Made an unplanned and very brief exhibit to London Zoo today, mainly to see the cubs and a few other areas of note. Ultimately it was a very brief (only about two-and-a-half hours) but thoroughly enjoyable visit.
Apologies for the poor quality of photos, as they were all taken from a phone.
Began with Land of the Lions and had no issue finding the cubs. All three of them, along with Arya, were playing on the platform of the themed train station, right in front of the glass. To give them some space, the keepers placed a barrier along the platform so that the closest you could get was about two metres, which ironically allowed for better views as there were no crowds immediately in front of the lions. Another very smart decision was to close the stairs and the lift to the main boardwalk, near the langurs, so that crowds from up there couldn't flood down to the lions. Both these changes were reversed later in the day when the cubs were further back in the enclosure. They were adorable, and very playful, regularly playfighting with each other or climbing on their mother, who seemed impressively unphased by their nuisance. Can't recall ever seeing lion cubs before, and certainly not this active or visible. A good way to avoid the crowds and still get good views of the lions, which I was surprised to see no other visitors pick up on, was to go to the outdoor mongoose enclosure and peer into the background, where there are no crowds, but also no glass, allowing for a much more authentic experience in that you can hear the cubs playing, and at one point one even stared at me for some time. Speaking of the Small Indian Mongoose, I sadly had no luck with them, although the barrier in place didn't keep you all that far back from the animals, and they were still very much possible to view.
The hand-reared Humboldt Penguin chicks can be seen in the nursery enclosure just behind the main pool, one of the first signs of summer months at London Zoo. SLoRA was just as excellent as it was my first visit, and with a very visible William's Electric Blue Day Gecko, I can now say that I have seen all the species in the House at least once. Contrary to comments made upthread, including by myself, there is not one Laos Warty Newt onshow, but at least three, all very large and impressive, as well as, presumably, many more including the recently bred ones offshow. Two Ethiopian Mountain Adders could easily be seen in the foreground, having ventured much further forwards than they typically do (preferring to stick to the rock ledge at the back). Strangely, the Philippine Crocodile pool had been drained below the viewing window, so that underwater viewing isn't possible for the time being; a real shame as the crocodile was actually swimming around somewhat on this visit, and would have been spectacular to watch underwater, although I strongly suspect that this decision is only a temporary one.
One of the baby gorillas in Gorilla Kingdom was rolling about at the front of the enclosure, which made for the first time that I had seen either of them not clinging onto their mothers. Two gorillas ventured outside, which always used to be scarcely seen at London Zoo, but since Kiburi's arrival has become very common - in this case, the two females chased each other around the enclosure and were very entertaining in doing so. Sadly, I couldn't see the Mindanao Water Monitor in their new home in the Attenborough Komodo Dragon House, but they were signed rather well, so are certainly in there somewhere. In Outback, new themed signage had been put up around the entrance, but sadly the Congo Caecilians are now very much offshow.
Walked through the boardwalk section of Tiger Territory (officially known as 'Gibbon Treehouse and Tiger Pond,' something which I only discovered today) for the first time in a fair few visits, and was delighted to see the two cubs, which I hadn't seen since they were still very small, having matured rather well, and sitting right at the front of the enclosure. Surprisingly, a result of how few visitors even know of Tiger Pond's existence, there was only a small crowd gathering round them and it was possible to get inches away from a tiger with just about no obstruction. A wonderful experience indeed, as was seeing Asim resting on the platform in the centre of the enclosure, overlooking his surroundings and looking very charismatic whilst doing so.
Finished the visit in Blackburn Pavilion, which is as charming and magnificent as usual. Managed to spot a Javan Green Magpie in their outdoor aviary, which is usually quite the challenge, and was very much impressed by a large flock of Blue-crowned Laughingthrush performing laps of the walkthrough, seemingly oblivious to the presence of visitors. The male Scarlet-chested Sunbird, delightful as usual, appears to be developing more of a yellowish colouration on his chest, as opposed to the namesake red colour, not unlike what the zoo's previous male saw. Not sure if this colour change is a normal occurrence in the species, or exclusive to the London animals, but is rather interesting. The new aviary near the exit, which will serve as a nursery for chicks that aren't ready to fly free in the walkthrough, now has its first inhabitants (apologies if this has already been mentioned), two young White-crowned Robin-chats. Strangely, one of the two similar aviaries near the entrance housed a Purple-naped Lory. The only slight concern was that I was unable to locate both the Splendid Sunbirds and the Collared Trogon pair in the second walkthrough, although this most likely means very little, and the other trogon pair were very much visible.
The best news of all, however, is the arrival of a
new species in the external aviaries, that being the
Grosbeak Starling. They live in the aviary to the immediate left of the entrance, which they share with, among others, Javan Hill-mynas and Mountain Peacock-pheasants. I counted four, but there may well have been more, all flying back and forth between the two walls of the aviary, before mixing up their flight pattern by occasionally stopping at random branches on the way. They were all flying in impressive unison, and the sounds they made before taking off to coordinate this movement only made it more comical. According to ZTL, this arrival makes London one of just 11 European zoos and 4 UK zoos to house this species, making them a welcome addition to London's already-long list of rarities.
Overall, an excellent visit!
