Golder's Hill Park Zoo, London

Golder's Hill Park Zoo, London
19-08-2008

We had an afternoon to kill and so headed up to see the collection at Golder's Hill Park, near Hampstead. I was expecting to see blackbuck, waders, cranes, egrets, seriamas etc, but almost all the enclosures had been emptied for 'refurbishment'. Either people have been bothering the stock or they actually are planning to refurbish, although the main flight was revamped only at the end of 2006....so I'm not sure what is going on there.

I think that a wealthy owner of a private collection has taken over the running of the aviaries and paddocks in this park, and so the stock is often rotated with his country collection. It is billed as 'London's only free zoo', although it is just a set of (very well-maintained) enclosures within the park itself. The only animals visible were a pair of Speckled Pigeons, two male greater rheas, 7 or 8 maras, and the small herd of fallow deer which were sharing their enclosure with a couple of....donkeys. I have a feeling the two rheas might have been two of the four males from the anteater paddock at ZSL.

Anyway, for those not familiar with this little place, I posted a couple of photos of the enclosures. If anyone has any news about the plans for this place, please share it as I imagine it is quite an interesting collection usually held there.



http://www.zoobeat.com/gallery/showp...723/ppuser/610
Wader/ibis/stork flight aviary


http://www.zoobeat.com/gallery/showp...722/ppuser/610
Rhea/mara enclosure. Has also held muntjac and alpaca at various points in time.


http://www.zoobeat.com/gallery/showp...725/ppuser/610
Netted crane flight.


http://www.zoobeat.com/gallery/showp...724/ppuser/610
Fallow deer paddock.

19-08-2008

The person who was involved at Golders Park was Ben Potterton who is now working at Twycross Zoo,i believe he`s removed most of his stock from the park by the request of the council not sure where its been kept at the moment but the Greater Magellan Geese are going to Twycross.

19-08-2008

nothing to with this but to do with zsl, why did they remove the male rheas from the anteater paddock at london, was there violence towards to anteaters?

20-08-2008

The zoo originally acquired 4 adult male rheas. In about 2006, two of the rheas disappeared, leaving 2.0 still in with the anteaters at ZSL. I don't think there have ever been problems associated with that combination, even during the raising of offspring on the part of the anteaters.

CZ Jimmy - do you know if that means the experiment at Golder's Hill has now been wound down for good, or is the council wanting to maintain it themselves from now on?

20-08-2008

I think you mean me zoogiraffe not sure have heard various stories will do some digging and try to get the facts of what has gone on.

20-08-2008

so the rheas are still in with the anteaters? i thought they had the paddock next to them?

20-08-2008

they had the whole paddock last time I was there. Sounds like there may be a husbandry issue from what you are saying requiring them to be separated for some of the time. Maybe that's why the group was reduced to 2.0.

Yeah, sorry, Zoogiraffe, I meant you. Myself and Pertinax mentioned on the twycross thread that we had seen a tv piece on the Hampton Court Flower Show about Twycross where they were talking about a new direction in terms of lots of immersion planting, I am pretty sure the person on the segment was Ben Potterton, although I did not make the connection at that point.
He seems to be based at this nursery, where the nucleus of the animal collection is managed:

Shore Species

and they exhibit every year at the big Flower shows, hence the peice on Twycross as part of the coverage, with him having just been appointed as curator of plants there. It would seem that this collective who manage the animals at the nursery also run the Golder's hill site, which became a BIAZA member last year (a press release mentioned that ZSL and Paradise park were 'sponsoring' the enclosures), so either there is an upgrade being undertaken on the enclosures as a result of this, or his appointment at Twycross has meant less time to maintain a collection at the London park.

20-08-2008

when you say whole paddock, you mean the anteater one and the one next to it?

21-08-2008

Had a look at the link johnstoni to Bens place from when i spoke to him last at Golders Hill there seems to be a few species not listed on the web-site,suspect the Bar-headed Geese are also now at Twycross as a group has turned up in 1 of the empty chimp nursery enclosures their.