Lafone
Well-Known Member
Im guessing you haven’t visited either of the Aspinall parks lately?
True - I haven’t done the rehoming facilities lately!
ZSL Whipsnade Zoo ZSL Whipsnade Zoo News 2022
- Thread starter Lafone
- Start date
True - I haven’t done the rehoming facilities lately!
Whipsnade have welcomed a female Red Panda named Ruby from Edinburgh.
She'll be joining male Nilo, possibly as a breeding mate.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CeDru98oLA0/
She'll be joining male Nilo, possibly as a breeding mate.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CeDru98oLA0/
She has been in with Nilo for a week or so and they are getting closer daily
Lafone
Well-Known Member
Email today indicates the cheetahs are now on show and visible in cheetah rock.
“We wanted you to be the first to know that three cheetah brothers - Billy, Freddie and Robyn - have a new home at Whipsnade Zoo! Keep an eye out for the trio at Cheetah Rock.”
And it also mentions Khari and the new red panda.
“We wanted you to be the first to know that three cheetah brothers - Billy, Freddie and Robyn - have a new home at Whipsnade Zoo! Keep an eye out for the trio at Cheetah Rock.”
And it also mentions Khari and the new red panda.
Popped to whipsnade today for the zoobilee event they are running this week, have to say I was very impressed with it. If you have kids they will love it and its the first time I feel zsl have got it right with these sort of events
Unfortunately though the "new enclosure" that was mentioned a while back next to the red pandas was in fact just some foundation work for this and I'm guessing future events in that area.
Work definitely going on in the old sealion enclosure so that's my guess as to the location of the macaques.
Didn't venture outside of the hub area so only other thing of note was that the 2 red pandas were in the same tree so that's a good sign I guess
Unfortunately though the "new enclosure" that was mentioned a while back next to the red pandas was in fact just some foundation work for this and I'm guessing future events in that area.
Work definitely going on in the old sealion enclosure so that's my guess as to the location of the macaques.
Didn't venture outside of the hub area so only other thing of note was that the 2 red pandas were in the same tree so that's a good sign I guess
Lafone
Well-Known Member
Thank you for concluding the mystery of the strange foundations!
Shame it wasn’t a new enclosure
At least if the sea lion enclosure is repurposed it won’t go the way of the listed elephant house.
The website isn’t particularly helpful tbh. Whipsnade has Elipsen Waterbuck, Bongo, Scimitar Horned Oryx, Gemsbok, Blesbok and Sitatunga
Thank you for that!! Wow Whipsnade do need to update their website ASAP. If I was looking to visit for the first time and went off their species list tbh I'd go elsewhere.
I appreciate that these aren't everyone's priorities but if you have a website where seeing animals is visitors main reason for visiting then I would expect the place to include majority of animals. Maybe I'm just fussy but looks like an issue that could be easily rectified if they tried a bit harder.
Anyhow, do any regular visitors(I've never been) feel the place has improved in the last 6/12 months?
no I agree the website is not great, they do have the full list that they do in January Somewhete on the site.
I do recommend a visit, I go regularly and always enjoy it!
The ZSL website provides the full Whipsnade Animal Inventory as at 1st January 2022.
See link below
List of animals and animal inventory
Lafone
Well-Known Member
I think it’s well worth a visit not sure what it would have improved from and to in 6-12 months if that makes sense - it’s a place with some challenges and some limitations but it’s still a great park with some excellent spaces for the animals.
It’s worth remembering it’s a place focused on larger animals / animals in larger enclosures and it doesn’t have the diversity of a collection with a lot of smaller species but what it has is very interesting to see.
I also go a lot and would also recommend it. It pays to be able to visit more than once in my view though as it is massive to get around and if you don’t see something (as the animals can rightly choose to show themselves or not) it’s a fair trek back and forth.
A lot of the debate over whipsnade comes from those of us who want to see it be better but still love it.
Rajang-GOAT
Well-Known Member
I have to agree, it is a great place and probably by far the biggest zoo (in more ways than 1) I went to after becoming a zoo enthusiast and pre lock down (obviously not including Colchester). I visited in May/April 2019 (I visited Longleat later in the year) and it was great. The whole scale of Whipsnade is just unrivalled and on another level, the species and variation is great as well.
Spot on, and not just the website. A statement that sums up my general feeling towards Whipsnade’s current situation.
And yet as @Tim May pointed out there is in fact a full species list on the website. To add a bit more to his response, if you go to this page it clearly says
I’m all in favour of pointing out the weaknesses of Whipsnade and London Zoo when appropriate but once again it seems people are bashing them as an automatic response without actual good cause.
To be fair, I don't think criticism of the website here was major ZSL bashing.
The same criticism could probably be levelled at the majority of UK zoo websites, which like ZSL, fail to advertise all the species on display. For us there is always the ZTL or the inventory, but most general visitors would not bother to scan the list.
It clearly links to the full list whether people or not care to scan the list or just look at the featured highlights is irrelevant. If people are looking for a list of species in full it is entirely reasonable to clearly signpost them to an inventory list. I am afraid I just can’t accept that the criticism here is valid.
This was not what I'm trying to do. As I've previously stated I've never visited here so I can't criticise everything(ie; layout,enclosures etc).
My point is that as a visitor looking at the Whipsnade website there isn't a massive appeal of species. Obviously white rhinos,elephants and chimps which are great but as I've said before there are other places in the country that seem to be head and shoulders above Whipsnade.
Obviously we are not going to agree however i do sincerely hope Whipsnade continue to improve and add to their collection.
We won’t agree because there is indeed a clear link to the full species list and I don’t accept that the pictured highlights lack general appeal. Pictured are lions, tigers, elephants, lemurs, chimpanzees, but also less obvious species such as wolverines, lynx and African hunting dogs.
Lafone
Well-Known Member
I think the site could work a bit harder but the big ticket animals are the tourist / less zoo fanatic draw and so the two sets of species lists - one very obvious in terms of ‘we have all these rhinos!!!’ And the ‘here’s all the stuff we have’ tend to be for slightly different audiences. It’s not the finest site ever. Serviceable.
The thing that is a bit poor is that all the animals are not shown on the map and that’s a shame as the place is huge and you could miss something but as they share enclosures with the big folk a lot of the time you’d find them by coming across them. I do think the map should show where everything is though and that’s something I think they could improve.
The thing that is a bit poor is that all the animals are not shown on the map and that’s a shame as the place is huge and you could miss something but as they share enclosures with the big folk a lot of the time you’d find them by coming across them. I do think the map should show where everything is though and that’s something I think they could improve.