The mouse lemurs are no longer on display in Moonlight World and no longer labeled. The brown rats have also gone and their little cellar is boarded up. The bamboo lemurs have an infant that's about a week old. Infant Bourret's box turtle Cuora bourreti and keeled box turtle C. mouhotii are on display in the reptile nursery. I can't finish without a little invertebrate news so here here it is... Giant South American Grasshoppers Tropidacrius collaris are now on display in Bug World and they're pretty big!
Bristol Zoo is celebrating the birth of a new baby Lake Alaotran gentle lemur a few days ago. Great news considering they are critically endangered in the wild. The article below has more info. Baby lemur arrival | Bristol Zoo
Visited Bristol today for the first time in over 10 Years. I was very impressed. They fit a lot in a relatively small space. Very impressed with all the enclosures, there wasn't a single enclosure I thought wasn't appropriate. Highlights for me were the Goodfellows Tree Kangaroos, Reptile House, great to see baby Pygmy Chameleons and other interesting species, great Aquarium, huge Insect house, Moonlight World was great, saw Aye Ayes, Jumping Rats and Mouse Deer. Great Gorilla House, primates have good space, Lion enclosure just about adequate, nice bird house. Now, how can they do it and London can't...
I wouldn't go that far but yeah, definitely agree it's Bristol's low point. It's fine for a none-breeding or a sibling pair, just hope they never decide to breed in that cage again. Saying all that, I remember the old cat enclosures on the current site... *shudders*
It is also the site of Bristol's original Lion(or Cat) House. They later moved to another house on the site of the current nocturnal house, while the original house later held the Apes. Then they built a new Ape house circa 1974,on the site of the second Lion house( now the nocturnal house) and the cat enclosures soon after, which is when they swapped places. So Lions have lived in three different enclosures on this site, and one on the nocturnal house site. Complicated isn't it...?
No, I don't think they were. They were too small for the biggest cats certainly. The Ape House constructed at the same time also had many faults too. It wasn't their finest building period.
While all that building work was going on, they had some tigers(and possibly lions?) on display in temporary enclosures between the Aquarium and the Zoo wall.
Any ideas for vacating that exhibit - meaning and logically relocating lions to Wild Place - how that space could be renovated and remodeled to suit something completely different?
The exhibit could be renovated and enlarged a little if the lions were removed to Wild Place: but I would be amazed if Bristol did not then bring them back again. I cannot imagine Bristol Zoo without any terrestrial carnivores bigger than meerkats; and no other species can match lions as a popular attraction for the families with young children who make up such a large proportion of Bristol's visitors. Lions seem quite happy in relatively small enclosures and Bristol's exhibit offers them much more stimulation than, for example, the grassy field plus tree stump at Blackpool, which is significantly larger, but the lions just pace around the edge or lie in the middle.
I would have said Red Panda's are bigger than Meerkats, they're a carnivore. Personally the Lion enclosure would be better suited to Clouded Leopards / Puma or Amur Leopards given the size imo. Or better still divided in two to have a couple of smaller cats perhaps Ocelot / Margay / Pallas Cats or so on. I don't see a necessity to have Lions and personally would prefer to see them in a large exhibit at Wild Place myself.
Blackpool also have 2 tyre swings for their lions, and two climbing rocks, so it's hardly grassy field and tree stump !
For a small-sized Zoo like Bristol every exhibit counts and they want something people can reliably see. Clouded Leopards and the other smaller cats are notoriously difficult during mainstream visiting hours. Complaints from visitors about invisibilty would soar... Leopards would work okay but would their visitors be happy? They seem split about 50/50 (according to FB comments I've seen) as to whether they like seeing the Lions in the zoo as they are. If the Lions did leave I'd prefer to see it given over to Primates e.g. the Drill group.
You think punters would be unhappy to see Lions replaced with another cat species more suited to the space, but at the same time don't think they would be unhappy to see them replaced by Drills? I think they would get a lot more negative feedback from the general public if they done that myself.
Primates are more visible than small cats. I don't think the zoo will remove the Lions anyway for the reasons(visitor attraction value) others have mentioned above.
I maintain that red pandas are vegetarian Carnivores, rather than carnivores I don't think clouded leopards would do well in such a busy and potentially noisy position, particularly as the distance between the front and back of the enclosure is relatively limited and I am absolutely sure that they would be very hard to view (as Pertinax has just said): they would be much better suited to Wild Place. All the other species mentioned would need the enclosure split in two if they were to be bred successfully and I don't think that would end the complaints if the larger species were chosen or avoid complaints about not seeing smaller species (in my experience margays are even more secretive than clouded leopards). I'm glad to know that Blackpool's lions have a little extra enrichment, but has anyone ever seen them using it?
