Belfast Zoo » Belfast Zoo

Belfast Zoo
02-01-2008

Hi I've had a request to write a wee bit on the this great and often forgoten UK zoo!

The zoo is the only one in Northern Ireland and indeed the only council run zoo left in the UK to the best of my knowledge. It was first opened in 1936 on a small 12 acre site beside a tram station and amusements at the north of Belfast. In the 1970's it was decided that the zoo was no longer accptable and the council had to make the decision to close it down or build a new zoo! luckily they decided on the later and over the next 20yrs the new zoo was built on the a joining parkland on the side of cavehill. The old zoo site still remains though closed to the public and is very interesting to look around the old enclosures. The 'new' zoo is on a rather steep hill on par with that of edinburgh.

On entering the zoo you can head down hill to an area on the zoo which is really unused by the general public! Here there are enclosures for Malayan tapir ( a pair on which we have recently bred our 7th calf from), Eastern bongo (11) an nile lechwe! As the enclosures are rather large the bongo and tapir tend to hide from public veiw alot of the time!

As you start you journey up hill again you come to a small lake area with great white pelican and chinese cormorant! around the lake are two large paddocks one for sitatunga and one for red kangaroo! Colombian black spider monkeys have access to a small island on the lake! By far the most exciting species around this area are our breeding family group of moloch gibbons who arrived in 2006 from howletts. In this area you will also find the childrens farm and small reptile room! this area was one of the original areas built in the new zoo and is now rather out dated and the first to be renovated if and when money becomes available! The zoo keeps several rare breeds here including irish moiled cow and saddlebacked pigs! the reptile collection is limited with no really exciting species. However in this area you will most likely come across one of the most popular species in the zoo our free ranging group of ring-tailed lemur! i must admit I am very biased because I look after them! they dont tend to wander too far luckily!There is also an enclosure with parma wallaby, ruffed lemur and red-bellied lemur mixed in this area! It is planned to mix crowned and collared lemurs with them this year hopefully. Our black-footed cats are kept in this area too, however they are off-show to the public.

as you continue up the hill you come to the former polar bear enclosure it is rather large and now house our spectacled bear group.

The next area has a large paddock for rothschilds giraffe, common zebra and ostrich. We have one of the most successful breeding herd of giraffe in the UK. Th e asian elephants share a house with these species. We currently house three females but at one time had 5 cows and a bull. Visesh the youngest female was born at belfast and is now unfortunately the oldest surviving asian elephant to be born in a UK zoo. Both her and her mother are planned to move to another zoo to breed in the not too distat future.

other species in this area include mhorrs gazelle, meerkat and crested porcupine.


The next area contains the majority of our primate collection. We have 15marmoset/tamarin enclosures with a large number of different species. We have kept and bred pied tamarin and all three lion tamarin species for a number of years. At one time we also had 18 off show marmoset and tamarin groups off show in addition to this keeping rarities such as moustached and weddells tamarin. We now have the largest collection of white-bellied pygmy marmoset in europe. The main monkey houses exhibits three species, javan brown langur, colobus and francois langur to which the zoo runs the ESB for.
Satellite enclosure around these include one for purple-faced langur and one for our family group of verraux's sifaka.

The zoo's ape house exhibits chimps and gorillas in two large enclosures which when built won ufaw awards.

Enclosures towards the top of the zoo include ones for fossa, temminck's golden cat, cheetah and white-nosed coati.

At the very top you will find vicuna, sun bears (these are currently the only 1s in the UK) and red river hogs.

Species on the way down include red-ruffed lemurs, white tiger, barbary lion, african wild dogs and red panda.


The next are is home to a number of aquatic species. Both the californian sealions and mixed penguin exhibits won awards when built and have underwater veiwing. White-tailed sea eagles have a large avairy here and have succesfully bred here. Short clawed otter can also be found here.


The remaining mammal species include a small enclosure for pudu and one for black-tailed prairie dogs. Some of the later have managed to escape of the years and a small free ranging group are very popular with the visitors.

The last bird park is currently under going serious renovations so the collection is limiteed. Cockatoo species kept incluse Red and white talied black,palm,galah,molocan,leadbeaters,blue-eyed and citreon crested.

We our currently developing a large tropical house which will hosue a number of exotic birds including our nicobar pigeons along with two-toed sloth, rodriguez fruits bats and agouti.

The final exhibit is a large walk through avairy with speckled and imperial pied pigeons, sacred and southern bald ibis and cattle and little egret!

I hope this as given you an idea of the zoo and its collection and if you want to ask me any questions feel free!

02-01-2008

Hey Al good to have u on board, can you tell us what is happening with the purple faced and Francois langurs at the moment, the Francois seem to be down to a group of females only and Edinburgh has imported some purple faced langurs from Singapore are any of these destined for Belfast? And what of the southern bald ibis, Belfast have never bred them have they, you seem to only have 1 pair left, will more be coming in?

02-01-2008

@Al: great review! It is fantastic to read first-hand accounts of zoos all over the world, rather than browsing official websites. Thanks. What will happen to the old zoo, or is it being left unused for now?

02-01-2008

Thanks for the review AI, sounds like a great collection, would you have any photos of Belfast zoo that you could put up in the gallery.

02-01-2008

Hi Al

I visited Belfast a couple of years ago, it's a really nice zoo you've got there, great views too. I liked the free-ranging ringtails who were being fed M&Ms by some schoolkids. I was there on the day a colobus monkey escaped and the director and another keeper were up at the top of the zoo with binoculars trying to find him. I've got a few questions:

Do you know where the two elephants are going? And what is going the happen to the remaining elephants?

What are the plans re sifakas?

What are the attendance figures and do you have any idea how many visitors are from outside NI?

02-01-2008

Hi Al

Excellent review!

One of my favourite UK zoos and always something interesting to see.

I have lots of photos from my last visit (2006) which I will post soon.

All the Best
Dean

02-01-2008

Thanks very much for the review. Your cockatoo collection is very impressive.

02-01-2008

Excellent review and thanks for posting it!

Belfast seems to have a good mix of rare, unique species and the classic 'ABC' species

What is the situation regarding Elephants?

02-01-2008

Hello all good to hear from you! I'll try my best to answer all your questions!

Kiang - Re: purple-faced langurs. We were originally the first zoo in the UK to import these beutiful animals from Columbo zoo in Sri Lanka. We kept two groups for a few years. One being a relatively old pair which was sent to Twycross. The female was thought to be quite old but seems to have bred well for them unfortunately having only male young. Our group bred well for a number of years growing to around 10. Unfortunately we lost a large number over a period of two years due to a number of problems leaving us now unfortunately with a mother and son. We will be going out this species which will to another UK collection. They are to be replaced by Goodfellow's tree kangaroo which is a worthy species!

Re: Francois. The current EAZA population is quite low. We are trying to import new founder males from AZA but it is taking a long time. Recent studies in the wild have indicated that numbers may be as low as 200-300 animals left.

Re: Southern Bald Ibis. We had a flock of 10 birds originally that were all relatively young. They were just reaching maturity when we arrived one morning to find 8 dead. We think the culprit was most likely a stoat. Which im sure you can understand was a very devistating day. The remaining pair share a large walk through aviary. It is hoped in the future to build a smaller aviary that several managed species can be kept, however until then the remaining pair will most likely stay there.

Snow leopard - Re: Old zoo

There have been several ideas over the years of what to do with this area but none have reached fruitition.

Until recently we still kept some species in some modified enclosures down there. The land at one point was to be sold for housing, then there were talks of a hotel and general park. It is a real shame because it is a beutifully wooded 12 acre site. I personally would like an off show breeding centre with just a few paddock species.

Enclosures that still remain are ones for elephant, polar bear, old chimp house, bear and big cat cages. There was talking of bringing one of these up to the new zoo for a display on zoo history.


Mark - I have thousands of photos and will happily start uploading


Pygathrix - Im glad you enjoyd the zoo. There are alot of areas we plan to improve on over the next few years. For a number of years our attendance was only around 200,000 visitors. As we are subsidised heavily by the council this low number isnt really a worry, however over the past two years this has risen to over 300,000 last year and touch wood growing this year. The extra money brought in by this will bring much needed funds. Im not sure on exact figures on tourists but I have definately noticed a large number of other languages speaking. The polish population in Belfast is around 30,000. So large infast that are new website when launched will be available in polish too.

Re: Elephants - are far as im aware they will hopefully be going to a new elephant house in Ostrava Zoo. We hope to replace them with two or three non-breeding animals.


Re: Sifaka - The family group only recently arrived and are still in quarantine. The group consists of an adult pair and two young sons. The the female is thought to be pregnant so fingers touched we will be up to 5 soon. They are a facinating species to work with.



I hope these answers ok! if theres anything else you want to know give me a shout!

02-01-2008

Cheers AI

02-01-2008

re: Old zoo, very interesting to a zoo historian like me!

Where exactly is the old zoo situated? Is it in the grounds of the new zoo, ie where tapir and mhorr gazelle are?

Many Thanks
Dean

02-01-2008

It is adjacent to that area between the road and the zoos car park
I'll try and figure out how to upload some photos!

02-01-2008

Thanks Al, that would be great.

Is there a good reference or book on history of Belfast Zoo?

D

02-01-2008

Thanks for the pictures Al, they are great

02-01-2008

Brilliant Photos Al, thanks.

D