Chester Zoo Thoughts on heart of Africa

[Dianamonkey]

What are people thoughts on the new heart of Africa complex at Chester zoo? I was slightly underwhelmed by it, the viewing of the main mixed species paddock for giraffe etc is a big improvement. However new exhibits for the flamingo, dik dik and vultures were good but not brilliant with lots of fencing. Also the paths around the rhino paddocks are now closed off. I have been to a lot of zoos recently so maybe I was not seeing it fairly but compared to the adjacent Islands area it lacked the wow factor. Good to hear other views?

 

[Prochilodus246]

I must admit I too had similar thoughts to you on it.

Flamingo Aviary:
I personally found the flamingo aviary very pleasant but I enjoy seeing birds of any species en masse impressive. It was also quite a nice variety of waterfowl though I feel more water plants like lilies and rushes could have been planted.

Milky Eagle-owl:
I feel generally owls in zoos generally get quite the short end of the stick. The owl didn't really have anywhere outside it could escape out of view plus there didn't seem to be a lot of space for flight.

Lovebird Aviary:
I must admit, not a lot to comment on with this one but outside viewing could have been far better though I did enjoy the running water through the inside enclosure.

Vulture Aviary:
This aviary was pleasant although there could have been higher perches other than the roosting boxes and some more space to allow more flight would have been nice.

Kirk's Dikdik:
This is an enclosure I wasn't that impressed with. I felt the high mesh fencing was rather over the top plus a really quite enormous access gates. Maybe they are future proofing the enclosure in case they wish to have a different species inhabiting it in the future but it just seemed rather fortified especially for dikdik.

Main Savannah:
Although the size of the enclosure was excellent, I felt the enclosure seemed rather barren. I understand this is a brand new area but the circles of grass where new trees had gone in still seemed rather lacking. I feel more shrubs to add beneath the trees would fill out these areas quite nicely. The giraffe house, was much like the old in terms of not a great deal of space for people to view the animals and I can well imagine on a very busy day, it would become really quite crowded.

Bat-eared Fox & Cape Porcupine:
Both these enclosures were very good to be fair, particularly the outside spaces. However, I felt particularly with the porcupines, the indoor area on public display could have been larger for the large group of porcupine they hold.

Hidden Savannah:
I felt this area was very well done and particularly enjoyed seeing the locusts plus the mixed-reptile enclosure given the open views of the inhabitants. However, some of the terrariums were rather close to one another leading to people incidentally blocking views of enclosures even though they were viewing the inhabitants next door.

Yellow Mongoose & Meerkats:

Both very similar enclosures in terms of design and it was nice to see that there are viewing bubbles in the meerkat enclosure which takes me back to when the zoo had prairie dogs and you could view them in a very similar way.

Overall:
I too felt it lacked the wow factor and didn't make me feel fully immersed as if I was in the wilds of Africa. I felt Berlin Tierpark pulled the immersion factor off better with more savannah like plantings and just the general layout of the savannah with multiple different viewing areas. I also found that it seemed to cram as much as they could into the area with still empty areas or spaces that could have gone into making the enclosures larger.

The area felt very Chester and didn't really excite me as much as I thought it would but still a very solid new African complex with a diverse variety of different species in high quality enclosures.

 

[Dianamonkey]

Thanks, I agree with your comments. It is all high quality but areas like the giraffe house, owl and lovebirds exhibits could be better. I have not been to Berlin Tierpark since their savannah exhibit opened but was recently impressed by Africa Alive zoo's exhibit.

 

[Lafone]

I enjoyed it when I visited, I think it will feel different again when it has bedded in and the planting has grown up. I liked some of the touches like the good outside viewing for the Lovebirds.

I said in my post when I visited that I didn't rate the Bat Eared fox space as they were in a noisy and crowded indoor picnic area, though their outside area was better than the inside (screaming kids are not fun even if you are not a fox I suspect). Clearly the fences have now had some work as the foxes kept getting out. The Yellow Mongoose enclosure also seemed a bit smaller than other places, but good in itself in terms of modelling. I didn't like the owl enclosure at all, it reminded me of the aviaries at Twycross where the owls seem like an accessory to the plastic Gruffalo models, but that was for me the only actual lowlight.

Having also visited a decent number of places I found it high quality overall. Shows we all like different things really as I liked the fencing for both the vultures and the dik dik, preferring the close up viewing opportunities presented there over the glass in the Meerkat exhibit, for example. Same for the Flamingos for me. Surprised the Tsavo aviary wasn't mentioned as a bit of a highlight as that is a really good space. The indoor area for hidden savannah suffers a bit from sheer visitor numbers, in my view.

I hope they open up viewing from the path to Islands so you can see across to the Africa area, as it offers another interesting angle and it would be a pity not to be able to see things better from that side as the planting grows up.

All in all however I didn't find it underwhelming.

I also like Africa Alive's main Africa enclosure; it's a clever design with the houses around the outside and interesting to see the various animals making use of the path sloping up to the hill in the middle. Don't often see giraffes wandering up and down a hill in a zoo.

 

[Dianamonkey]

The Tsavo aviary is indeed a highlight but that and indeed the hunting dogs and rhinoceros paddocks I was not counting as new. I only visit Chester every few years and am sure it will bed in by my next visit. I do feel it had generic design overall but that perhaps shows my age and liking for enclosures that feel less themed. If that make sense.

 

[jtrbmvcq]

However you dress it, it’s just another mixed African hoofstock savannah exhibit with some nice accessory species. But what the development has done is: allow the giraffes more modern holding and given the team a bachelor herd option for management, given Chester a new income stream with the lodges, and it has freed up space on the other side of the zoo for future development. Now it is this last point that makes me most excited, I can see the future chimp (plus others) exhibit/development being Monsoon and European standard.

 

[ZooNews2024]

However you dress it, it’s just another mixed African hoofstock savannah exhibit with some nice accessory species. But what the development has done is: allow the giraffes more modern holding and given the team a bachelor herd option for management, given Chester a new income stream with the lodges, and it has freed up space on the other side of the zoo for future development. Now it is this last point that makes me most excited, I can see the future chimp (plus others) exhibit/development being Monsoon and European standard.

£42 million pounds seems like quite a lot for a giraffe field plus barn with a few caravans and a flamingo aviary - especially for a zoo which is too big for its visitors already.
Lets hope the old saying 'the bigger you are, the harder you fall' does not apply in this instance.

 

[jtrbmvcq]

Well at the prices I can imagine they’re charging for the lodges I wouldn’t be surprised if they made that money back in a few weeks.