A Guidebook Library: TLD's year-long randomised walkthrough of zoo guides

Oh, there is no need whatsoever for apologies from either of you even the small snippets posted here are materially adding to the amount of information available about the collection on Zoochat, after all; for instance, I am pretty sure I've never heard about giant pangolin having been held there until now!

Many thanks, both of you!

 

Haven't had the mental spoons to get the next post written up to my satisfaction, although it is well-underway for tomorrow I reckon in the meantime, another little intermission post to keep things bubbling along nicely and hopefully stimulate some discussion - this time, an image of my Vogelpark Walsrode collection (with gaps showing where I have yet to obtain certain editions).



A few of these have been in my collection "from the off" as it were, having been obtained at the Bristol Zoohistorica of which I have spoken several times; others have been picked up in dribs and drabs over the years; one particular edition took a lot of methodical searching, persistence and ultimately luck to track down, and despite being fairly recent is the only copy I have ever come across; more than a few I own due to the assistance and extreme kindness of several Zoochatters; and one I own in *spite* of the unhelpfulness and petty malice of the former member who originally owned it

Overall, I am quite pleased with my collection, and don't overly mind if I never complete it given the extreme rarity of the remaining three editions I have yet to acquire - all three have been on the secondary market in the last year or so, the only time I have ever come across any of them, but going for prices I was unwilling to pay!

Hopefully this image will stimulate a little discussion whilst I get the next guidebook post polished off.
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They are a yearly event held at a European collection, usually in the second weekend of September, with the general focus on the exchange and sale of guidebooks, zoo maps and other such memorabilia, generally with a tour of the host collection occurring at some point on the Saturday, and with an organised trip to a nearby second collection on the Sunday.

The location for the next event is - wherever this has been possible to arrange - announced at some point in proceedings, with further details relating to itinerary, precise dates, participation cost and other such information released over the course of the following year. The 2022 event (which will be the 32nd Zoohistorica) will be held at Prague Zoo, although nothing further has been announced as yet.

The following site contains details of all past events, and will also be where details on the 2022 event will be published in due course:

Zoohistorica

Definitely worth attending, in my opinion, even if the timing hasn't worked out for me to make it to any of the ones since Bristol. I'm hoping to manage the one this year!

 

Day 20: Zoo Basel (1995) - Somali Wild Asses



Page count: 54
Photographs: 48 colour photographs
Illustrations/diagrams: 18
Layout: General overview of species held in collection
Map: Fold-out map inside rear cover of guidebook

From a fairly lightweight item to something a bit juicier, and also the first Swiss guidebook we have looked at in the course of this thread; this is yet another of the early entries to my collection, having been picked up at Zoohistorica purely on the grounds that I found the front cover quite appealing to the eye.

The text of this item follows a fairly standard layout - after the initial introduction, which speaks in fairly broad and general terms of the collection, its involvement in captive breeding programmes, and its aims for the future, the guidebook moves onto providing a more or less species-by-species overview of the major taxa displayed within the collection.

One of the most immediately-notable aspects of this guidebook which it is worth highlighting is the fact that it is lushly-illustrated; more or less every other page contains a single full-page colour photograph of whichever species is being discussed in the text at that particular point, and there are several points where multiple pages of photographs occur without any intervening text. This, along with the glossy, high-quality paper used in the guidebook and the little drawings embedded into the first paragraph of each sub-section, conveys a very pleasant visual and tactile feel to this item. The text within the species accounts, as best as I can tell given my shaky grasp of German, is fairly detailed but primarily restricts itself to talking about the animals displayed at zoo in very general terms, with relative few references being made throughout to the actual exhibits or individual animals displayed at the collection.







However, two of the best aspects of this particular guidebook occur at the very end, beyond the species accounts and accompanying photographs; after a segment discussing important information for visitors to the collection, along the lines of the opening hours, which exhibits were accessible to the disabled, feeding times for key animals and so forth, a fold-out segment is located within the inside back cover. Here, a highly-detailed historical timeline of Basel Zoo and its history from 1874 to 1994 is presented; unlike many of the timelines of this nature which I have discussed thus far in the thread, this particular one does not display any particular bias towards recent history and exhibits open at the time. Rather, this segment of the guidebook provides a fairly comprehensive list of key events pertaining to the collection, from European first breedings of Chilean Flamingo and Western Lowland Gorilla, to an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the 1930s. As such, this is a very interesting and valuable resource for the zoo historian, and something that one does not usually see in quite as much detail within zoo guidebooks these days.



This is immediately followed, within the same fold-out segment of the back cover, by one of the best (both in terms of informative value and aesthetic appearance) maps I have come across in a zoo guidebook, reaching similar levels of excellence and detail to those published by Walsrode, Tierpark Berlin, Zoo Berlin, London Zoo and Bronx Zoo in their zoo guides - I have of course discussed examples from all of these already, with the exception of the lattermost, and likely will do so again. The only real downside to this particular map is one restricted to this thread, in fact - due to the fact that it folds out into three segments, rather than merely two, the map is too long to fit within my scanner and I have therefore been forced to scan it in two portions, with a slight overlap and discrepancy in the size of each segment. Moreover, to enable both halves to be viewed together with the maximum ease of reference, it has been necessary for me to orient them vertically.

Nonetheless, I present the map in question below.




Overall, a very pleasant and interesting guidebook to a collection which I very much hope to reach in person, at some point in the future; I do rather wish that the main body of the text discussed the zoo itself a shade more, or at least, made more reference to the individual animals within, breeding successes and so forth, and spoke in generalities a little less. However, given how well-illustrated the guidebook is, the quality of what supplementary information *does* exist, and the appealing layout and design of the guidebook itself, I think it is nonetheless an item which very much merits a place in the collection of any zoo enthusiast interested in the collection.

 

You can take it as read that you'll be one of the first to know when I next get a Central European trip locked-in places to be, people and animals to see, food to eat!

 

In some regards, maintaining a "house style" for that long makes comparison between maps a lot easier and more fulfilling when it comes to looking for developments and changes over the years; similarly, the general map "style" found within the previously-discussed Tierpark Berlin guidebook in 1992 was very much the same as that found in the 2013 volume, even if several new areas were added to the collection in the intervening years.

 

Day 21: Chessington Zoo (1965) - Fraser's Eagle Owl



Page count: 36 (including 8 full-page advertisements)
Photographs: 22 black-and-white photographs
Illustrations/diagrams: N/A
Layout: Numbered summary of species/exhibits corresponding to map, plus general information about collection.
Map: Located within central pages of guidebook

An interesting one this time round, insofar as much as this guidebook pertains to a collection which *does* still exist, but not in the form which it took here; as such this item provides an interesting look at Chessington in the days when it was a pure zoo, rather than a theme park and resort as is the case now. The first notable feature which merits mention is that the front cover of this guidebook depicts a Fraser's Eagle Owl, a highly-unusual species now absent from captive collections. However, this species was *not* held at Chessington at the time of publication, nor at any other time as far as I have been able to discover; rather, the photograph in question was provided by the Zoological Society of London, which had originally used the image on the cover of the society magazine some time previously and which *did* keep the species in question for many years. That said, I must admit to picking this guidebook up from eBay several months ago for the sole purpose of owning an item with this species on the cover, even knowing the photograph bears no relation to the collection!

Another aspect of this guidebook which is worth mentioning up-front is the fact that a fairly significant portion is taken up with advertisements for a wide variety of products and services, with eight full-page adverts and several more taking up sections of a page; this does have the effect of padding the length of the guidebook out somewhat, but it also provides a valuable resource for those interested in the domestic and commercial history of the UK in my opinion. Many of the adverts found within are related in some fashion to the overall "zoo guide" framing device; for instance, several of the adverts for food and drink are animal themed, there are adverts for shipping companies and food manufacturers who supplied Chessington Zoo at the time of publication, and there is even an advert for an exotic pet shop in the centre of London.



After several pages of adverts such as these, and a contents page, the guidebook itself opens with a double-page segment providing a range of key information about the collection - opening times, admission charges, feeding times, services available, other attractions located within the zoo and so forth - before moving onto a potted history of the zoo and its environs, as can be seen in the above screenshot. Beyond here, the main body of the text - a methodical species-by-species and enclosure-by-enclosure walkthrough account of the collection, with each entry numbered and corresponding with the numbers/labels located on the collection map - begins; the entries are broadly speaking fairly simple but provide a reasonable level of detail, with the focus being very much placed on the specific individuals held at the collection, their origins and other such items of information which would be of interest to the casual zoo visitor. Unlike some of the other guidebooks I have discussed thus far following this general pattern, this item contains references to more than a few species which are now unusual or even absent from European collections; within are references to Beisa Oryx, Ugandan Kob, Chacma Baboon, and most intriguingly a Gharial - as far as Zootierliste is concerned, neither species of gharial was held at the collection, so I would be interested to learn which one is being referred to here!





Examples of these species accounts can be seen above; I have selected pages which also provide a glimpse at some of the aforementioned advertisements present within the guidebook, thereby killing two birds with one stone. Moreover, the first of these images also provides a fairly good look at one of the enclosures found at the collection during the timespan in question - a rather poor Polar Bear exhibit, following the usual "bear pit" format commonplace at the time, and which judging from the map contained no more land space than is visible within the photograph, the remainder of the exhibit comprising a deep pool/moat. On the lighter side, it may be noted that in the full-page advertisement for "Clayton Gina Sparkling Orange" - which incidentally demonstrates my aforementioned point about the adverts in this guidebook being largely themed around animals - it appears that amongst the animals walking two-by-two into Noah's ark, there is a pair of male lions! No repopulating the Earth there, methinks

Beyond the species/exhibit accounts, there is a short summary of the various contents of the Pet's Corner also present at Chessington Zoo at the time of publication, with entry subject to an additional admission fee; this appears to have largely comprised a petting area of the sort that exists at many collections today, with the vast majority of the occupants being livestock such as sheep, donkeys, ponies and goats, or domesticated guinea pigs, rabbits and so forth. However, it is also mentioned that amongst the occupants at the time of publication were several more exotic species, such as parrots, bushbabies and a chimpanzee. For all intents and purposes this comprises the end of the guidebook, with the following pages containing a handful of photographs taken at various points around the zoo, and several more pages of advertisments extending onto the back cover.



As noted previously, in the central pages of the guidebook a fairly detailed and well-labelled map is present, showing the layout of the collection and (via copious numerical and textual labels corresponding to the contents of the guidebook per my above observations) whereabouts the various species and exhibits were located. However, one aspect of the map which is very much to its overall detriment is the fact that for some reason, the decision has been made to print the entire page (barring the area containing the species index, and a handful of open areas, courtyards and the car park on the map itself) onto a deep blue background, which renders the lines and layout of the map rather difficult to look at. Not to get too far ahead of myself, as I may well end up discussing other guidebooks from this collection, but this is something that seems to have been a "house style" of the sort @gentle lemur and myself briefly remarked upon upthread... although in some of the other guidebooks I own from this time period, the effect was even worse!

Overall, then, this is a rather interesting guidebook for a collection which, although it still exists now, is doubtless all-but-unrecognisable when compared to the form it took at the time this item was published; moreover, although I have my issues with the map as noted, this is one of the better-quality examples of the "numbered walkthrough detailing each exhibit/species, with reference to an accompanying map" guidebooks which seem to have been the usual format for such items in 1960s and 1970s England.

I would be interested to hear any thoughts or feedback from those Zoochatters who may recall Chessington Zoo before the change in focus it underwent in the mid-1980s; especially anyone who recalls it from the timespan I have discussed with this guidebook. Barring this, I would be happy to provide further information on any of the species mentioned within the text on request!

 

And most of the species mentioned in the guidebook weren't even in the collection at the time, as I recall the guidebook in question is one that I'll potentially discuss in this thread, as it happens.

 

Day 22: Penscynor Wildlife Park (1982) - Girl with Chimpanzee



Page count: 20
Photographs: 26 colour photographs, plus one colour advertisement
Illustrations/diagrams: N/A
Layout: General summary of collection, followed by highlighting of particular species kept.
Map: Two maps; fold-out map of collection on inside front cover, and a map showing general location within Wales on inside back cover.

Today, we come across another guidebook for a closed collection - and one which I know relatively little about, despite living with someone who visited it a few times as a young girl! Having originally opened in the early 1970s, and located within the grounds of the 19th century Penscynor House, Penscynor Wildlife Park ultimately closed in late 1998 - after which time much of the site was left derelict and overgrown, whilst other areas were demolished and a housing estate built over those portions of the zoo closest to Penscynor House itself, which was converted into a care home. Several of the old animal houses and structures partially survive in the woodland surrounding this housing estate, albeit in extremely poor condition, and I believe that it is now quite a popular destination for illicit urban exploration.

This guidebook, then, was published around a decade or so after the collection originally opened, but over 15 years before it ultimately closed - and therefore provides a look at Penscynor at a point in time when it potentially was at its peak. As such it represents a rather interesting and historically-significant document, as we shall see.



The first thing that the reader of this guidebook comes across is a rather high-quality fold-out map of the collection within the inside front cover, which is very clearly labelled with numbering on exhibits and other notable features corresponding to a complete list of exhibits printed alongside the map, and overall has an easy-to-interpret design which shows the layout and footprint of the collection very well. Opposite here, on the first page proper, a short introductory passage discusses the setting of the zoo within the grounds of Penscynor House, the desire of the founder Idris Hale to establish a zoo there, and the early years of the collection before it opened to the public; this segment on the history of the zoo then continues into a wider introduction to the collection as it existed at the time of publication, discussing the successes it had experienced since opening a decade beforehand, the expansion of the site and some of the driving motivations behind the collection. This introduction to the zoo is immediately followed by an abridged Welsh-language translation of the preceding handful of pages; this is the only occurrence of Welsh in the guidebook as a whole, which I find somewhat interesting as I have been given to understand by Helly's mother (who was born in rural Carmarthenshire) that at the time of publication, the area of South Wales where Penscynor was located - just north of Neath, near Port Talbot, and not far from the border with Carmarthenshire - had a relatively high survival rate of Welsh.



Beyond here, the guidebook moves onto the main body of the text - not so much a walkthrough account of the collection, or a methodical discussion of the species held at the time of publication, and more a general overview of particular species, individual animals and highlighted attractions, all illustrated by brightly-coloured photographs. One of the most notable species held and bred by Penscynor Wildlife Park during the 1980s - an achievement which this guidebook makes note of at several points - were their woolly monkeys; it is now recognised, however, that the breeding pair at Penscynor actually comprised a mixed-species pair - lugens and poeppigii - and their hybrid offspring, which ultimately moved to Apenheul in the Netherlands along with the other woolly monkeys held at the collection. The general quality of this segment is reasonably good - it is attractive and informative, and doubtless makes the collection seem a lot more pleasant and lively than it actually was. The repeated use of the term "Gibbon Monkeys" does grate, however!



Another aspect of the collection which is quite apparent from this guidebook is the presence of a large number of humanised animals which were allowed to interact with visitors, including various macaws, Woolly Monkey, Chimpanzee, Great Hornbill (an individual claimed to be the only free-flying example of the species outside SE Asia at the time) and Penguins - eight photographs in total show activity of this sort, nearly a third of the total, along with both the front and rear cover images. In fact, one segment is devoted to a past inhabitant of the collection, a free-flying Blue-and-Yellow Macaw, which was killed by one of the Eurasian Badgers at the collection. It is worth mentioning, incidentally, that the chimpanzee enclosure visible in the scanned image below is one of those which partially exists to this day!



Beyond this point, the guidebook closes by spending several pages highlighting the "Alpine Slide" - an attraction which had newly-opened at the time of publication, comprising a concrete slide running down the wooded gorge within which much of the collection was located, halfway between a bobsled and luge track, with wheeled plastic sleighs used to ride it down to the base. After a brief description of the ride, a number of large colour photographs showing children riding down the track conclude the guidebook proper - the last of these comprising a full-page photograph of Jonathan Hale-Quant (the grandson of the founder, and ultimately the final owner of the zoo before it closed) riding the Alpine Slide whilst cuddling a chimpanzee! Finally, on the interior rear cover, a roadmap of South Wales showing the location of Penscynor Wildlife Park in relation to various towns and cities is presented; always a bit of a baffling inclusion to me, given the fact that in order to purchase this guidebook the visitor would presumably have been required to reach the collection in the first place!

Overall, then, a fairly pleasant guidebook - if somewhat insubstantial in parts - to a collection which I suspect will rapidly be fading from the memory of UK zoo enthusiasts; I doubt it was ever well-visited by enthusiasts from outside the general catchment area, being reliant on local passing trade, and although I know of several Zoochatters who *did* visit the collection most have not been seen on the site for some time. Nonetheless, as usual I would be very interested to hear the thoughts and memories of anyone who did manage to reach the collection - and of course, any feedback and comments from those that did not!

I have, incidentally, asked Helly's mother to see if she can root out any photographs which may have been taken on the occasions that Helly was taken to Penscynor in the 1990s, when visiting her maternal family. If she manages to root anything out, it will be added to the gallery with a note highlighting this fact posted to this thread