Best exhibits in NZ I vote Wellington zoo for the best baboon exhibit I have ever seen anywhere . Hamilton Zoo also has a good chimp exhibit . I havent been to taronga park for several years , but hamiltons chimp park can come a close second if need be . At 1 million litres of air , Hamiltons giant walk thru aviary is really huge , and is well watered and vegetated . It is not as tall as Tarongas though
At chseter zoo the new elephant house/enclosure has a wonderful rainforest theme and has many other interesting species such as tree shrews.
Is Chester's new elephant house a completely new building, or the other house modernised? I presume the paddock hasn't changed as it was renovated considerably and enlarged, just a few years back.
The paddacok hasn't changed apart from the addition of some trees, but the house is completly new. It is 12 metres high and I can't imagine how the elephants would have gone insisde at night with only half the house there. They did the house in halves so that the elephants could have somewhere to go into at night.
There is also a new oran-utan house opening in May as well. It will house around 20 indonesian species from gibbons to mangrove snakes. Make sure you pay it a visit. And the New okapi house....The list goes on......
Yes, I'm waiting for the Orangutan house to open before I go. I'm expecting great things from it. The old Orang enclosure was long overdue for a change, very poor. A great pity Chester have no Gorillas, they used to.
They Got a male called Dicky in 2004. He was followed by Mbuti in 2005. The okapi house opened in 2006. By this time London zoo wanted Dicky back. Dicky was sent back to London and Chester recieved a Female Called Stuma From Stuggart zoo in Germany
Dicky went to London Zoo but I don't think he came from there originally? His replacement at Chester, Mbuti, was born at Bristol Zoo. He was the first Okapi bred successfully at Bristol for a number of years. I believe Bristol received a male from London at the same time.
I was informed that Dicky came from London zoo before Chester . He was 10 yrs old so he might not have been born there.
I think that's it- he came from London but was born at(probably) Rotterdam. London would have wanted him back as they have produced female calves from their other male I think. That would be the one that went to Bristol, while the male calf born at Bristol(Mbuti) went to Chester to replace Dicky- it was a threeway swapover. Good that Chester will get a female soon.
I read the post wrong- I see Chester already have the female Okapi from Stuttgart- so they have a pair now.
