Whipsnade rhino, penguins and woburn » Whipsnade Zoo

Whipsnade rhino, penguins and woburn
26-02-2008

Hi everyone,
Got back late last night from my exploration of Woburn and Whipsnade. I can confirm the new rhino house is open and there are lots of details on the website too. Looks like it opened around the ninth as they were running workshops including building a big paper machie rhino until the 22nd of Feb.
I saw mum and baby together (on the train) and another one-horned rhino is a separate enclosure (I guess that was the male.) Looks like they're building a new bus stop for the nepal house too - sadly I didn't have time to go inside - it was getting near too closing to risk the trek between bus stops. I've snapped a couple of exterior shots which I can post.
The cheetah rock enclosure is coming on too.
I'm hoping I have a ZooBeat forum exclusive too because I called briefly in the bird garden section and there were four gentoo penguins being fed! The keeper explained they'd arrived on Friday from Edinburgh zoo, apparantly they have a surplus there (I think he said they had 34.) The four females are a bit nervous after their move and were reluctant to be hand fed by the keeper - another keeper said they are not sure of the new keeper - especially his all-in-one white outfit - perhaps he looks too much like a vet. Anyway they are still in quarantine - I saw them about 4.40pm so penguin fans might get lucky and spot them around the same time.
I did a whistlestop tour of Woburn on the Saturday - missing out the monkeys - and really liked it. It is much smaller but I loved the Canadian black bears and timber wolves. Whipsnade was huge and I liked the Discovery Centre best (like a lot of other forum users I'm always hoping to see more unusual species and they had a Madagascan radiated tortoise and spiny tailed lizard) and the bird display - they flew a toucan and a bald eagle among others - it was too cold for some species.
The lemur enclosure at Whipsnade was great but sadly the ringtails were staying inside - I can't blame them - but I was delighted to find the walk-through exhibition at Woburn had not just black and white ruffed lemurs but rarer red-bellied and red-fronted ones. Glad I managed to see both zoos now.
Hoping to visit Hamerton another time and excited by the new Madagascar exhibition at Cotswolds (never been to either.) Nearer to home I'll definitely be planning a day trip to Blackbrook - didn't even know that zoo existed until joining ZooBeat

26-02-2008

I'd love to see those exterior shots!

Glad to hear you enjoyed it, do you have any other pictures?

I'll be heading down in the summer, so i guess the gentoo penguins will be on-show then?

26-02-2008

Hi? Do I have pictures? Oh just one or two - I had two cameras with me! I'll try and pick out some of the best ones and put them on the site again asap. Anybody have any preferences? - I did take a picture of a great big ground hornbill - for example! And I also got lots of shots of two european brown bears fighting (I'm pretty certain it was the male trying to get the girl one 'in the mood' )
I'm not sure how long the penguins will be in quarantine - is about three months normal? Is it shorter for internal transfers?
Susan

26-02-2008

Well, I'd like pictures of the 'classic' animals (Elephants, rhinos, hippos, chimps, lions, tigers, wolves, bears etc) because I did not get many good shots of these when i visited in 2006. Any other good pics will also be appreciated

The whipsnade galley could do with a boost as well....


Thanks, Jimmy

26-02-2008

It sounds like Woburn was worth a look after all then. I've never been there or Whipsnade, but it just goes to show that places that aren't as prestigious can be really enjoyable - sometimes they have better animals than the big collections, as seems to be the case with Woburn's lovely lemurs!

Glad you had fun, and any lemur pics would be nice. By the time everyone finishes with their photo requests you'll end up showing us the lot!!!

26-02-2008

I've posted some Whipsnade pictures - I'll try and do some more soon and then some from Woburn. Hope you all like them Didn't notice any signs of a sloth bear enclosure - any idea where it's going - perhaps they're waiting to move the cheetah and then they could use that space - it is near the european bears.

26-02-2008

Thanks, some of them look great!

Did you see any sign of construction for the bears from London?

26-02-2008

Missed that bit of my post above - and added it. Nope didn't see any obvious signs.

26-02-2008

hmm... that does sound plausible as the sloth bears are being moved out at a similar time to the cheetah exhibit opening...

27-02-2008

They could live in the old Cheetah enclosures... As they've proved a poor exhibit at London I don't imagine a new enclosure is being built- they'll probably prefer to hide away out of sight here too, the same as at London.