Personal Vision of other UK zoos

Personal Vision of other UK zoos
13-01-2008

Following on from the very interesting topics on personal visions on future developments at Chester & London Zoos, I thought that it would be interesting to come up with some similar plans for any other UK animal collections. I don't think it would be worth starting up seperate topics for each collection, so here is one for all of them!

The idea is simply to suggest how you'd like to see a zoo develop - i.e. axe some species and bring new ones in, build new exhibits, etc.

My choice is Blackpool Zoo - mainly because I've been to it more recently than any other 'big' zoo. Here are my ideas, although I imagine other people will come up with far more imaginative stuff:



*New Elephant house on the edge of the zoo (i.e. behind the cafe), including a small yard, small sand paddock and a grassed area of up to 2 acres, with a waterfall and large swimming pool. The existing Asian Elephants will be moved here, with facilities to accomodate a breeding bull in secure facilities. The circus-style elephant feeding/show routine will cease and the elephants will be encouraged to forage and behave more naturally. The indoor elephant house will accomodate a few small African species, such as hyraxes, aardvarks and mongooses.

*The present elephant yard will be completely refurbished as an enclosure for a pair of Sun Bears. This will have climbing facilities, swimming pool etc. There will be some glass viewing panels but mostly the enclosure will be hot-wired. There will be also be a mix of on-show and off-show accomodation for the bears in the indoor elephant stalls.

*The remainder of the old elephant house will become a Chester-style free-light exhibit for Rodrigue's Fruit Bats, with a seperate enclosure for Aye-Ayes.

*Lions will leave the collection and there place will be taken by Amur Leopards occupying the same space, but with a much more densely planted enclosure. There will be two seperate runs of equal size, for a male and female. There will be an off-show breeding den for the leopardess to use. These changes will not affect the tigers.

*The old ocelot house will become a Desert Mammals exhibit. This features Fennec Foxes (inside & out), Sand Cats, Black Footed Cats and Yellow Mongooses (outdoor only). The enclosure behind this building will be used for Jaguarundis.

*Gorilla Mountain unchanged, but the Orangs get a large extension onto the lawn in front of their moated enclosure. This will be quite similar to the Monkey World enclosures, and it will NOT have a water moat!

*Present Sealion pool demolished and rebuilt from scratch. The remodelled pool will be about 1 + 1/2 times the size of the old one, and there will be a small tunnel underneath it with underwater viewing available.

*Red River Hogs move to current zebra & ostrich paddock; both species to be moved on. Some of the paddock animals around the RRHs are now will move about a bit, allowing one of the paddocks to become a hot-wired exhibit for the DeBrazza monkeys already in the collection.

*The grassy run near to the former zoo entrance will house a large group of Bush Dogs.

*The nearby small primate house will be devoted to tamarins & marmosets, with a much better range than is presently the case on display, including Pied Tamarins and as many Lion Tamarins as possible! The Mouse Lemurs will stay in this building as well.

*Lemur Wood to stay as it, but with the addition of Crowned Lemurs.


I think that will do for now. Any thoughts on the above? I hope some alternatives to my vision are suggested as well!

13-01-2008

I will add some of mine later on.

14-01-2008

Shame someone won't actually do that to Blackpool zoo. It needs it, especially the thing with the elephants.

14-01-2008

Looks like i've started a craze on this forum

14-01-2008

Maybe if I win the lottery... not likely though, seeing as I don't even buy tickets for it! I do actually have a soft spot for Blackpool Zoo, and I think it has improved massively in recent times, but there is definitly room for improvement still. I would love to see a few more unusual species in - and the elephant accomodation is, well, crap, to be honest.

I'm glad you liked my ideas anyway. Any chance of seeing your ideas for Blackpool then?

Jimmy - yes you have, but its a very good craze so thats something I think you should be quite proud of!

15-01-2008

Well I've only visited once and can't really remember a lot to be honest. I can remeber the tigers and lions continuously pacing inside their sleeping area, and remember how awful the elephant housing was, but that's about it. I think the elephants would be my top priority.

25-01-2008

The collection i would love to overhaul is the Blair Drummond safari park.
Blair Drummond is too small to be a conventional safari park, therefore i would change it into a walk round wildlife park.
Starting at the main entrance i would turn into a carpark and the Entrance to the park at what is now the entrance kiosk, a large visitor entrance building would be built here opening into a large walk through aviary, with spoonbill, ibis, hammerkop and storks, introducing the guests to the theme of the park which will be Africa.
From the aviary, you will walk onto the main savanna exhibit, which will have a large walkway through the heart of it, the savanna will hold white rhino, which already live and breed in this reserve, Rothschild's giraffe, Grevy's zebra, impala, brindled gnu, greater kudu, ostrich and Abyssinian ground hornbill.
Turning left you come to the present African elephant paddock and house, the paddock will be enlarged to encompass the present giraffe and zebra enclosure and will have access to the lake.
The elephant house would be enlarged to include an indoor day paddock and public viewin with an enclosure for rock hyrax and klipspringer.
Swinging round to the right is the present lion reserve which will be maintained for a group of pure bred Angolan lion, past the current Amur tiger enclosure which will be enlarged for African hunting dog.
Further on is the current bison/fallow deer paddock which will be turned into a breeding centre for eastern black rhino which will share their paddocks with Thompson's gazelle.
Heading round to the left on the boundary of the park is a wooded area, which will have enclosures for Congo buffalo, bongo, red river hog, mandrill, Diana monkey and an aviary for touraco and hornbill, this area will be a rainforest themed area.
The central hub of the park is where the current sea lion house is this will be converted to a rainforest house with the current indoor pool housing a group of Nile crocodile with free flying birds in a rainforest habitat with an indoor enclosures for talapoin monkey, Nile monitor and pythons.
Outside this house there will be a large complex of pools for South African fur seal and African penguin, behind which will be an enclosure for brown hyena, this area will be called the skeleton coast, named after the coastal habitat of Namibia.
On to the current bear enclosure which will house a group of hamadryas baboon, behind which in the current childrens farm will be enclosures for Somali wild ass, addax, dromedary, meerkat, yellow mongoose, bat eared fox and secretary bird, in a themed desert zone.
The current bird of prey display will stay where it is withe holding and display area put off show and a large free flight aviary built for African vulture.
Down to the lake and there will be a group of common hippo on the lake with a shared paddock for sitatunga and defassa waterbuck.
Also n the lake will be flocks of lesser and greater flamingo and great white pelican.
Replacing chimpanzee on the island will be a group of gueraza colobus, and across the lake the lemur area will remain the same.
This park has to change as a safari park it is as i say too small an area and when you enter the current drive through, you skirt round the perimeter of the park thus seeing all the animals before you actually enter their reserves!
I have tried to be realistic with my species brought in, but how i would love giant eland and gerenuk in there too.

17-02-2008

Some really great ideas there Kiang

17-02-2008

kiang,

Sounds really exciting. When can we come and visit?

17-02-2008

As soon as i get a few million in the bank m8

17-02-2008

Give me a ring when you do. I don't care about the money, but would love to work for you on that Safari Park.

Blackpool for sale again?
17-02-2008

Blackpool Zoo is probably the Zoo in the Uk with the most need of a huge injection of funding, to bring it up to top class standard. Its located in a good zoo site, has an excellent collection of animals for its size, yet still manages to look rather rundown and empty. The car park/access area and entrance
are a poor advert too.

Now there's a rumour it could be for sale yet again. It has changed hands several times since it opened initially as a purpose-built council run zoo, and always with promises of multi-million pound improvements, but they don't seem to happen. Its even more interesting if the rumour is true this time as the current consortium which own it have other zoos in Europe so why do they want to part with Blackpool..?

02-03-2008

I went with my friend about three years ago (one freezing January morning) when she did the 'elephant experience' and got to wash them and learn all about them.
The keepers explained that two of the elephants were former circus performers and that they used the tricks they'd learned to help examine them and to wash them properly. They also said they took the elephants for walks around the zoo and we saw them doing that later one in the day. You could tell they really cared for them.
This is what it says on the site: "The elephants at Blackpool Zoo are amongst only a few in the UK that have access to their house and paddock throughout the day and night. They also take regular walks around the zoo's 32-acre grounds and in local woodland, where they are free to socialise and walk around at their leisure. This variation in environments also provides mental stimulation to complement their existing physical exercise.
"Environmental enrichment devices have been a common feature of our elephant enclosure for many years now, and are constantly revised and updated. We facilitate diverse projects undertaken by research students in association with our staff, which are, fundamentally, important in realising our commitment to animal welfare and education. Many of these projects result in the provision of devices that are constructed to complement existing methods for the mental and physical stimulation of our elephants.
"The four female Asian elephants at Blackpool are aged between 30 and 40. Kate and Crumple were accepted here in the 1970s from an Asian elephant orphanage, having been abandoned as infants. Indra and Marcella belonged to a German circus that went into liquidation in Holland in 1999, and they would have been put down had we not given them a home here at Blackpool at very short notice. All four elephants have spent their entire lives under the supervision of human carers, and would be unable to survive in the wild."
I would love to see a newer enclosure for them too but at least they do get proper exercise.

02-03-2008

Hi, I'm new to this site, lots of interesting points.

Blackpool Zoo always seemed quite bad but I thought from these photos they now had a permanent grass paddock? I'm sure they are given access only some of the time, but I think the grass field and wooded area is permanent:

http://www.asianelephant.net/blackpool/blackpool.htm#

although they may not be left unsupervised in what is essentially a low hotwire fence, which may not deter a panicked animal, this still counts as a very good facility. For example, the London elephants were rarely left unsupervised in their moated enclosure in the latter years, but it was still viewed as their enclosure.

For risk of getting by head bitten off I really think the furore over their treatment of elephants by the animal rights lobby definitely contributed to the addition of the grass and wooded paddock. I could be wrong though.

02-03-2008

Hi, and welcome to the site!

Unfortunately those photos do not show the elephant enclosure at Blackpool - I assume that's the grassy area where they sometimes take them out for walks. Presumably the electric fence is put up to discourage them from straying too far and can be moved around and dismantled as required?

The actual elephant enclosure is what is shown on the aerial shots - my view of it is that is very barren, and also I don't like seeing elephants on concrete. A sand paddock is a good compromise I think, this is what Twycross (and Colchester?) have done and it works very well IMO.