hmmm went again today, seems to be looking very neglected tall weeds everywhere, the nettings gone from one side of the longhouse so no exhibit there, very few on the inside new cotton top exhibit is coming on, little worried as its rather open and those small monkeys are apparently very common theft items actually saw the lemurs out in the run for a change, admitedly huddling under a tree but a couple came out for a look around prarie dogs have moved to the old pets corner building, doesnt look like theres much dig space in there tho saw the martin asleep under the tree why not actually transplant the giraffe building to the lower end of the elephant area? the grounds raised in a dome, lower that to a standered level, that solves fencing issues, walkway is already set back a way from the path, most of the elephant themeing on the walkway has ended by then, you have the small hut for giraffe watching, when you transplant the building to the area remove the peaked roof, place a logged flat roof on it, with a wooden ramp upto it, you then have a raised viewing area always a popular draw.. for the old giraffe enclosure then you can use some of the earth removed from that enclosure to dig down and replace the desert, maybe use some for some themeing, camels will needs a new house but again a wooden lined building would theme in with the surrounding monkey houses. im still building up an idea for the orangutan house in a 3d modeling program, i dont think it will be that hard to re-theme fairly easly.. for a start lets look at removing that cage wall between the two sections as its not been treated as two seperate groups in a long time
Do you prefer the old manicured runs then? The grounds themselves are still nicely tended, I much prefer the runs left wild though. Would they not need a ladder? The trees are hot-wired well above reachable height aren't they?
i have no issue with the runs being left to run wild, unfortunatly so is alot of the zoo the grass round the elephants is shoulder height the railings around some of the houses are screaming for paint, or treatment, or replacing some of the windows are cracked or damaged, siamangs window had a large strip of duct tape across it many items didnt seem to work (waterfalls turned off, gem paning dry - not seen running in weeks, dinosaurs motion was off until gone midday) elephant enclosure at least was having some essential work done round the side of the walkways the willow slatting had large holes in the colombus house had sections of wood peeling off the flower beds havent really flowered much in the last couple of years we have been there the nettles near the flamingos were coming onto the path that much that parents were warning kids off i know the zoo is going through tough times but lets face it it doesnt cost the world to get someone with a tin of paint to go around and touch up, or to get a strimmer and go around, heck ive probly got an old one they could have.
Went today a few notes from visiting: Nice and busy and not to many screaming brats?! The mesh is on the top of old Joe's House and ropes hanging off it. No chimps were outside using it. The chimps were using the other side of the yard with chimps in both sides of the house. On all the ape houses the grass had grew long. Very long, and they were looking fairly naturalistic compared to usual. Quite impressed with size of the lemur walkthrough and we actually saw some, with the help of a guide, who was very helpful. I have noticed keepers interacting with the public a lot more. Work was going on for the tamarin area which looked good. There was also work going on in the howler monkey exhibit. The leopard tortoise exhibit was brilliant and so was the Aldabra tortoise exhbit (one girl saying the tortoise wasn't real so we should carry on!!!) Paths were rubbish especially in front of the viewing areas. The dinosaurs were better than I thought with lots of movements. The coati and bush dog exhibit looked brilliant although I only saw one coati. The new siamang exhibit is good with looks of climbing. Hyena was very active even going into the pool which was brilliant. The camel house looks stupid with a lone rhea in it. The otters were active although the pool was full of algae probably time of year. The water in the penguin exhibit has improved although is still very dark full of algae. Saw the debrazzas in the new outdoor pen quite a lot and so is being well used. There was an adult bonobo in lopori's cage with lopori. The keeper in there was telling us how the chimps are a lot more obvious while bonobos are much more subtle in what they do. The elephants were locked in the tiny square yards in front of the house. Don't know why? Many people commenting where the lions, sealions and giraffes were. Very nice experience and the whole zoo felt a lot more positive.
I had assumed they were covering the whole area with a roof. Obviously I shouldn't have. It seems they have just done the half that was absolutely essential and not the other. It must look a bit lopsided now- one 'cage'- one open yard. Presumably the open side can't have any more climbing equipment added because of the fear of escape.
No, it actually looks aright. I forgot how tall the walls on that enclosures are. With the roof on Joe's side it's quite a good height but the only climbing feature consists of about 30 thick ropes hanging vertically from the roof. There are no wooden or stable feature on Joe's side.
On trip advisor more than half of the reviews say there are lots of empty enclosures. Which enclosures are these ?
I don't think the enclosures were actually empty, I think it is because a lot of the animals that were originally locked outside aren't anymore and so are hard to see, or that some monkeys have multiple pens which makes the enclosures look 'under stocked'.
The Annual Review for 2012 can be found on their website using the search facility . You would not be aware of all the drama of the year from reading it . A refund of some of the Lehmann Bros. losses saved the day financially . Visitor numbers were much lower .
That refund makes us all quite interested! How did the partial refund come about and how is that improving the financial stature of the zoo?
I've not looked at the report yet (I need to psych myself up a bit) but, in common with other business failures, when Lehmann's collapsed it didn't mean they had no money/assets, just that they didn't have enough to cover all they owed to people. Now the liquidators (after taking their undoubted very sizeable fee) will have liquidised Lehmann's assets, collected the cash in and will pay out the creditors some proportion of the total amount owed to them (the rest will be lost). This may be a final distribution or an interim one with more to come when further assets are liquidised and the total funds for distribution to creditors is known with certainty. Twycross will never have previously shown this asset in their accounts as accounting rules dictate than only assets with certainty (of being received) are allowed to be reflected in accounts -pretty much up until the money was received from the liquidators of Lehmann's there was no certainty of receivabilty or the amount to be received (theoretically there may not have been anything to distribute).
I have just read the annual report for 2012. Total visitor numbers for 2012 were .412,366, compared with 506,244 in 2011, a drop in one year of 19%.The dreadful weather experienced during the summer season last year would have greatly contributed to this drop. I have also looked at the number of visitors attending in parties, I would assume this figure is mainly made up of school children, this figure has dropped from 77,964 in 2011 to 38,071 in 2012, a percentage drop of 51%, I find this figure surprising and I wonder what the reason is for this, could it be that school trips have had to be curtailed due to government cuts?, or is there another reason for this dramatic drop in numbers, Very puzzling.
Those stats show the bigger picture at twycross. I can't help but feel that all the recent cosmetic changes and new exhibts for largely pre-existing stock will turn out to be nothing more than rearranging deck chairs on the titanic.
The Olympics would also have had a big impact, I'm sure - anyone in their right mind would have been watching wall-to-wall sport rather than looking at badly-housed chimpanzees! That said, last summer I did combine a trip to Twycross with going to the Ricoh Arena, in Coventry, to see a couple of matches in the Olympic football tournament.
What you have to recall, of course, is that the new era of improvements and changes only started at the very end of 2012 - as such, the true tale of what the bigger picture is at Twycross, and what difference these changes have made, will be told when the 2013 stats come out.
Absolutely - in fact, I'd say these things take even longer to permeate through. A bad name lingers - and it'll take a lot of satisfied customers, and one or two high-profile "wins", for Twycross to develop the positive aura that surrounds Colchester and Chester - for each of these two the journey from being somewhat moribund, to being thriving, has been a long one. It is a little bit too early to tell what the impact of recent changes will be (like the French Revolution, as Zhou Enlai supposedly said in the 1960s). On a different note - the annual report is a pretty impressive-looking document - nicely laid-out, well-designed. Do they still produce hard copies?
As a teacher, school trips are harder to get these days, you have to prove that it is academically necessary, so none of the end of term fun trips that I'd assume a lot of the zoo visitors would be from.
