Visits to zoos that don't exist anymore

vogelcommando

vogelcommando

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
By making a list of zoos I've visited I discovered that quite a large number of them had closed their gates in the meantime !
It therefor would be intresting to know which closed zoos other Zoochatters have been to sofar.
Here's my list :
The Netherlands :
Zoo Tilburg
Birdpark Oisterwijk
Birdpark Animali
Wassenaar Zoo
Belgium :
Stockmans Hoeve
Limburgse Zoo
Germany :
Zoo Luebeck
Birdpark Plantaria
Birdpark Metelen
 
vogelcommando said:
By making a list of zoos I've visited I discovered that quite a large number of them had closed their gates in the meantime !
It therefor would be intresting to know which closed zoos other Zoochatters have been to sofar.
Here's my list :
...Wassenaar Zoo
...
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When did you visit this collection? Any photo's of their famed small (and unusual) carnivores? :)
 
visits to zoos that don't exist any more

Cromer Birdland
Cromer Zoo
Rode Tropical Bird Gardens
Merley Bird Gardens
Cricket St Thomas
Kelling Park Aviaries
Aquazoo, Great Yarmouth

THe last named was dreadful. Cromer Zoo was OK for it's time, but would not pass muster today. All the rest at much lamented.
 
Brum said:
When did you visit this collection? Any photo's of their famed small (and unusual) carnivores? :)
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Was there several times during the beginning and mid-1980-ties. I didn't have a camera then so no pictures........:(
 
vogelcommando said:
Was there several times during the beginning and mid-1980-ties. I didn't have a camera then so no pictures........:(
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Did they still have linsang and otter civet at that point? If they did then you have a very, very jealous zoochatter on your hands! :p
 
I've visted the following zoos and other animal collections that have since closed down.

Italy: Brescia (No mention that it still exists), Milan, Verona
Netherlands: Delft (SERPO)
United Kingdom: Cricket St Thomas, Exmouth, Glasgow, Kilverstone, Norfolk Wildlife Park, Southport

Of these, the one I miss most is Kilverstone: a collection of South American animals, including the only active olingo I have ever seen (I saw one asleep in Exmouth).
 
Brum said:
When did you visit this collection? Any photo's of their famed small (and unusual) carnivores? :)
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I visited Wassenaar in 1973. I have a few photos somewhere; I remember shots of their gorillas (of course), terrestrial tenrecs, golden cats and a Pesquet's parrot.

UK collections that I visited include the original Birdland (Bourton-on-the-Water), Stagsden, Rode, Olney, Kilverstone, Mole Hall & Glasgow.

Alan
 
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Allow me to glare with amiable jealousy at you, Gentle Lemur :p
 
gentle lemur said:
I visited Wassenaar in 1973. I have a few photos somewhere; I remember shots of their gorillas (of course), terrestrial tenrecs, golden cats and a Pesquet's parrot.
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Any chance you can dig out the golden cat shots please Alan? Or the tenrecs for that matter? Either/both are of particular interest to me! :D
 
Cricket St Thomas - a site that never was as good as it might have been. And Kilverstone and Mole Hall. The latter was no great loss in the state in which I saw it -however it remains the only place I ever saw Grey Partridge.

I still mourn Kilverstone. If its collection had had Banham's animals grafted onto its own and Banham's management placed in charge the Zoo that would have resulted might have given Colchester a stiff challenge for the tag of best collection in the Eastern Counties. I can dream...
 
Seaburn Zoo Sunderland, the worst zoo I have ever visited, Stanley Zoo County Durhamm only went once when at infants school on a trip, Scarborough Zoo and Marineland, another one that existed to make a fast buck for its owners,Glasgow Zoo, went in 2002 a year before it closed, Penscynor, shame it closed, visited in 1998, its last year, Cricket St. Thomas, what a shame it is still not open, the best setting for a zoological garden in the country, I visited there from its early days right up to a year before it closed. Windsor Safari Park, first visited there when the Smarts opened it, and regarding safari parks, Lambton Lion Park County Durham, visited there from its first year 1972 until its closure in 1980, gone but certainly not forgotten.
 
Brum said:
Did they still have linsang and otter civet at that point? If they did then you have a very, very jealous zoochatter on your hands! :p
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The Banded Linsang was bred for the first time world-wide at this zoo but that was in Dec. 1968. I was 3 years old at that time and not been at Wassenaar at that time , so no Banded Linsangs for me.....
For the Otter civet I have to look in my notebooks but if I saw it, it didn't made a great impresion to me because I can't remember me this species ( civet and mongoose didn't had my intrest at that time ).
 
........zoos that don't exist any more

I'm reminded that I also went to Kilverstone, Southport, Stagsden and Norfolk Wildlife Park. Stagsden did wonderful things with pheasants and latterly with cranes.
Norfolk Wildlife Park originated the term 'Wildlife Park', and was the first place to showcase European fauna in the Uk. It was the first place I saw a lot of things-- Beech Marten, Azure-winged Magpie,Alpine Chough, Suslik, Wolverine among them. There were a few non-Europeans from Philip Wayre's original private collection, like a Sun Bear (bought from Palmer's Pet Stores in Camden Town I believe) and Barbary Sheep (which we don't see enough of these days). NWP bred a lot of Stone Curlews, and was also the headquarters of the Pheasant Trust. They bred a lot of Cabot's Tragopans and Koklass, and had a comprehensive collection of pheasant species on show.
 
Strange that so far only European collections have been mentioned ! Are the no collections in America, Australia or Asia which have closed during the last 20 - 30 years ????
 
vogelcommando said:
Strange that so far only European collections have been mentioned ! Are the no collections in America, Australia or Asia which have closed during the last 20 - 30 years ????
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I visited Marineland (California) and Catskill Game Farm; two American collections that have since closed.

I’ve also visited quite a few British zoos that have now closed including:-

• Cliftonville Aquarium and Mini-Zoo (near Margate)
• Cricket St. Thomas
• Gatwick Zoo
• Glasgow Zoo
• Kilverstone
• Leeds Castle
• Margate Dolphinarium
• Margate (Dreamland)
• Merley Bird Gardens
• Mole Hall
• Olney
• Palm Bay Aquarium (near Margate)
• Peakirk (Wildfowl Trust)
• Poole Aquarium
• Poole Park Zoo
• Rode Bird Gardens
• Southampton Zoo
• Southend Aquarium (not the SeaLife Centre)
• Southend (Peter Pan’s Playground)
• Stagsden Bird Gardens
• Tenby (St. Catherine’s Island)
• Windsor Safari Park

Of these Kilverstone is the one that I miss the most.

I also went to Limburgse Zoo in Belgium.
 
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There are two recently closed NZ zoos/aquaria I have visited:

-Southern Encounter Aquarium (closed due to Christchurch earthquakes)
-Franklin Zoo (closed due to owner's death)

I don't think I have made it to any others that have closed, although I don't think there are many (any?) others that have closed in the last ~20 years. The Ti Point Reptile Park did use to be a "proper zoo" and I visited it then as well as in its current incarnation.
 
Tim May said:
• Cricket St. Thomas
• Glasgow
. Merley Bird Gardens
• Mole Hall
• Olney
• Rode Bird Gardens
• Southend (Peter Pan’s Playground)
• Windsor Safari Park
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I've been to those listed above from your list. After many years of no visits, I then visited Cricket, by chance, on two occasions not long before it closed.

Others I've been to;

Barry Island.
Bideford.
Belle Vue. Manchester.
Exmouth
Ferndown(as a child)
Ilfracombe(as a child)
Poole Park.
Southampton.
Southam.
Weyhill( now a falconry centre, not a zoo)
Westbury on Trym Wildlife Park( if now closed?)

Also a small place in Sussex I can't remember the name of now which had a male Hartmann's Zebra.

I've walked around the exterior of the Hobart Domain Zoo in Tasmania, sadly about fifty years too late to see their most famous resident.
 
I forgot that I also visited Lambton Lion Park and Mole Hall. The lattr zoo was where I first saw a bat=eared fox.
 
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