Battersea Park Children's Zoo Battersea Park Childrens Zoo news thread

I thought it was a shame that there were no threads for Battersea Park Childrens Zoo so I thought I would start one I have just finished the first week of my three week work experience here and have noticed that the meerkats are incredibly popular, probably due to the rise in fame of Aleksandr Orlov from compare the market adverts (or should I say compare the meerkat). Aparently he has more twitter followers than Jordan and Lily Allen. The group have recently had another litter of babies to add to the collection and I would advise you to go and have a sneak peak before they get any bigger. They are extremely cute!

 

It would be interesting if you could tell us more about the collection at Battersea Park .

 

yet "compare the meerkat.com" has led to an increase of people wanting and getting meerkats as pets and only keeping them by themselves and stuff like that. this has happened before "Finding Nemo" "Madgascar" etc...

oh yeah great news. also is the collection like gaots, pigs, bird of prey etc...

 

I will try my best to find out some more info about the various species in the zoo. I know that the owners of the zoo also own two other centre's which are:

The New Forest Otter, Owl and Wildlife Conservation Park | Otter Haven & Owl Sanctuary |

Chestnut Centre Conservation & Wildlife Park | Otter Haven & Owl Sanctuary | High Peaks | Derbyshire

 

I know what you mean Evilkittie... and these people havn't got a clue how to care for them either. They are highly social animals and should be kept in large groups in large enclosures which mimik their natural habitat.

Yes, they also have a farm area! no birds of prey though! they have parrots, Mynah birds, love birds etc and one Cookaburra. They did have two but they kept fighting so they had to find a new home for one. I wish they did have birds of prey

 

Actually the most content-seeming meerkat I've ever seen was a pet at Cardiff reptile centre. But I guess she had contact with different people throughout the day so that was very enriching for her, and she really loved people. And the compare the meerkat adverts are amazing mind, just a shame inexperienced people will try and get them as pets.

 

I'm hoping to also do some work experience there once I'm 18.

 

Thats fantastic! What do you plan to do for the future? my advise is... get as much experience as you can in various different animal care settings. Experience is vital! Good luck to you

 

My ultimate dream would be a television naturalist, and I've had experience there: When I was 12, I managed to become the animal expert on a CBBC show called 'Level Up'. I did four shows including two film pieces at the NHM and London Zoo. I loved those the best, at NHM I got to record a piece in the main diplodocus hall with just myself in the area, and at London Zoo, I got to feed the lemurs and giraffes, clean the penguin pool and meet the coatis up-close.

But to start with, yes I would like to do animal husbandry. I did my school work experience in a pet shop, and I'm hoping for a Saturday job at a dog kennels before my hopeful work experience at the Otter & Owl.

 

That is pretty impressive MD! Battersea Children's zoo is a good place to start, they work you really hard but at least you get to know the ups and downs of zoo work etc, there is loads of physical work involved and I don't think some people realise. Follow your dream MD, thats what I'm doing!

 

Oh yes, Battersea Park Zoo! I must ask how is little spongebob getting on now? The last I heard was that he wasn't mixing with the females every well and had to be separated.

 

Spongebob is doing brilliantly! He did settle in with the females in the end but then they decided to intergrate another female group and he kept on being attacked. Now he is living with two other males as they didn't really want them breeding anyway. Sorry if that didn't make any sence but tiredness is getting to me

 

0:1 Emperor Tamarin has been exported to Wellington Zoo in New Zealand.

 

What animals are kept in the zoo now???

 

I Will definitely have to visit this zoo on my next visit to London.I used to go their years ago when visiting also the Battersea Fun Fair, there was a small admission charge to enter the fair which then entitled you to admission to the adjacent zoo, like wise if you paid to go into the zoo this entitled you to admission into the fair.I also remember at this time that Battersea Park Zoo had a small travelling zoo which they used to take to the London Parks, it was Southwark Park where I attended with the two children who lived next door to my relations at Surrey Docks(now Quays), the travelling zoo was modest but enjoyable for young children, sheep goats, ponies, (rides given if I remember correctly) also a walk through caravan like vehicle housing chipmunks, small monkeys etc.

 

I don't really consider this place a zoological collection, rather a well-run pet's corner. I don't see any real development since the current owners took over. In a way I respect this - previously, this zoo had such relative rarities as diana monkeys and fennec foxes, albeit in what were reported as poor conditions (I remember footage of a fennec fox pacing across the single pane of a glass-fronted shed). My point is, the current owners seem to have 'done right' by the individual animals they inherited, building better enclosures in the first year or two of their tenure, then not adding new species or exhibits since. I would not be surprised if certain 'exotics' are allowed to die out without being replaced; the owners had no previous experience exhibiting primates at their other two parks (Chestnut Centre and New Forest) but, given that their 'Forte' is otters and owls, and that they haven't simply populated Battersea park with numerous exhibits of these, I therefore assume they don't see an urban children's zoo as a particularly appropriate setting for exotic species, yet have done the best they can for the existing 'residents' present when they bought the site.

If indeed they are wanting to prevent breeding in their squirrel monkeys I think that is rather short-sighted, while I would always defend the right to autonomy for any zoological collection holding EEP/ESB species (the spirit of 'cooperation' is consent, not sanctions, surely), I don't believe there is an issue with placing surplus squirrel monkeys and the behavioural benefits of allowing breeding within any primate group are easy to see in terms of individual roles and group cohesion.

 

The children's zoo now have 2 Northern Luzon Cloud Rats