News report yesterday stated £400,000
Twycross Zoo Twycross Zoo News 2020
- Thread starter rubymurray
- Start date
News report yesterday stated £400,000
Judi dench is supporting twycross zoo summer of survival
Dame Judi Dench backs campaign to save Twycross Zoo
Dame Judi Dench backs campaign to save Twycross Zoo
Andrew Swales
Well-Known Member
I think Twycross/staff were involved with her series on Borneo..
Dench seeks support for struggling zoo
I don't think the original one was published online in its entirety. Just some artwork for the first few developments. I think they were on a local news website.
Twycross Zoo's £55m redevelopment plan
This is an un-surprising turnaround from the 'We may have to kill all our animals' headlines they encouraged a few weeks ago. Given most, but not all, of their animals are in EEP breeding programmes, so not actually owned by them and therefore in the event of closure any final decisions as to their future probably do not rest with the Zoo itself anyway, do people think they were justified in making such a misleading announcement, given the desperate situation they found themselves in? Comments?
Yes and no. Sharon has been pretty level headed since taking over so there is/was likely 'some' truth in the statement - however slim a chance of becoming reality. You do have to question what would happen if say both the likes of Twycross, Chester and London all collapsed ...and if similar scenarios played out in other countries - what would happen as she is right when she says it would take significant sums and time to provide new homes - and very few zoos would have the ability to do it.
On the flip side, the Government did a very good PR job on the public. Headline statements like "£100m to rescue zoos" convinced people help was available, even when little to none of it was ever going to reach the zoos that needed it. So extreme statements were likely needed to gain media attention and traction. It's desperate... but I don't doubt they really are finding things tough financially so to an extent don't blame them.
I think I'd probably excuse this too- given the extreme situation they have been in. But knowing it was very unlikely to come to that makes me think it smacked a bit of a cheap publicity trick. If Twycross was ever to close, many of the rarer primates anyway could be subsumed into other EEP-directed breeding groups in other zoos in Europe, while I feel sure the majority of birds etc could be found homes either in other zoos, or in private aviculture. Living Coasts seem to have had no problem dispersing their stock- it seems to have gone like hot cakes... Some species at Twycross admittedly, like their Common Chimpanzees would be more of a problem. However I somewhow think Twycross are strong enough to weather all this anyway. Its the very small zoos I think are in the most longerterm danger of closure.
I agree. The charity trust was in pretty good financial shape so I didn't quite fully understand the claims they'd run out of cash - unless it's all tied up in prior commitments as they have been on a bit of a spending spree in recent years (which was of course all fully justifiable at the time!).
I do wonder the idea of collections being absorbed by other zoos if they where to close, though in normal times this would be true but if all zoos are in the same boat suffering financially and with limited number of guest in which to help there recover. If we where to see a larger collection to close I wouldn’t think others would be far behind given they are all in the same situation and could start a domino effect of closures never mind rehousing options
Andrew Swales
Well-Known Member
We will have to see how the Government and public deal with the 'second wave' of both virus and National lock-down that we are predicted for October, after the schools go back, people return from their cheap foreign holidays, and autumn sets in. The 14m ZoodFund and the new 100m ZooFund overlap to some degree, but are not the same at all in scope or implementation. Certainly the latter requires justification of and financial predictions for the coming winter running up to March 2020. Predicting this when faced with the uncertainty of National and local lock-downs, will be pure speculation. Even then it is capped at a cumulative total of Euro800,000 per claimant.
They've certainly pulled their socks up in recent years- new buildings for chimps(long overdue), giraffe, tiger etc plus finally the long-awaited departure of the elephants. Even if they are 'safe' from closure, or become so, I fear it will hold back some of the other major planned developments for some long time, which is a great pity of course.
Their FB annoucement actually says they are restructuring their organisation and 'pausing' developments as against cancelling.
I popped in today and got talking to a staff member in Chimpanzee Eden. She said as far as she was aware the zoo now had enough funds ( from ticket sales / donations / bank loans) to tide over until next season, so fingers crossed things could be much better financially in about 12 months time. She also said that the Master Plan was on hold for a while, but not cancelled. Fingers crossed there is no second closure!
You beat me to it by a second!
Andrew Swales
Well-Known Member
Contacts within the NHS confirm that the next National lock-down is being planned for October.
Where this will leave the economy is anyone's guess - but short-term being closed over winter will affect many zoos less than April/May/June. We will have to see if the public/media/Government (!) will be as supportive second time around...