Zoo Days » Chester Zoo

14-10-2007

Chester zoo's Fiji banded iguanas, are being reared off show at Present.

14-10-2007

I hate that the dark side of the reptile house is off show. What revovations are happening ??

14-10-2007

Jo, do they have a good collection of reptiles there?

14-10-2007

Yes, It has greatly improved since the arrival of Kevin Buley. He used to work at Jersey, so the zoo gets lots of there young. Mountain chicken, lesser antilles iguana, Utilia spiny tailed iguana. Chester also has Tuatara, the only ones in the UK.

The crocodiles are the west african Dwarfs, but they will be Chnged for the Philippine variety in the not too distant future.

The zoo has lots of exotic tortoises and turtles. Both species of Four eyed turtles are being housed off show, I was lucky enough to see them!! Golden coin box turtles, annam leaf turtles and mcCord's snake necked turtle are also kept off show in the aquarium. There are also black marsh turtles and Spiny turtles in the zoos collection. On the tortoise front, the zoo has pancake, galapagos, Yellow footed, Eygptian, Radiated, and there are more that I probably can't remember. The star tortoises and the elongated tortoises have now left the collection.

The zoo has 1.5 Tuatara in a purpose built enclosure in the tropical realm. Se Gentle lemurs fantastic pictures of them on the gallery.

The lizards kept, are mainly monitors and Iguanas. To Keep Komodo dragons, a zoo must keep 6 other species of Varanus monitors to an acceptable standard. Chester acieved this, and so were allowed to have their komodos.

Their monitors include:

Crocodile
Lace
Green tree
Mangrove
Pygmy spiny tailed
Komodo

Other species in the zoo's reptile collection:

Fiji banded iguana
Lesser antilles iguana
Utilia spiny tailed iguana
Rhinoceros iguana
Rhinoceros viper
Gaboon viper
Green mamba
Reticulated Python
Green tree python
Emerald tree boa
White lipped pit viper
Mangrove snake
Red tailed racer
Gila monster
Beaded lizard
Sudanese urogmanx
King ratsnake

The zoo also bred sunbeam snakes about ten years ago. There are probably other important species that I've forgotten.

14-10-2007

Two you've forgotten are two of my favourites, the Sanzinia Boa and the Prehensile-tailed Skink.

Others are Yemeni Chameleon, Jamaican Boa, Mexican Tiger Ratsnake, Standing's DayGecko , Sand Lizard and Anaconda.

Now I bet I've forgotten one or two.

The yellow-footed tortoises have left.

I didn't know about the 6 monitor species rule for zoos wanting Komodo Dragons.

14-10-2007

Their is no rule if that was the case Colchester would never have got them,as far as i`m aware they only have Nile Monitor but yet they do have Komodo!!!!!!!

14-10-2007

Thanks Jo thats a good collection, I have three species of Monitor so it looks like i have a few to go yet.

14-10-2007

Do Chester have Eyelashed Viper, and if so are they on show?
Also, what is the cobra species kept on the display side of the reptile enclosures? I'm sure they have one, is it a snouted cobra?

14-10-2007

Yes they do have Eyelashed Pit Viper both colour phases kept off-show for the time being,youare correct about the cobra species this is the only one kept at Chester for the time being.

14-10-2007

Yellow phase and green phase? I'd love them to get them on display. Is that back tunnel permanently off show, or is it being redeveloped?

14-10-2007

Permenantly off show, I think.

15-10-2007

Chester has a great reptile collection, doesnt it

15-10-2007

It is permanently off show as they have a serious problem heating the enclosures their as a result they are now all empty,also their are i believe structral problems with the walk way.Quite right yellow and green phase normally i perf the yellow phase but the green phase female is stunning with very nice markings,as far as i know at moment no plans for them to go on show if they did would say Realm of R.A.

18-10-2007

I would've thought Spirit of the Jag would be better suited if the could find space, maybe instead of the emerald tree boas.

19-10-2007

Chester has a lot of unusual reptiles which are off show, on show are the more common Sanzinia Boas, Rhinoceros Iguanas, Gila Monsters and Egyptian Tortoises. These can be seen in lots of zoos. Unfortunately Chester is not the only collection to keep their more rarely seen reptiles behind the scenes.

When the reptile corridor was closed the zoo put a sign up stating that all the reptiles from this area would be placed on show in other exhibits. I doubted that this would be the case because of a lack of suitable enclosures elsewhere in the zoo. As Chris suggests
the eyelash vipers could be exhibited in place of another snake species.