This is just a bit of fun to judge the general consensus on the best enclosure for Gibbons in the UK I have added a few photos from the gallery to make it easier for members to compare the different exhibits. If anyone wants to make an argument for a particular enclosure, please feel free to do so. Also, I would encourage people to perhaps list the enclosures in order of what they determine to be the best. There are a few exhibits were there are no photos in the gallery so it would be useful if anyone has photos/a description of these exhibits. If you want to vote for any of the collections not mentioned in the poll please vote for the other option and state who you are voting for. This poll is a little trickier as some collections have various enclosures for the gibbons. As I said before only consider the best one if they are completely separate enclosures. For Paignton in this poll I have lumped both islands together as I believe they are relatively similar. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Bristol (Agile) Twycross (Agile, Pileated and Northern White Cheeked) Monkey World (Agile, Lar and Grey) Unfortunately, there are no photos of this enclosure in the gallery. It would be extremely useful if someone who has visited can describe the exhibit and give an evaluation on its quality. Monkey World (Red Cheeked) Drusillas (Lar) Lake District WP (Lar) Exmoor (Lar and Red Cheeked) Paradise WP (Lar and Northern White Cheeked) Cotswold (Lar) Chester (Lar) Chester (Moloch) South Lakes (Lar) Dudley (Lar) Hamerton (Lar) Combe Martin (Lar and Northern White Cheeked) Mablethorpe Seal S (Lar) Unfortunately, there are no photos of this enclosure in the gallery. It would be extremely useful if someone who has visited can describe the exhibit and give an evaluation on its quality. Drayton Manor (Lar) Unfortunately, there are no photos of this enclosure in the gallery. It would be extremely useful if someone who has visited can describe the exhibit and give an evaluation on its quality. Thrigby (Lar) Unfortunately, there are no photos of this enclosure in the gallery. It would be extremely useful if someone who has visited can describe the exhibit and give an evaluation on its quality.
Tropiquaria (Lar) Jersey (Lar) Camperdown (Lar) Five Sisters (Lar) Welsh Mountain (Lar) Paignton (Malayan White Handed) Paignton (Pileated) Howletts (Moloch) Port Lympne (Moloch) Unfortunately, there are no photos of this enclosure in the gallery. It would be extremely useful if someone who has visited can describe the exhibit and give an evaluation on its quality. Curraghs (Moloch) Unfortunately, there are no photos of this enclosure in the gallery. It would be extremely useful if someone who has visited can describe the exhibit and give an evaluation on its quality. Belfast (Moloch) London (Northern White Cheeked) Wingham (Northern White Cheeked) Blackpool (Pileated) Colchester (Pileated) Edinburgh (Red Cheeked)
There is a golden cheeked gibbon enclosure at Monkeyworld with natural trees and better than the Siamang enclosure there which won! That photo for Monkeyworld is not the best one!
Yes, I thought that was the case. Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be any photos of it in the gallery.
These are some of the other exhibits at Monkey World for the Golden-cheeked Gibbons; Golden-cheeked Gibbon enclosure (3) by MagpieGoose posted 7 Jul 2020 at 6:05 PM Golden-cheeked Gibbon enclosure (2) by MagpieGoose posted 11 Mar 2019 at 7:05 PM
The photo of the Lar enclosure at Lake District WP looks bizarre - what looks like a HUGE paddock with oddly arranged frames and a giant oak (do the apes have access to this?) - can anyone here describe the enclosure please?
Score update. It is a three way battle in this poll and is extremely close. Paignton currently lead by 2 votes over Monkey World and Chester. I would be interested to hear arguments in favour of these different collections as it may help sway a few indecisive voters and change the overall result.
Paignton - there are a number of factors that make it the ‘best’ for me: * There are so many occasions when from the boardwalk, the ‘window view’ has the family of Pileated swinging through a completely natural island woodland above cranes, geese and wild birds. It is a joy to behold. I’ve been lucky enough to see wild gibbons in Vietnam and this is the closest I’ve seen to replicating any of what I saw. * The new Lar Gibbon house is much bigger and though off-show, will provide any new imported gibbons with a fantastic home. * Gibbons are iconic for PZ - for a long time it was the zoo logo. * The Pileated breeding success has been good for 2 years.
Is there a reason London is missing from the list? I would rate Paignton's definately the best, both aethsetically pleasing and great for the gibbons too. With that much usable outdoor space the smaller indoors are perhaps less important than otherwise.
It does look strange. Those goalpost structures are so far apart as to be no use to the gibbons really, unless they like football...
With 24 hours to go this poll is extremely close with Monkey World and Paignton tied in the lead. Would be interested top hear arguments in favour of Monkey World over Paignton. So far we have only heard support for Paignton.
MW has much larger indoor areas which in the winter months and cold or wet weather may be a big plus.
I am surprised not more votes for Jersey. The islands and indoor areas they share with the Orangs are big, well planted and lots of climbing and swinging potential.
OK here's a vote from me for Jersey, although I see I'm too late. As you say, they have lots of space for natural behaviour and have free range over the island and orang house. They have their own separate sleeping quarters adjacent to the orang house - they used to share but their early morning singing made 'the orangs' ears bleed' They and the orangs have each other as enrichment. They can surreptitiously watch visitors at the keeper talks from the overhead walkways inside the house. And Jersey is superb.
Poll closed. Congratulations to Paignton on winning the vote for Best UK Gibbon enclosure. Their naturalistic densely vegetated islands gave them the win. This is Paignton's second poll win so far. Monkey World and Twycross also performed well with good indoor areas but I'm guessing Paignton edged them on the outdoors. As others have mentioned I did expect Jersey to perform better. However, the fact it is slightly less listed may count against it and because it is not designed purely for Gibbons. @AdrianW1963 who did you want to vote for? Paignton: 27.7% Monkey World: 23.4% Twycross: 19.1% Chester Lar: 10.6% Chester Moloch: 6.4% Jersey: 6.4% Edinburgh: 4.3% I would be interested to hear others thoughts on whether you think I should bring these polls for the UK to a close soon and have a short break then move to examine other European countries exhibits or I could continue with other UK species which I'm open to ideas from others if I've missed out some members would really like to see.
