Those We Have Known....
- Thread starter sooty mangabey
- Start date
Nothing, to the best of my knowledge.
That's bizarre. Looks like his account has been renamed and essentially wiped clean with the last post from over a month ago. He's been a rather prolific member in the U.S. forums in recent years and will be missed if he's truly gone.
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They have been liking posts as recent last Friday. I assume they are still around
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Neil has chosen to close their ZooChat account. I don't know why.
That's a real loss.
It's been three years since Toddy was last active. This is a real shame. Although the galleries are now full of photos of Dutch, German and Scandinavian zoos, there was a time in the 00s when this was not the case and he was almost the sole contributor!
I can assure you he is well.
I'm glad he is well. It's a real shame he is no longer active on the site. Unlike most of us enthusiasts, he actually had experience designing exhibits and working in zoos. His contributions were always insightful, useful and extraordinarily interesting.
A postscript to this sad news which may interest those members of the community who knew Bele - a little more than a year on from his untimely passing, his family have managed to get together his (sizeable) collection of zoological documents, ephemera and the handwritten notes from several decades of zoo visits, and have donated it all to the Bartlett Society archive.
As a result, although I only met him three or four times, I now have the massive privilege of sorting through the material in question, and getting to know him better through his copious writings and the items he collected.
Ryan aka @ShowMeElephants passed away yesterday in an accident with a tiger. He was a go to source on elephants and will be dearly missed by many, including myself.
What a shock! He will be missed on this side of the world as well.
Devastating news. I always admired his deep knowledge of the history of captive elephants. His blog, though not updated in recent years, is a treasure trove to those passionate about elephants. He will be missed.
Although his presence on the forum was only fleeting, and he last logged-in in 2009, given the massive impact off-forum that he had on the European zoo enthusiast community - and more specifically those interested in collecting zoo memorabelia and guidebooks - it seems appropriate to note that @fanaloka aka Dr Leszek Solski passed away today at the age of 72.
Although not quite as many as will have once been the case, I am certain that a fairly substantial number of Zoochatters either met Leszek or spoke with him online - and of course, I mentioned him several times in my zoo guidebook thread a few years ago, both in terms of my own friendship with him and his status as the Guiness World Record title-holder as owner of the largest collection of zoo guidebooks in the world.
I last met him at Poznan Nowe Zoo in September 2024, when he was helping to organise the Zoohistorica which took place there this year - he will be missed.
Although not quite as many as will have once been the case, I am certain that a fairly substantial number of Zoochatters either met Leszek or spoke with him online - and of course, I mentioned him several times in my zoo guidebook thread a few years ago, both in terms of my own friendship with him and his status as the Guiness World Record title-holder as owner of the largest collection of zoo guidebooks in the world.
I last met him at Poznan Nowe Zoo in September 2024, when he was helping to organise the Zoohistorica which took place there this year - he will be missed.
I never met Leszek Solski, but he and I corresponded a lot over the years, and he was a legendary zoo nerd. The collection of guidebooks, maps, pamphlets and other zoo memorabilia he amassed was extraordinary and he had a real love for the printed word. RIP Leszek.
I was extremely sorry to learn the sad news of Leszek's death.
I knew him for many years; I have fond memories of the time he and his son stayed in my house whilst they attended ZooHistorica at London Zoo.
My very deepest sympathy to his son and other members of his family.
Leszek will be greatly missed.
For those who did not know Leszek, this interview from 2011 gives a very good sense of the man - it is in Polish, but the Chrome auto-translate feature deals with the matter very effectively:
Od „Domu Młodego Biologa” do ZOO we Wrocławiu. Wywiad z panem Leszkiem Solskim
Od „Domu Młodego Biologa” do ZOO we Wrocławiu. Wywiad z panem Leszkiem Solskim