The last exhibit that needs redoing is the orang exhibit. I hope they get an exhibit that has as much thought put into it. There were rumours that they would have access, via ariel rope bridges, to an island near the elephants. There is some empty space still in the old part of the zoo. The only "ABC" animal that the zoo lacks is a bear species. It would be fantastic if they got Sun bears to fit in with the Asian theme in that part of the zoo. Perhaps the old gorilla exhibit and the exhibits next door could be utilised for a bear exhibit? I would love to see some more birds in the collection. The reptile house is also lacking in diversity. In fact most of the species on display can be purchased in just about any good petshop!
The current sealion pool is not particularly small, and the new one is to be more than twice the size. So it should be a fairly impressive size. It seems that the new flamingo area will be in the area where it currently stands (lakeside) and the main improvement will be netting to allow free flight. I am surprised by the proposed opening of early 2015, as this would indicate very rapid building progress. Looking forward to this development, esp. for the flamingos as Dublin have a huge flock, and it would be splendid to see them flying.
Amazingly, Dublin Zoo had its one millionth visitor on the 30th Oct. That puts them ahead of previous years and they are on schedule for a real record breaking year. I suppose the good weather and improving economy are factors.
Unless the weather for the next two months is very wet, they should end up with up to 1.2 million visitors. It will be interesting to see how that compares with the other BIAZA zoos, and imagine only Chester and London would be the only non theme park zoos to do better.
A male - born to female, Cococia on 12th November. She came from Aalborg in 2011 and this is her first calf
It is nice to see that the pure-bred herd is now increasing. Wonder what will happen with the cow hybrids? (or are they like Marwell already on contraception now?)
Officially it's meant to be Spring 2015, but I was there yesterday and very little progress has been made, except for a mediocre hole in the ground. The layout for this new area seems so wasteful. There's no need for another picnic area in the zoo. It should be concentrating on exhibits and either expanding current ones or adding new ones. They could have had a truly impressive sea lion exhibit if they had of utilised the whole area for it.
