I visited yesterday ( it was fair weather , but c c c cold !!! )
On the whole I was disappointed .
The newly refurbished nocturnal/kiwi house is still as dark as ever , with very powerful red spotlights lighting up certain sections , and the kiwis huddle in dark corners where it is not possible to view anything .
They did , however , have ( live )rats on visible display , and a plastic lizard in a cage that probably displayed tuatara at some stage .
All the signage has changed , and is only useful to children .
eg " Kangaroos come from Australia "
There is NOTHING for anyone with even a little more knowledge .
Alot of the animals were not visible ( due to strong winds ? )
A sign on an empty enclosure ( has been empty for a few years ) says that this animal bites . It does not even name the animal .
Throughout the whole zoo there is still alot of duplicated postage stamp size enclosures ... There are more than one enclosure ( on opposite ends of the zoo ) for almost all smallish species .
Emus are put in with Himalayan sheep .
Himalayan monals have an exhibit between the tawny frogmouth and the kookaburras , as well as an exhibit in the Himalaya precint .
There seems to be 5 or 6 different exhibits for Australian lizards , with a couple of them next to the guinea pig enclosure in the reptile precint
A new exhibit for the aviary valley -- a bantam hen !!
The zebras have not been moved into the "African mixed exhibit " which no longer has situtanga , but what appears to be blackbuck ( no sign for it , though ) Apparently one situtanga died , and the other was moved to Hamilton Zoo , " as they have a better enclosure at that zoo " .
Alot of trees have been cut down , which gives the zoo a somewhat untidy look of fencing and cages , and large areas of old maintainance buildings ( old sheds and the like ) are a lot more visible .
The new chimp house , giraffe house , and exhibition centre ( think animal shows ) are large boxy grey buildings , which dont really fit into the rest of the zoo . They do , however , appear to have better facilities for both the animals health and wellbeing , and for the keepers .
The old giraffe area has plenty of potential for something -- with the biggest chunk of flat land available for development in the zoo . This is part of a new exhibit , but nobody knows whats going to be exhibited there ......
There was a sign near the South American mixed aviary saying " new animal here soon " I asked a keeper what was going into that space , and was told
"birds" . I asked for a more detailed response -- what type of bird ?
She didnt know , but tried to get an answer on the walkie talkie . Nobody responded from Bird Section , but someone else tried to help out .
The keeper was asked " is that a query from a member of the public , or from a contractor ? "
( ......would that mean there are two possible answers to the one question ? ) Eventually I was told there wasnt going to be anything going into that enclosure for quite some time .... ) so much for new animal arriving SOON
The parrot enclosures just uphill from the peccarries ( I didnt see them ) have now been emptied , and a sign saying that work will be starting on the
new animal hospital there in 2007 . There is no sign of demolition of the old aviaries , let alone any construction of the animal hospital due to open in 2009 ...... I spoke to an engineer that was working on the project , and he hopes to visit Aucklands new animal hospital to see what worked for them , and if there were any pitfalls to avoid . ..... so they are obviously still in the design stage and not in the construction stage .
so I wasnt really that impressed with the zoo as a whole
PS The baby chimpanzee born about a month ago is a male .
On the whole I was disappointed .
The newly refurbished nocturnal/kiwi house is still as dark as ever , with very powerful red spotlights lighting up certain sections , and the kiwis huddle in dark corners where it is not possible to view anything .
They did , however , have ( live )rats on visible display , and a plastic lizard in a cage that probably displayed tuatara at some stage .
All the signage has changed , and is only useful to children .
eg " Kangaroos come from Australia "
There is NOTHING for anyone with even a little more knowledge .
Alot of the animals were not visible ( due to strong winds ? )
A sign on an empty enclosure ( has been empty for a few years ) says that this animal bites . It does not even name the animal .
Throughout the whole zoo there is still alot of duplicated postage stamp size enclosures ... There are more than one enclosure ( on opposite ends of the zoo ) for almost all smallish species .
Emus are put in with Himalayan sheep .
Himalayan monals have an exhibit between the tawny frogmouth and the kookaburras , as well as an exhibit in the Himalaya precint .
There seems to be 5 or 6 different exhibits for Australian lizards , with a couple of them next to the guinea pig enclosure in the reptile precint
A new exhibit for the aviary valley -- a bantam hen !!
The zebras have not been moved into the "African mixed exhibit " which no longer has situtanga , but what appears to be blackbuck ( no sign for it , though ) Apparently one situtanga died , and the other was moved to Hamilton Zoo , " as they have a better enclosure at that zoo " .
Alot of trees have been cut down , which gives the zoo a somewhat untidy look of fencing and cages , and large areas of old maintainance buildings ( old sheds and the like ) are a lot more visible .
The new chimp house , giraffe house , and exhibition centre ( think animal shows ) are large boxy grey buildings , which dont really fit into the rest of the zoo . They do , however , appear to have better facilities for both the animals health and wellbeing , and for the keepers .
The old giraffe area has plenty of potential for something -- with the biggest chunk of flat land available for development in the zoo . This is part of a new exhibit , but nobody knows whats going to be exhibited there ......
There was a sign near the South American mixed aviary saying " new animal here soon " I asked a keeper what was going into that space , and was told
"birds" . I asked for a more detailed response -- what type of bird ?
She didnt know , but tried to get an answer on the walkie talkie . Nobody responded from Bird Section , but someone else tried to help out .
The keeper was asked " is that a query from a member of the public , or from a contractor ? "
( ......would that mean there are two possible answers to the one question ? ) Eventually I was told there wasnt going to be anything going into that enclosure for quite some time .... ) so much for new animal arriving SOON
The parrot enclosures just uphill from the peccarries ( I didnt see them ) have now been emptied , and a sign saying that work will be starting on the
new animal hospital there in 2007 . There is no sign of demolition of the old aviaries , let alone any construction of the animal hospital due to open in 2009 ...... I spoke to an engineer that was working on the project , and he hopes to visit Aucklands new animal hospital to see what worked for them , and if there were any pitfalls to avoid . ..... so they are obviously still in the design stage and not in the construction stage .
so I wasnt really that impressed with the zoo as a whole
PS The baby chimpanzee born about a month ago is a male .
