Chester Zoo Chester Zoo Discussion and Questions 2024

They will be back, there enclosure is still there and not effected by the development

 

I'm pretty sure they're returning to their previous enclosure by where the aardvark used to be, near the original painted dog exhibit, but that whole path/trail is inaccessible due to the work currently. They're certainly not getting rid of them, at least just yet.

 

Chester does not currently have Rock Hyrax but they should be returning for Heart of Africa.

 

Cheers for telling me guys, always loved the hyrax as they were always so active and entertaining

 

Has anyone spotted Tuan lately? I haven’t seen him for over a year.

 

I forgot who that is

 

Tuan is the semi off-display male Bornean orangutan.

I saw a very impressive male Bornean orang in March, but I'm not familiar with how large the other male (Willie?) is these days.

 

Could anyone tell me how many chimpanzees live at Chester Zoo?

 

On 31st December 2023 Chester had 7 male, 13 female and 1 unsexed chinpanzees.

 

does anyone know how many ethiopian mountain adders the zoo has if they still have them

 

I believe they are due to be included in the Heart of Africa once it is completed.

 

The 2023 inventory lists 2.1

 

I had an excellent visit yesterday, which was surprisingly comprehensive (as to what was open) given how I was convinced we wouldn’t get round everything. I’ll probably write up some of the developments in the news thread at some point, but here are my initial, largely unfiltered thoughts and observations.

• The elephant house was closed to the public, and only Maya and Anjan were outside, with Aung Bo being in the bull paddock in the morning before being brought back in later
• Lovely to see the new roloway monkeys, they already seem very at home in the Monkey House
• Bat Bridge was closed, presumably for repair and refurbishment between the Easter and summer busy periods
• The new snow leopard exhibit is fantastic, one of the best I’ve seen, and I’m sure will look even better once the vegetation has grown in properly - both Yashin and Nubra were in the on-show dens early in the day, and Yashin was reclining at the back of his enclosure when we came back in the afternoon
• Refurbishments, new planting and lots of crushed slate has been added to the red panda enclosure and the on-show portion of the Rare Parrot Breeding Centre housing Lord Derby’s parakeets
• New signage had been put up around this area of the zoo, including for the Asian aviaries, which helps tie the Himalayan area together, though I’m not totally sold as it deviated from Chester’s iconic style of signage and signature font
• The giant otters were mating, so hopefully this will be successful and we’ll get to see pups from them
• Construction of Heart of Africa is going well, with some buildings such as the new giraffe house being fully clad on the outside, and the framing in place for many of the other buildings, though construction on the lodges seems to be lagging behind, leading me to think these will open after the initial opening of Heart of Africa
• As mentioned before, the new pademelon joey is out of the pouch and very active

 

The zoo is still waiting on planning permission for the lodges, hence why nothing has happened that side yet.

 

That would make sense, though slightly confusing as the planning documents for the lodges are all up on the local council’s website, in any case I’m assuming they’re unlikely to reject them. Expanding on that slightly, there is still a lot of preparation of the site underway so I assume when the plans are accepted they’ll be able to get on with them a bit quicker.

 

They placed separate plans for both parts, after initially having plans approved for the whole scheme, and they have modified the overnight stay plans since submitting aswell, the last change was last year, so still not gone through the council planning. Yes I don't think it will not be approved, as a larger scheme was originally approved.

 

Very interesting, in which case I look forward to seeing the modifications (or hearing about them, I’m not sure I’ll be able to see them for quite some time ). In all honesty, I keep forgetting the main plans are from 2019.

 

The main building is nearly the same, just reduced the lodges and removed the bridges, all to cut the costs really, also stopped having lodges around the islands retention pond.

 

Unless something has changed that I don't know of, 21 total - 8 male, 13 female

 

Hiya, could someone please identify these 2 birds for me?
I seem to be struggling from the sign picture I took to still figure out which is which. Thanks!

Last week, visit number 9 since July 2023 = still no sight of "baby" Okapi, haha!