Looking back at the 2004 annual report for RZSS, this was the year i remember thinking that the zoo had turned a corner, for many years before hand the collection with a few exceptions was sterile and frankly lacking imagination and verve. 2004 was a benchmark year, new species and new exhibits, with pre-planning in place for the 10 year masterplan to kick off in 2005. Species brought in that year were; 2.1 lesser hedgehog tenrec 1.1 broad nosed gentle lemur* 1.1 Aye aye* 0.2 white cheeked gibbon 0.5 African hunting dog 0.1 wolverine* 1.1 Malayan civet* 3.7 dwarf mongoose 1.1 Pallas cat* 1.1 Malayan tapir 1.1 warthog 2.3 red river hog 1.0 lesser Malayan chevrotain 1.1 Siberian musk deer* 0.3 Bactrian wapiti* 2.0 Kirk's dik dik 1.1 eastern bongo* 1.1 Mishmi takin* 2.0 hammerkop 1.0 black stork 1.1 Steller's sea eagle 1.2 northern helmeted curassow* 0.1 Malayan great argus pheasant 3.2 east African crowned crane 0.1 violet touraco 2.2 lilac breasted roller* 1.4 Von der Decken's hornbill Almost a whole new zoo, but 10 years on was this a new start or a false dawn, in the interim we have seen the arrival of the koalas and the giant pandas, but overall has the collection improved that much 10 years on, admittedly a few of the above species and more (polar bear & bactrian camel) have gone north to HWP and * indicates species no longer held other species come and gone include purple faced langur, Guinea baboon, aardwolf amongst others. New exhibits built include Budongo, living links, brilliant birds, Maji Mzuri, sun bear and koala enclosures. But of course and more saddening is the lack of masterplan. So has the zoo moved forward since this extraordinary year of arrivals?
Yes it is an impressive list of new species that arrived at the time, I do not miss the polar bear living in that old den however I do miss the Bactrian camels which were developing into a good little group before being sent to Highland Wildlife Park along with Mercedes. The giraffes are also a miss, fair enough their former home is now occupied by Asian rhino but they are both of the same sex so there is no chance of any babies, unlike the pair of white rhino that lived at this zoo in previous years who produced offspring quite often. I also recall seeing the master plans for this zoo shown to me by a volunteer, and very impressive they were too, I suspected that a lot of it could be wishful thinking and would not materialise but I was very impressed with the new chimp house, one of the best zoo exhibits in the U.K. without doubt. As for the present I suggest the novelty of the giant pandas has started to wear off, when they arrived I knew of quite a few people who live in the North East who made visits to Edinburgh Zoo, the giant pandas being the main incentive, this year, nobody has informed me that they have been, this of coarse would have been different if they had been fortunate enough to produce a cub, for the third year running this has not been the case. Perhaps Edinburgh, although I realise that all of our major zoos have their own style,is becoming a bit old fashioned, most of it does not appear modern and up to date, unlike say, Colchester, Blackpool where the visitors are satisfied with the collection of animals that are on offer and go home happy.
Losing the Planning case to sell part of their land holding for housing put a huge dent in the masterplan.
