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Visiting tomorrow for the first time in a decade. Anything important to know before I visit?

It is no longer possible to walk through the southern entrance/exit in the squirrel monkey walk-through, which requires some doubling back annoyingly. There are quite a few new species that you wouldn't have seen a decade ago - Indian mongoose, collared trogon, Darwin's frogs spring to mind.

SLORA (the new reptile house) and the new Galapagos tortoise house are on Barclay Court (by the restaurant) and are very good. Have fun!
 
There are some Fen Raft Spider spiderlings on display in the Death Watch Beetle enclosure. Also Mountain Chickens were off-show (not sure if this has been mentioned)
Ah! That'll explain the distinct lack of beetles then. I'd seen the tubs with the spiderlings in but couldn't make out what they were. Out of curiosity does anyone else have trouble spotting the one held in the spider section of Tiny Giants? I'm still yet to see one

I'm not sure of the exact reason the Mountain Chickens are offshow but they've apparently successfully bred again so it could be in relation to that.
 
Ah! That'll explain the distinct lack of beetles then. I'd seen the tubs with the spiderlings in but couldn't make out what they were. Out of curiosity does anyone else have trouble spotting the one held in the spider section of Tiny Giants? I'm still yet to see one

I'm not sure of the exact reason the Mountain Chickens are offshow but they've apparently successfully bred again so it could be in relation to that.
Oh cool it could be health check related then. The adult Fen Raft Spider is almost always camouflaged on the log in the centre of the enclosure :)
 
A really active day at the zoo today.
- lion and tiger 'cubs' were very very playful and active
- babirusa piglets were briefly outside and playfighting
- red river hogs were making an almighty racket with some pigballs
- otter house was closed off with a sign saying it was closed for peace and quiet for new babies
- saw one Hanuman Langur - don't know if it was the male or not - very big but I don't know how big Hanumans are!
- a sighting of both sloths and the tamandua in the rainforest house
 
Well, I did indeed visit London Zoo this week, and it was pretty good, though I didn't see everything.

- It was baltic! I was freezing the whole time I was out, which probably helped explain why I didn't see some of the animals.

- We went to the into Africa section first, with us unfortunately not seeing the hippos, duikers or okapis but seeing the zebras, giraffes and warthogs.

- No wild dogs. Are they all dead and are they getting new ones? They were certainly doing lots of work on the enclosure.

- Forgot how impressive the night life area was. We spent a long time trying to spot each animal, and we were lucky with spotting species like the aye-ayes, senegal bushbabies, grey slender loris, harvest mouse and gray mouse lemur. The rainforest life building was also really nice and the sloth was sleeping right above us. Saw most of the animals in there, but there was a group of primary school kids in the building with us at the same time, which may have prevented me from seeing the tamandua.

- Sad seeing the roundhouse empty- how long has it been uninhabited for and will anything ever go back in?

- Monkey valley is awesome- the aviary is just so huge and I love the fact there was signs on the bridge about its history. Unfortunately the walkthrough was closed but I still saw all the monkeys. Why don't they have birds in it anymore?

- Where actually is the dik dik enclosure, and, if it was closed off, where would I have been able to get to the enclosure?

- Sad I never got to see the reptile house open, looked like it was an amazing building.

- The new one was very impressive though, being of a reasonable size and holding some cool species, most I believe were from the previous building.

Overall- really nice. Just wish I had more time and the weather wasn't so bad- then I'll see that pesky mongoose! :p

- Shame Gorilla kingdom was being refurbished when I visited, though only half of it was closed. Unfortunately I only saw one adult and not any of the youngsters.

- Great to see the Casson- my favourite listed building they have! Sadly though, both of the different species living there were not seen and the indoors was closed.

- Saw lots of tigers and lions- both enclosures are very impressive.

- I know there is a statue of Winnie the bear in the zoo somewhere- where is it? I did not find it.

- Penguin enclosure is amazing- definately the most impressive humboldt penguin enclosure I've ever seen (still came second to a different enclosure in the best UK penguin enclosure poll though :D)

- Luckily I got to see the Darwin's frog breeding area- great to see what ZSL are doing.

- Tiny Giants building is awesome- how long has it been there for?

- As I said, I ran out of time though, meaning I didn't see the small Indian mongoose (:(), the monkey walkthrough, animal adventure, blackburn pavillion (:(), komodo dragons or the mappins (:().
 
No wild dogs. Are they all dead and are they getting new ones? They were certainly doing lots of work on the enclosure.
This was discussed earlier in the thread and they have died. The enclosure is being refurbished for this species, so there will be more.
- Where actually is the dik dik enclosure, and, if it was closed off, where would I have been able to get to the enclosure?
It's a path sloping upwards near the otters. It used to house Chinese water deer before dik-dik and I believe reindeer before them.
 
Found it by chance today. It's tucked round the side of the butterfly walkthrough, near Three Island Pond (flamingoes/pelicans)

There’s a second one by the hot air balloon, with accompanying signage, in Animal Adventure.
 
Ah. That area looked a bit tatty today. As did the display lawn.
It's pretty much impossible to work on that area over winter because it gets horrendously waterlogged, I know that the entire zoo is getting a face-lift this year (as seen with the penguins and general signage already) so hopefully come the summer it'll be tidied up a bit. I agree though, it's a little rough looking at the minute. But somehow I find that quite charming when it's lashing it down and seemingly Arctic in temperature
 
What kind of changes have been made to the penguins enclosure?
Nothing to the actual exhibit animal-side but all the signs have been replaced, the fences and walls repainted and the area in general has had a tidy up. It all looks very smart now, and definitely needed it as I don't think much work had been done on it for a good few years
 
Ah. That area looked a bit tatty today. As did the display lawn.

Winnie has been disappearing into the bushes at Animal Adventure for a while now.

Although I haven’t visited since the two week closure in January, it seems from comments on here that they didn’t get much done (that can be seen, anyhow). This may have been due to the weather - we volunteered to help out but were cancelled due to the forecasted gales.
 
Nothing to the actual exhibit animal-side but all the signs have been replaced, the fences and walls repainted and the area in general has had a tidy up. It all looks very smart now, and definitely needed it as I don't think much work had been done on it for a good few years

They’ve been upgrading Penguin Beach since last summer, with the signage going out then, most probably due to the McVities Penguin sponsorship (?). It looked pretty good in December so looking forward to seeing if anything else has been done since then on my next visit.
 
They’ve been upgrading Penguin Beach since last summer, with the signage going out then, most probably due to the McVities Penguin sponsorship (?). It looked pretty good in December so looking forward to seeing if anything else has been done since then on my next visit.

It looked quite nice yesterday. I can't judge much - last went last May, and couldn't tell you when before that.
 
It wasn't my intention to come across as rude, but thank you anyway. I do pride myself on my scathing wit.

Point is, these threads fill up with posts very quickly as it is and repeating information doesn't make reading them any easier. Neither do passive-aggressive comments but I feel that's besides the point.
I'm not on here as often as I used to be, and I did miss a page but actually two of my points hadn't been covered and at least one of them was liked by others. I have seen interesting and amusing posts from you; I do think you were unnecessarily rude to me but having pointed that out, as far as I'm concerned that's the end of it.
 
Always worth looking at the London Zoo website - for example article on sculptures would tell you about Winne the Pooh.

Sculptures at the Zoo | London Zoo

A bronze of Winnie with Lt. Colebourn can be seen next to ZSL’s War Memorial just outside Butterfly Paradise near the pelicans.
A sculpture of Winnie can be found in Animal Adventure this is a bronze by Lorne McKean. It was unveiled by Christopher Robin Milne in 1981.
 
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