I visited yesterday ( it was fair weather , but c c c cold !!! ) On the whole I was disappointed . The newly refurbished nocturnal/kiwi house is still as dark as ever , with very powerful red spotlights lighting up certain sections , and the kiwis huddle in dark corners where it is not possible to view anything . They did , however , have ( live )rats on visible display , and a plastic lizard in a cage that probably displayed tuatara at some stage . All the signage has changed , and is only useful to children . eg " Kangaroos come from Australia " There is NOTHING for anyone with even a little more knowledge . Alot of the animals were not visible ( due to strong winds ? ) A sign on an empty enclosure ( has been empty for a few years ) says that this animal bites . It does not even name the animal . Throughout the whole zoo there is still alot of duplicated postage stamp size enclosures ... There are more than one enclosure ( on opposite ends of the zoo ) for almost all smallish species . Emus are put in with Himalayan sheep . Himalayan monals have an exhibit between the tawny frogmouth and the kookaburras , as well as an exhibit in the Himalaya precint . There seems to be 5 or 6 different exhibits for Australian lizards , with a couple of them next to the guinea pig enclosure in the reptile precint A new exhibit for the aviary valley -- a bantam hen !! The zebras have not been moved into the "African mixed exhibit " which no longer has situtanga , but what appears to be blackbuck ( no sign for it , though ) Apparently one situtanga died , and the other was moved to Hamilton Zoo , " as they have a better enclosure at that zoo " . Alot of trees have been cut down , which gives the zoo a somewhat untidy look of fencing and cages , and large areas of old maintainance buildings ( old sheds and the like ) are a lot more visible . The new chimp house , giraffe house , and exhibition centre ( think animal shows ) are large boxy grey buildings , which dont really fit into the rest of the zoo . They do , however , appear to have better facilities for both the animals health and wellbeing , and for the keepers . The old giraffe area has plenty of potential for something -- with the biggest chunk of flat land available for development in the zoo . This is part of a new exhibit , but nobody knows whats going to be exhibited there ...... There was a sign near the South American mixed aviary saying " new animal here soon " I asked a keeper what was going into that space , and was told "birds" . I asked for a more detailed response -- what type of bird ? She didnt know , but tried to get an answer on the walkie talkie . Nobody responded from Bird Section , but someone else tried to help out . The keeper was asked " is that a query from a member of the public , or from a contractor ? " ( ......would that mean there are two possible answers to the one question ? ) Eventually I was told there wasnt going to be anything going into that enclosure for quite some time .... ) so much for new animal arriving SOON The parrot enclosures just uphill from the peccarries ( I didnt see them ) have now been emptied , and a sign saying that work will be starting on the new animal hospital there in 2007 . There is no sign of demolition of the old aviaries , let alone any construction of the animal hospital due to open in 2009 ...... I spoke to an engineer that was working on the project , and he hopes to visit Aucklands new animal hospital to see what worked for them , and if there were any pitfalls to avoid . ..... so they are obviously still in the design stage and not in the construction stage . so I wasnt really that impressed with the zoo as a whole PS The baby chimpanzee born about a month ago is a male .
I noticed many of these same things on my visit earlier this year (see on the other Wellington thread). The animal signage is awful: a photo, common name and two sentences of text. By "Himalayan sheep" do you mean the barbary sheep (which are African btw)? The aviary for Himalayan monals in what used to be known as Bird Valley is the original monal aviary, the one by the red pandas is the new one. Lol I saw the bantams too -- awesome use of exhibit space! When I was there the girls at the desk told me they were getting blackbuck for the African savannah which sort of confused me but they were adamant that's what was arriving so I guess it turns out they were right. Also the zebra had been put in there apparently but they didn't get on with the giraffes so had to be moved back to their own enclosure again. I didn't see any sitatunga there at all in February so they must have already left by then, I think the savannah held giraffe, ostrich and springbok.
I love reading comprehensive reviews of overseas zoos, but the description of Wellington Zoo is bleak and depressing. With the current construction projects one would think that the zoo was in an era of improvement.
By "Himalayan sheep" do you mean the barbary sheep (which are African btw)? Sorry , that is correct . Not that I get to see the sheep that often . I have only seen one once , in all my visits to the zoo . One thing that did make me happy ;In the new chimpanzee house they have buckets in perspex enclosures with a little hole in the perspex ( big enough to poke a stick into the bucket ) There are small snacks in the bucket , and plenty of sticks , browse etc lying around . The chimps seem to enjoy trying to get snacks out of the bucket , and are so intent on this that they dont take any notice of the people on the other side of the window -- 2 inches away . The one animal that was on display in the new animal show area was Tahi , the one legged kiwi . As much as he might make a good mascot for kiwi conservation , he is not much good for somebody who has never seen a real live kiwi before . He was caught in a gin trap that was set to catch possums . He had his leg amputated , but the University decided to make him an artificial leg . However , he rejects the artificial leg , and apparently prefers to hop around on his good leg . I also agree with Snow Leopard that new construction in a zoo usually to better enclosures . In Wellingtons case , this is probably so to a limited degree for the animals , and there are certainly improvements for the keepers . But as far as asthetics , the new developments have been very disappointing on the whole ( read "ugly" ) It seems that the gardening staff are no longer in existance , as the landscaping for 80% of the zoo is poor to non existant .
This zoo disapointed me when I went in 2006... I was really excited by the model of the masterplan but this seems more like wishful thinking..?
