Mandrill Enclosure - Colchester 2006

Wow, how many does the zoo actually have?

doesn't beat chesters enclosure

looks like a childrens playground

There are at least 11 mandrills in this photo, but as reported above the exhibit does indeed appear to be a children's playground. I know that this is the weakest part of the enclosure, as there are several dead logs that have been combined to make a decent climbing appartus in another section of the exhibit.

I just looked on ISIS and it says that they have 12.11

absolutely true. The troop is lead by dominant male Dume. The photo shows the enclosure before it was rennovated in January. There is a picture of it now in the gallery somewhere.

It has for some while been the largest group in the UK. The best thing about this enclosure is that there is plenty of space. The worst thing is that it is very unnatural looking and bare and also the animals are shut out into it all day as the indoor housing is offshow at the back. A large group like this would be hard on the vegetation so I can see the problems unless they had a truly enormous enclosure.