He was out and about in the enclosure around lunchtime looking a fair bit more confident, so appears to be settling in. He's got quite striking colouring, so I'm looking forward to seeing your photo. Getting good shots through the wire is often tricky, it sometimes makes me wish we had the old raised viewing back.
There was a ramp leading up to a viewing area at the eastern side of the enclosure, the bottom of the ramp was approximately where the monorail ticket machines used to be. At one time there was an aviary underneath the viewing platform, the fishing owl was housed there.
The original lion dens were roughly where Islands in Danger is now, but when their enclosure was reduced in size, a new house was built on the north corner of the enclosure. At that time the pathway between the lions and the stables was part of the enclosure (see plaque on wall) so one of the roles of the building was to provide raised viewing of that aspect. It was constructed in part of war surplus concrete tank roadblocks, very similar to the underlying construction of the polar bear enclosure (now Europe on the Edge aviary). My vague recollection of it is a steep set of steps that led to a square, open area atop with a parapet and small fence to stop children throwing themselves in with the cats. It was there for a long time, even after public access was revoked. If you look towards the lion enclosure from the Fountain Shop, there's a large stand of leylandii trees on that corner of the lion enclosure and they were planted to hide the structure, which was really quite ugly. I can't recall when it was finally demolished, but I'm sure Rob can probably dig out all the numbers. PS. Now that Rob mentions it, I remember that ramp too, in fact I have a photograph of it.
I don't know when it was demolished, I would guess in 1983-84 when the present enclosure was built. I do remember it being out of use for a long time.
Update - 11/03/2010 A further update, and one week on work continues apace. The conversion of the sea lion enclosure is coming along quite rapidly. A lot of the structure has now been spray coated with a concrete mixture and the new retaining walls have blended into the existing perimeter. A large tree now lies across the division between the two pools. It must have been fun getting it there (wouldn't have minded seeing that). Later I noticed that a similarly large tree had been felled on the north side of the Silver Jubilee garden. It seems logical to assume it's the same tree. On the north westerly side of the enclosure, where the workmen can be seen in this shot, the boundary of the enclosure is being pushed out into the path. Large holes were being made and new wooden uprights put into position. There is also some wire fencing, approximately six feet in hight, set back from the new perimeter. Apologies for not getting a better view of that, it's a bit cheeky to photograph people at work when you're standing right by them. Back by the Oakfield, there's now a path with a ninety degree angle roughly where the old through-route used to be at the north end of the old coati/otter enclosure. It looks like it'll join the pathway adjacent to the Rare Parrot Breeding Centre, with the back of the Roman Garden. As yet, there is no sign of any new enclosures in this area to replace the demolished aviaries.
SMR.- do you know what the circular concrete-looking devices that have appeared in the pool are for. Plant holders?
Still waiting for comfirmation that she has gone. However she won't be there until today at the earliest, Possibly tomorrow if traffic is bad.
I spoke briefly to a workman and he said he thought they were to protect the roots of large specimen plants. He was vague on some of the details which was why I didn't report them, but this point sounded likely to be correct.
Visited today as it was Adopters Day it was very busy. Managed to see Iblis outside with Asha but only for a very short time as Asha seemed to be irritated with him blocking the entrance of the den so decided to give him a smack in the head causing him to retreat inside, he did briefly pop back outside sitting by the den entrance but then retreated inside a short time after for the remainder of our visit. Giant enclosure seems to be coming along quickly today builders were removing the glass an wood paneling from the from the front of the enclosure. Also found out today that Aoife the Giraffe is pregnant with a birth due in November. Managed to see the new Indian Rhino Baabu aswell and will upload a pic of it later (He looks a lot bigger than the previous pair). Anything else please ask an il try an help .
Thanks for the update just a couple of questions... Have they set a date for Tanaya's (Indian Rhino) arrival from the USA yet? Were both Tigers on show together? How are the Spectacled Bears getting on now? I gather things didn't go to plan when they first put them together.
No news yet on Tanaya's arrival. Both Tigers were on show together, spending quite a bit of time together that we saw. Fabi did seem quite interested in Kirana today No sign of the bears today but did notice that the fence separating the enclosure in two is still in place so would assume that they are still not getting on.
My lasting memory of today at Chester zoo will be a lady with a largish push chair who thought everyone else was going the wrong way around the aquarium, and would not give way to anybody. I also saw the new rhino. He;s nice. I was not very impressed with the new tortoise enclosure, the glass has what appear to be strands of grass in black paint all over it. Not a great asset to photography. Three families asked me where the sea lions were, and were disappointed to hear that there aren't any at Chester.
We saw these also and thought the same in my opinon its quite a lot of space now given to the tortoise. Also noticed that some glass cases had now been put inplace but appeared empty apart from some foliage. Forgot to menton in previous post that One of the keepers told us that the female Okapi was becoming a lot less nervouse but had to be knocked out because of an abcess an since has reverted back to being very nervous.
I'm sure a lot of visitors will be asking them that- and won't be impressed that they've been replaced by Giant Otters either.
Baatschii Good news on Baatschii: she arrived well at Madrid last Friday and is doing fine. Today she was in her outside enclosure the first time. Find a photo taken by Zoo Madrid today at my website on indian rhinos.
