Susan Humphreys
Well-Known Member
Hi everyone,
Got back late last night from my exploration of Woburn and Whipsnade. I can confirm the new rhino house is open and there are lots of details on the website too. Looks like it opened around the ninth as they were running workshops including building a big paper machie rhino until the 22nd of Feb.
I saw mum and baby together (on the train) and another one-horned rhino is a separate enclosure (I guess that was the male.) Looks like they're building a new bus stop for the nepal house too - sadly I didn't have time to go inside - it was getting near too closing to risk the trek between bus stops. I've snapped a couple of exterior shots which I can post.
The cheetah rock enclosure is coming on too.
I'm hoping I have a ZooBeat forum exclusive too because I called briefly in the bird garden section and there were four gentoo penguins being fed! The keeper explained they'd arrived on Friday from Edinburgh zoo, apparantly they have a surplus there (I think he said they had 34.) The four females are a bit nervous after their move and were reluctant to be hand fed by the keeper - another keeper said they are not sure of the new keeper - especially his all-in-one white outfit - perhaps he looks too much like a vet. Anyway they are still in quarantine - I saw them about 4.40pm so penguin fans might get lucky and spot them around the same time.
I did a whistlestop tour of Woburn on the Saturday - missing out the monkeys - and really liked it. It is much smaller but I loved the Canadian black bears and timber wolves. Whipsnade was huge and I liked the Discovery Centre best (like a lot of other forum users I'm always hoping to see more unusual species and they had a Madagascan radiated tortoise and spiny tailed lizard) and the bird display - they flew a toucan and a bald eagle among others - it was too cold for some species.
The lemur enclosure at Whipsnade was great but sadly the ringtails were staying inside - I can't blame them - but I was delighted to find the walk-through exhibition at Woburn had not just black and white ruffed lemurs but rarer red-bellied and red-fronted ones.
Glad I managed to see both zoos now.
Hoping to visit Hamerton another time and excited by the new Madagascar exhibition at Cotswolds (never been to either.) Nearer to home I'll definitely be planning a day trip to Blackbrook - didn't even know that zoo existed until joining ZooBeat
Got back late last night from my exploration of Woburn and Whipsnade. I can confirm the new rhino house is open and there are lots of details on the website too. Looks like it opened around the ninth as they were running workshops including building a big paper machie rhino until the 22nd of Feb.
I saw mum and baby together (on the train) and another one-horned rhino is a separate enclosure (I guess that was the male.) Looks like they're building a new bus stop for the nepal house too - sadly I didn't have time to go inside - it was getting near too closing to risk the trek between bus stops. I've snapped a couple of exterior shots which I can post.
The cheetah rock enclosure is coming on too.
I'm hoping I have a ZooBeat forum exclusive too because I called briefly in the bird garden section and there were four gentoo penguins being fed! The keeper explained they'd arrived on Friday from Edinburgh zoo, apparantly they have a surplus there (I think he said they had 34.) The four females are a bit nervous after their move and were reluctant to be hand fed by the keeper - another keeper said they are not sure of the new keeper - especially his all-in-one white outfit - perhaps he looks too much like a vet. Anyway they are still in quarantine - I saw them about 4.40pm so penguin fans might get lucky and spot them around the same time.
I did a whistlestop tour of Woburn on the Saturday - missing out the monkeys - and really liked it. It is much smaller but I loved the Canadian black bears and timber wolves. Whipsnade was huge and I liked the Discovery Centre best (like a lot of other forum users I'm always hoping to see more unusual species and they had a Madagascan radiated tortoise and spiny tailed lizard) and the bird display - they flew a toucan and a bald eagle among others - it was too cold for some species.
The lemur enclosure at Whipsnade was great but sadly the ringtails were staying inside - I can't blame them - but I was delighted to find the walk-through exhibition at Woburn had not just black and white ruffed lemurs but rarer red-bellied and red-fronted ones.
Glad I managed to see both zoos now.Hoping to visit Hamerton another time and excited by the new Madagascar exhibition at Cotswolds (never been to either.) Nearer to home I'll definitely be planning a day trip to Blackbrook - didn't even know that zoo existed until joining ZooBeat
)
