Hello everybody, This is a bit of a long shot but hey ho'. My girlfriend is doing a geography project mainly focused on tourism but other aspects such as location, environmental well being etc. The title for her project is: Endangered Species? Is the UK love affair with the British city zoo on the verge of extinction? Her main focus is on comparing Bristol (City) Zoo and Twycross (Countryside) Zoo. If anybody has any stories or pictures then they would be greatly appreciated as it is essential for her to be able to look at the history of both places and the animals they keep/kept plus new exhibits and attractions as time goes on. Any photos or stories appreciated. Hints and tips also.. Thanks in advance for your help. Martin
Welcome Wouldn't London and Whipsnade be much easier for city and countryside? If you want photos just have a look in the gallery for each zoo. I don't know a lot about Twycross but i can tell you Bristol is your typical city zoo, it has mostly smaller animals but the odd larger ones like gorillas and okapi etc... Twycross is a more specialized collection with a good range of primates and the average collection of zoo animals. If your looking for something big to write on you could write about the NWCP that Bristol zoo are building on the outskirts of the city National Wildlife Conservation Park - Home For twycross you could write about the artificial insemination of the elephants.. Theres a thread on here somewhere. Just out of interest is this for A level or a degree?
Thanks for your reply, it is for A-Level. We have decided to do Twycross and Bristol as they are easy access from where we live, whereas London and Whipsnade are not. The NWCP is something we are definately going to do a lot about, kind of linking in to the title with the fact that City Zoo's are becoming less popular (we believe by our research so far, but not enough) because they can not house the larger species. Although City Zoo's still seem to be well attended and attract hundreds of thousands each year people seem to enjoy the openness and wider range in country zoo's. With Bristol linking in with the NWCP we can say how it is sort of an expansion of Bristol Zoo. It is also great for the coursework because of the location e.g opposite Cribbs Causeway, and the economical concequeces such at trafficing but positives such as potential increase in economic growth in that area. Thanks for your help, Martin
I think London and Whipsnade would be better too, purely because the difference between the two collections is more severe, for example Whipsnade is all open paddock, whilst London is "constructed" enclosures. But these similarities are also there at the 2 you've chosen, although personally I'd say Bristol is the better zoo
I believe Bristol has had a bit of a renaissance over the past decade or so. When the idea for the NWCP came into being I think the Bristol Zoo management looked at closing their Clifton site (i.e. Bristol Zoo) but public opinion was against this and so it was decided to have two zoos. In my opinion Twycross, though housing a great collection, suffers from all the drawbacks of a city zoo (small enclosures) with all the draw backs of a rural zoo (hard to get to).
This is personal opinion but I think by choosing twycross as your country zoo you are skewing your results before you start. Many of the other country zoos are constantly evolving and redefining themselves. To me Twycross is really atypical, space is an issue and it feels like a city zoo that is geographically in the country. Its primate cages etc are very atypical to other country parks or safari parks as are its big cat exhibits - they are small cramped and very old fashioned. I think that comparing these two zoos wont give you the contrast differential that would make the project and write up much easier. Id Whipsnade is geographically out how about west midlands safari park as a better example?
I recommend close study of Bristol's strategic plan - there was a link in a thread a few days ago. I think it's fairly clear that Bristol Zoo is aiming more and more at families with young children, to contrast with the new developments up the road. I don't know whether Twycross has a long-term plan like this. Alan
You are pretty accurate in that assessment. Twycross is situated in a plot of open level farmland'in the middle of nowhere' but in many respects its development is far more like an Urban Zoo. It also lacks many of the landscape benefits such as any extensive woodland, hills or valleys, streams or large lakes which most rural collections benefit from to some extent, so you can't look at how these can benefit a rural collection asfar as enclosure layout etc goes, as in this case they aren't there. I think any other rural collection would form a better subject for study than Twycross in this particular case.
