Chester Zoo Your First Memories Of Chester

Z

ZooMania

Well-Known Member
There's been a little bit of talk in the small mammal house thread about peoples first visit to Chester and what they remember of that. I just thought i'd start a thread about that.

My first visit was in about 1997/98. I Remember the elephants clearly and i have some memory of pelicans in the area where the reedbed currently is. I Also remember tun loads of marmots in the paddock where the lechwe are now. According to my mum i got attacked by the White Naped Crane aswell as i went up to it's pen and it bit me. Evil crane.

I Also have early memories of the Tropical Realm which i remember clealy as being my favourite part of the zoo. I Remember Cheetahs and Servals aswell. Though i have no memory of the old cat house unfortunetly.
 
I remember:

Yohda, lying at the back of his indoor pen. Never saw him outside.

The bison, I remember these well.

Taking lots of photos of the great indian hornbills in the old elephant house. I still have them somewhere...

The signs in the parrot house.

I remember toucans, owls and, I think trumpeter hornbills, but This may have been at another zoo. It would have also been on my first visit.

The old elephant area, and pelicans.

I also remember a member of staff coming up to me as a child and asking "What animals would you like to see?" I pointed to the hippo. "Sorry," she said. " We don't have these anymore.."

Zoomania, I remember the old tapir paddock, and marmots too! I also remember that the tapirs moved about a bit!

There will be lots more, but at the moment I can't think of them...
 
Apparently my first visit was in 1993 (I was two! ;) ) however i don't remember much until about 1997.

I remember the flowerbeds in front of the elephants and them stretching over the moat...
I remember the Lemurs (then capuchins) being in the current red river hog enclosure...
I vaguely remember a puppet show of some sort...?
I remember reading the original plans for Islands in Danger ;)
I remember the elephant bull pen and indoor area being built...
I remember the marmots tunnelling into the neighbouring rhino enclosures...
I remember meerkats being inside the old camel house (and i seem to remember porcupines occupying that enclosure as well...)
I remember porcupines in the mandrill enclosure...
I remember zebra being where the onager and camels are now...
I remember tamarins being where the gentle lemurs are now...
I remember seeing many signs for an indian rhino, but never saw him :(

That's all I can think of right now... ahh nostalgia ;)
 
The last time I went as a family trip was valentines day 1998, but i'd been going since I was a baby. I can't remember specific times as such but I class every time I went as a child to be a nostalgic experience. I've only been once before last year where Monkey Islands was built, for example...

For starters, I remember the elephants eating the roses, and the porcupines were in the camel house, I have old photos of that. I also saw the hippos, but I will have to find pictures because memories of the actual enclosure confuse me with a possible London Zoo visit.

I remember the polar bear as well, and the old brown bears that used to be really far away from wherever you looked, was it a pit or something?

I remember the bison, and old cat house, and lynx within it. I also specifically remember the cheetahs, I believe where the Cassowary now is. I also remember when you used to go in the other side, near the watery animals and Orangutans. I also remember the old Orang house and a rather unsavoury act going on in there.

I remember when the petting zoo WAS the petting zoo and a goat eating a family friends carrier bag... and to go off that topic entirely I remember when in the aforementioned small mammal house they had a bush baby i was obsessed with for some reason.

I remember when you could actually go up to most fences, and dropping my tamagotchi into the marmot field, but not how I got it back but I'm sure I did. And unless I just have a bad memory, I remember that the glass at the Mandrill MI enclosure wasn't always extra padded with "don't bang on the glass" signs and plants.

I remember there being three or four lion cubs or so, come to think of it, depending on how old Asoka is, one of them may have been him... I can't remember how long ago that was. I feel "old" if that is the case lol - it's bad enough I'm at an age where musicians and actors are younger than I am, without having witnessed generations of lions... :p

I remember when Emma [the rhino] was born and seeing her, too.

I believe I remember being able to walk around the Tropical Realm which is now the back of the Iguana, etc tanks. and crocodiles being where the Galapagos tortoises are.

Am I right in saying that the old pelican exhibit didn't have a net roof..? The current one does right? Lol, my recent memory is failing - I AM getting old (though Dr Kawashima said my Brain Age was 25 yesterday, so it's not that bad)

ANYWAY, do I remember anything else?

The zebras were where the Onagers are, and Condor Cliffs and Coati Island were in the same place. I used to say the coatis were my favorite animal but everyone else thought I meant coyote, and the teacher corrected a drawing I did of some of them in a tree to say Coyote.

CRETINS!!!
 
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I think my first visit was around 1996/7.
I would only have been 9/10 at the time so my memories aren't vast, but the most vivid memory I have was seeing a baby elephant... I think her name began with a 'k'... Kara? I'm not sure about the name. But I do remember putting my hand through the bars in the elephant house and the baby grabbing hold of it with her trunk. I remember being amazed how strong she was and I remember panicking as she pulled on my hand... but then suddenly let go. Maybe she sensed me panicking or something.
Anyway, it was winter and there weren't many people about and I don't think anyone saw it happen.
I also remember the old outside elephant enclosure, the old cat house, and the Przewalski's Horses, and that it was bloody cold:).
I was saddened to discover, a little while after my visit, that the baby elephant had died... I think broken its neck? Someone will no doubt be able to correct me if I'm wrong.

Oh I seem to remember monkeys, maybe lemurs, being where the red river hogs are now... does that ring a bell with anyone?
 
It was lemurs where the red river hogs now are. I dont know what kind though, someone above mentioned it ;).

I believe at that point the old Babirusa, current warty Pig exhibit was for the Anoa, and the Camels were still where the Okapi currently live... am I right in thinking they still had Giant Tortoises then?

I found some old pictures of the hippos and polar bear I remembered, plus the elephant eating the flowers someone mentioned. I used to have hundreds of these amateurish pix that I took as a kid (as say amateurish as if I wasn't 6 at the time and that now anything has changed other than having the 10x zoom and the fact I can see exactly what I am taking lol) but I don't know what became of them.

Anyway here they are ones I've scanned:

Polar Bear
Hippos
Hippos
Elephant Eating Flowers

I did find one of the brown bears enclosure as well but I'll have to scan that another time
 
Tempest said:
I was saddened to discover, a little while after my visit, that the baby elephant had died... I think broken its neck? Someone will no doubt be able to correct me if I'm wrong.
Click to expand...

'Karha' was Thi's first surviving baby and was being handraised. I believe she swallowed a stone which lodged in her throat and that she died during, or soon after, an emergency operation to remove it.
 
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Check out my gallery for more pictures of the Elephants old exhibit, as well as Brown Bears, Bison and one of the Cheetah

Does anyone remember where the bears were located?
 
tahninial said:
Does anyone remember where the bears were located?
Click to expand...

Brown Bears were just East of the Bridge in a large walled pit- it was probably one of Chester's least attractive exhibits.
Polar Bears- maybe around the 'Europe on the Edge' aviary area(?)- it was a much better exhibit than the Brown bears.

Bongorob or someone will give you precise locations....
 
I was just looking at the picture i found of the exhibit and thought it looked like it might have been around the bridge because of the fact it was a pit.

You're right about how it looked, the pix always stick out to me as how bare and dull some animals used to be kept in contrast to the new Bears/Coati exhibit for example.
 
Brown bears - where the condors are now
Polar bears - where Europe on the Edge is now
Black bears (American and Asian), and poss sloth bears - where the South American garden is now close to the sealions
Sun bears/brown bear cubs - the round pit next to the kangaroos which currently houses mongooses
 
Some great pictures there, tahninal!

Now, would any of you guys have images of the orangs when they were kept in the tropical realm? (unlikely, I know because it was a long time ago...)
 
Orang utans were never kept in the Tropical House. Where the big hornbills are (inside) and where the river hogs are (outside) was home to two pairs of gorillas, "lowland" and "mountain". The old chimpanzee house is the long building attached to the side of the tropical house - the enclosures were similar to the old orang utan house, and opened onto the current outside chimp island, although then it was divided into several islands. Originally you could enter the chimp house but it was closed to visitors long before the newer house opened.
 
Oh thanks pygathrix, I knew about the gorillas and old chimp house but I had thought I read about Orangs being in the realm as well (one of the other hornbill aviaries)...


I must've read the source wrong! :p
 
Other things i remember
The Capuchins in the current Red River Hog pen, i dont remember Lemurs though
The Tamarins being where the gentle lemurs are
The Indian Rhino, not sure if i saw him or not
Onagers being where the Zebras + Oryx are now
Zebras being where the Camels are now
Meerkats in the camel house and then porcupines
The Grivet Monkeys being in the Monkey Islands
The Mara being where the Bush Dogs are.
 
It's not that long since the meerkats were in the camel house is it?

I remember seeing Tapirs in the elephant house - when did they move?
 
The meerkats moved out when Tsavo was built (2003-ish) Porcupines replaced them until the camel house was renovated for Okapis...
 
Tempest said:
It's not that long since the meerkats were in the camel house is it?

I remember seeing Tapirs in the elephant house - when did they move?
Click to expand...

It was after the bat cave was finished, I remember them being in the Elephant House still when I went about ten years ago and at the time them planning to move them and the capybara when the cave was done in with the Guanaco and Rhea, where they remained.

I can't remember if the cave was done when I went and we just didn't go in, or if it just wasn't ready yet. I might be confusing the statement of it being done and not going in it with last june...

I know nine years is a long time to have a discrepancy but alas!
 
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