Strathmorezoo
Well-Known Member
Which zoos that have closed down, do you regret not visiting
Which closed zoos do you regret not visiting?
- Thread starter Strathmorezoo
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Strathmorezoo
Well-Known Member
Kilverstone is the one that I regret, especially when I once had the chance and didn't
To answer your original question, the closed zoo that I most regret never having visited is Manchester's Belle Vue.
It's a great shame you never visited Kilverstone. It was a lovely zoo with a wonderful collection of neotropical species; it is still the only place where I've seen tassel-eared marmoset. As I've mentioned elsewhere on ZooChat, Kilverstone and the Rare Species Conservation Centre are the two now-closed UK zoos that I miss the most.
Strathmorezoo
Well-Known Member
I never took my chance with Kilverstone ,thought I'd go the next year,too late!
I agree with you about. Belle Vue,just to see those old buildings and the history
I had an interview at Manchester University in 1976 and didn't have time to visit Belle Vue Zoo. I did a course at the University from 1979-80, but the zoo had closed in 1977. While I was in Manchester, I visited the zoos at Chester and Southport
The combination of zoo and funfair is not one I really like. Nevertheless, for most of it's history, Belle Vue was the second largest UK animal collection after London Zoo; consequently I wish I had seen it because of its rich history.
Kalaw
Well-Known Member
Only including ones that were open during my lifetime, it has to be the Rare Species Conservation Centre. So many species, such as Banded Civets and Black-footed Cats (not to mention tarsiers, although I don't believe they were ever on-display) that I may never get the chance to see again in my life, and yet for many years the opportunity was just 90 kilometres away - a day's cycle ride if only the infrastructure allowed for it! Living Coats also haunts me, having walked past it to get dinner in Torquay after a day at Paignton, then promising myself, and my family members with whom I regularly share holidays to that area of the country, that we would visit next year. Then the pandemic hit, and that same year the collection closed.
I would also love to have visited Kilverstone, but there is hardly any regret in that instance seeing as it closed long before my lifetime. Similar things can be said about Southampton Zoo, with its elephant seals and Giant Pangolins, although I mainly want to visit due to hearing stories from family members who grew up there about its atrocious quality of exhibitry, developing a guilty desire to see it for myself.
I would also love to have visited Kilverstone, but there is hardly any regret in that instance seeing as it closed long before my lifetime. Similar things can be said about Southampton Zoo, with its elephant seals and Giant Pangolins, although I mainly want to visit due to hearing stories from family members who grew up there about its atrocious quality of exhibitry, developing a guilty desire to see it for myself.
Strathmorezoo
Well-Known Member
I feel the same about. Living Coasts,whenever in South Devon ,always went to Paignton Zoo with the intention of going to Living Coasts,before you know it the opportunity has gone. Also beginning to realise how I should have made the effort to visit RSCC.
Nile Hippo Expert
Well-Known Member
I wish I visited the Las Vegas Zoo before it closed in 2013.
I think you're correct; I don't believe the RSCC's Sulawesi tarsiers were ever on public display (at least I never saw them on exhibit on any of my many visits). I was lucky enough to be taken behind the scenes to see them there though. I've also been fortunate enough to see Philippine tarsiers in both Bristol and Frankfurt although, sadly, I very much doubt I'll ever see another tarsier.
I visited Emmen and decided not to visit the zoo. I should have done so. I saw the educational material listed at an auction site and it seems that the zoo was very special.
Perhaps not a regular open-to-the public zoo, but I'll always be haunted by not visiting Qatar's Al Wabra with Beira and it's endless collection of unique gazelles. I had corresponded with them and even got invited to come but then my dad got sick so I didn't go. Thankfully Dad's all better now!The next time I reached out was early 2018 when they were on their way to closing down, and I believe the Beira had already all died out.
SeaWorld Ohio was on my bucket list as a child. I know very little about it but saw it in a shark documentary as a child and dreamed about visiting Cincinnati Zoo and SeaWorld Ohio sometime, knowing they were closer than their coastal cousins. One of these I can still visit though it has undergone some change, the other will never be ticked.
Wisp O' Mist
Well-Known Member
I really wish that I could've gone to the Catskill Game Farm before it closed down.
That being said, I was only nine years old when it shut it's doors for good. So I can't really be too harsh on myself for not visiting while it was still open, lol.
That being said, I was only nine years old when it shut it's doors for good. So I can't really be too harsh on myself for not visiting while it was still open, lol.
I lived in the UK for a few months, and wish many of the zoos were easier to get to (looking at you, British Wildlife Centre).
I only visited Catskill Game Farm once, in October 1984. The animals there that interested me most were the so-called "Nubian wild ass"; I was really very excited to see them as I had no reason to doubt that's what they were. Of course, to my disappointment, I subsequently learned they were probably not purebred.
raeumber
New Member
As a captive cetacean researcher, I am obsessed with SeaWorld Ohio. I'm on the Ohio/Indiana border but we never got to go as a kid before it turned into Six Flags. I did get to see Shouka however for the small amount of time that Six Flags Geauga Lake had her. The seasonal transitions of the animals actually resulted in zero orca deaths at SeaWorld Ohio itself, which is shocking considering the transportation techniques in the early days. They also housed a pod of Commerson's dolphins, only one of which is still living at Aquatica in Orlando, 1/3 of the last Commerson's dolphins in captivity in the Western hemisphere.