London Zoo Notes. » London Zoo

24-12-2007

Just to get back on topic - Does anyone know when 'Frog World is set to be completed?

09-01-2008

London zoo has announced the hatching of 2 Gila monster their first for 15 years hatched to animals from the closed Glasgow zoo.

10-01-2008

that's good news

13-01-2008

London Zoo's website is inviting guests to come and see the new and improved otter pool...

17-01-2008

Also according to the London Zoo site, there is a new Pygmy Hippo indoor heated pool...

17-01-2008

Hello my Britannia masters, I NZ Jeremy bid you hello from the COMMONwealth..!

(j/k)

I had a look at the London Zoo map today and for lack of a better term it looked a little "higgilty piggilty"...

Are there any plans for a geographical or biome focused structure to exhibits, a master plan if you will..?

17-01-2008

I think it'd be very hard for London to do, they have enough trouble working with the limited space and the listed buildings as it is, without having to stick to some greater structure. There is beginning to be some evidence of moving away from taxanomic displays towards geographical ones i.e. The Into Africa area has mostly savanna animals whilst the The Gorilla Kingdom has all African rainforest animals. However these two african areas, which are both pretty new, are not located close to one another, and there are South American areas distributed in between. I guess there are localised areas of geographically planned exhibits, which do not fit to any overall masterplan.

17-01-2008

I may seem overly critical but I grew up with stories of London being "the zoo", the first, 1828 etc... Its always sad when reality outpaces youth...

17-01-2008

in many respects London Zoo really is still 'the zoo' setting benchmarks. particularly when it comes to the work of the zoo, beyond the zoo! its portfolio of in-situ work is amazing. much of the time people patronize london zoo when in fact the work carried out there drives the future of zoos the world over, past present and future.

18-01-2008

Interesting to see that London Zoo's planning is being examined critically, as indeed its exhibits are literally all over the map. But the San Diego Zoo also does not adhere to the geographic/biome/biosphere master plan to exhibit animals, and like London it might be too late to adopt such a strategy. It appears that the future of zoos, and the majority of the top zoos already are under such planning, is to continue to exhibit animals geographically.

18-01-2008

The problem I see with London's layout is that they had spent decades building exhibits taxonomically. The casson pavillion (pachyderms), Lion house and subsequent terraces (cats), mappin terraces (bears) and so forth are clear examples.

This has left them in the position that is hard to get out of...

18-01-2008

Really, though, geographic representation is already out of date, as biome-based exhibits seem to be on the up lately.....

the two african areas could easily be linked via the tunnel to the current malayan tapir area from gorilla kingdom and the african bird safari....

18-01-2008

not to mention the pygmy hippos during the summer months...

Now, the mappins need to "africanised" to complete that section.

18-01-2008

I personally find geographical and biome based the best... I.e. African Rainforest etc...

18-01-2008

To be honest, I'd prefer they didn't try to get out of it too much. The site isn't large enough for decent-sized themed displays; something the size of Into Africa is about as large as an individual area could go without taking over the place.

Besides, where would the fun be if every zoo were arranged in exactly the same way? Most of the current zoo Master Plans look unnervingly similar. Obviously, if you're going to do major rebuilding then it's worth having some kind of logic to what you're doing, but I wish someone would take a bit of a different tack. Actually, someone is, with Dudley's plans to exploit the history of the site by creating a zoo zoned not just by location but also by time and science, complete with the story of exploration of the world through the major animal zones, a mediaeval farmyard in the Castle keep and the story of Darwin, Wallace and natural selection through a refreshingly taxonomic ape area.