seeing how the new site will function as a mainstream zoo in 2024 and onwards - the potential is definitely there, and perhaps will feel more like a zoo of the 21st century, where the Clifton site, whilst host to great amounts of nostalgia, feels rather left-behind.
I would say it was solidly good, but things felt as if they were starting to wind down for September..
A ladder was found within the Kea exhibit - and the birds were seemingly using this to climb.
The Reptile house was, again, good, but felt also rather uneventful.
Same goes for Aquarium - no sign of Mudskipper or Piranha ?
Monkey Jungle - again good, but nothing amazing.
If anything, perhaps this description could describe a number of exhibits in the zoo over the years - the Pygmy Hippo exhibit [when they were still there] was rather unchanged from Rhino days..
The Zona Brazil exhibit [when that was still there] was also fairly lacklustre - even with superficial South America theming, the exhibit for Tapir + Capybara looked more reminiscent of a Brazillian farmyard with a patio than wilderness.. And from what I hear, perhaps my favourite exhibit in the zoo, the Twilight World, was rather lacklustre in its last days - no dasyures, though the aye-aye were still there.. and according to ZTL, the animals are presumably still at the zoo, albeit off-show.
The Seal and Penguin coasts also felt a bit left behind, but was nice as always - the seals in particular were a good show.
I didn't bother with the Gorillas so I cannot comment on that - though the Monkey Islands seemed fairly static - everyone was indoors, or outside not doing much - the Agile Gibbons were certainly there, just not very *agile*... The Golden Lion Tamarins were nice to see and add to the photographic collection however, after a no-show at Marwell. [Those animals were apparently more visible in the past but grew rather aggressive from public interaction - maybe that is why Marwell's last GLT is in a heavily foliated exhibit?]
In all, I perhaps am lead to think a fair part of the fall of Bristol Zoo is simply, as I said, its current dullness - Twilight World in its better years had an interesting array of species for sure, but the lighting was not good at all. [The aye-ayes, unfortunately, were little more than motional shadows] The west part of the zoo is solid, but lacks in confidence that can be found elsewhere. And with various zoos nearby such as Noah's Ark Zoo Farm - which seems to be laying back a bit on religious agenda these days and has large animals - it seems only natural the public would be more attracted to elephants etc than a pair of Tartaric Hornbills. The site was ultimately too small to do anything profound, 21st century wise with it - much a product of its time. If anything, Bristol is a shining example of difficulties city zoos may face as time progresses - such exhibits as the Monkey Temple [which was apparently disapproved by some even in its era] and Polar Bear pits may have been viewed as groundbreaking in their times, but as attitudes to multi-culturalism and animal welfare progressed, these exhibits were looked at as prejudiced and incredibly lacking respectively. Though part of me also wonders - where was London - also a fairly puny zoo, able to succeed where Bristol could not? The answer, I believe, is adaptability - London, at the capital of the country, is able to look into current ideas of how animal welfare and culture should be approached - and so has more of an outlet available. Even if similarly prejudiced and inadequate exhibits once existed in the zoo, such exhibits were easily altered - and the zoo, in later years, also had areas where it could expand. [I.e. Penguin Beach, Land of the Lions etc] If anything, with the current mindset of the Bristol Zoological Society in mind, I look forward to seeing how the new site will function as a mainstream zoo in 2024 and onwards - the potential is definitely there, and perhaps will feel more like a zoo of the 21st century, where the Clifton site, whilst host to great amounts of nostalgia, feels rather left-behind.
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Gigit
Well-Known Member
Pity about that. Doesn’t really compute…..’not bothering with gorillas’?
Not quite as bad as the time @savethelephant decided to skip the gorillas at Antwerp
Now that is criminalNot quite as bad as the time @savethelephant decided to skip the gorillas at Antwerp
That ladder has been in the kea exhibit for some time, I think it was probably put there for the keepers to reach the upper level, but the keas seem to like it and sometimes enrichment items are hung from it.
London Zoo was saved by an injection of cash from Thatcher's government. Bristol's closure might have been averted if Boris's party people had actually provided some of the cash they offered, instead of adding so many t's and c's that hardly any of the apparently generous total actually reached the zoos.
My explanation for Bristol's demise is that there were too many bad decisions made over the years. The 1970s Ape House was a disastrous and expensive mistake, only partly rescued by converting it to a nocturnal house with keas, red pandas and the fruit bat walk-through. On the other hand, as you say, Zona Brasil always looked as if it was cobbled together on a very tight budget. A few years ago I thought that Bristol was developing into a family friendly zoo, with a few headline attractions including the flamingos, lions, gorillas, fur seals and penguins, plus a wide variety of smaller creatures of conservation importance to provide lots of educational activities. Allowing Wild Place to hold most of larger species, more or less on the London & Whipsnade model. But then they decided to build that huge free-flight aviary for tree kangaroos - which could only use a small portion of the space, rock wallabies - which can't fly and couldn't settle down in the walk-through either, and no birds at all - except in a little aviary inside the big one. Bonkers!
The UK government used to give £1 million a year to London Zoo. It decided to give a final one-off payment of £10 million for the zoo to sort itself out. The money didn't last long and the zoo said it could face closure in 1990. In 1992, there was a statement that the zoo would close in 3 months as it only had enough money to pay off the staff. A maverick member of the council worked out a way to save the zoo. Kuwait paid £1 million to help save the zoo. Money from members of the public was used to build an aviary for macaws.
The 1970's Ape House was constructed at a time when Ape-keeping in zoos was starting to change radically- into large open enclosures with a range of climbing equipment etc. Somehow Bristol missed the boat on that- until Gorilla Island was built much later- and constructed a very conservative 'model building' instead. Little better than the old two part house that preceded it really. It had an enormously wide/deep public viewing space indoors that was never needed, at the expense of restricting the size of 4 of the 5 exhibition dens. For the Orangutans there was next to nothing to climb on, while the steep rockwork outside was another huge mistake too.
But despite the shortcomings of that apehouse, which were many, IMO the much more recent huge free-
flight aviary has represented an even bigger white elephant though. I believe it was supposed to be for Australian birds originally(?). But it has never appeared to be actually used for anything really....
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I was very confused by this actually on my visit. Going through those big entrance doors to keep what from getting out??
Not quite as bad as the time @savethelephant decided to skip the gorillas at Antwerp
I would like to remind you I was 10
Still doesn't take away from the regret, nonetheless...
I made my farewell visit to the zoo today. I don’t know if it’s always quiet now but there were very few people.
It was of course a week day and a mostly rainy one too so I didn’t expect huge crowds.
It felt a bit melancholy to see but I am glad I went. I took a very comprehensive set of photos, helped by the lack of people getting in the way, which I have started to upload.
It was of course a week day and a mostly rainy one too so I didn’t expect huge crowds.
It felt a bit melancholy to see but I am glad I went. I took a very comprehensive set of photos, helped by the lack of people getting in the way, which I have started to upload.
I will make my final pilgrimage to the zoo next week, 49 years (I think) after my first visit. This will always be remembered as the first place I saw an Okapi (it was only seen as a britains plastic animal until then!)
I have now completed my upload of hundreds of pictures of the zoo. My aim was to cover the zoo comprehensively close to its permanent and irreversible closure and redevelopment.
Thank you for the likes and comments so far.
I feel that Zoochat has a unique potential to gather photos and knowledge of this incredibly significant zoo and given it is about to close I encourage all visiting zoochatters to add their photos while we still have the opportunity to do so and share comments on the zoo as it is today as well as its history.
Thank you for the likes and comments so far.
I feel that Zoochat has a unique potential to gather photos and knowledge of this incredibly significant zoo and given it is about to close I encourage all visiting zoochatters to add their photos while we still have the opportunity to do so and share comments on the zoo as it is today as well as its history.
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thank you for posting all your photos, it’s incredibly interesting but also sad to document a zoo that will soon be closing. I only visited once just after the Penguin and Seal area opened. Don’t be discouraged.
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