Enquiry about two former zoos

It is quite likely, the zoo -owners also ran that same petshop, which was attached. In fact they used to breed animals in their zoo for selling in their petshop!!

 

Thanks Pertinax, that is right then "cressida" did indeed come from Bideford, she was actually a quite long lived animal and died at Chessington, she lived with male "Sinbad" for the whole time she lived at Chessington, though when "Sinbad" died of a stroke they tried her with another male "Friday" but they were largely incompatible, so "Friday" returned leaving "Cressida" alone.

 

Correct. One of the Columbian Spider Monkeys called "Margaret" was a rather special animal, she was the dominant breeding female and regularly
produced off-spring, on one occasion she gave birth and was rearing her own young when another younger female gave birth shortly afterwards
, however she rejected her off-spring and so "Margaret" took that infant on too and successfully reared BOTH off-spring, which was possibly the first time that had occured in that species in the UK (?).
Gatwick was indeed started as a private collection, as so many do, which had grown into a public attraction over time. The owners were very much hands on and involved both sons in the running of the collection too.

 

Katherine Tottenham doesn't mention Chimpanzees in her book, as far as I can remember.

 

When I went past while ago it looked as though they were building houses though i did see the pet shop and garden center too I assume the building work wasn't on the zoo site.

 

It must have been in the little guidebook I mentioned then, as I definately knew the names from somewhere. I don't have it anymore so I can't check.

 

The chimp "Cressida" definately came from Bideford and the young male Himalayan Black Bear called "Chico" went to Poole Park Zoo from Bideford.

 

Can anyone help as to whether the Bideford Zoo changed hands and stayed open after the reported closure of 1970 ? I was talking to one of the old Owner / Directors once who told me that they never had elephants during her time with the zoo and she told me that the zoo went into someone elses hands and remained open for 2 seasons once they had sold up and moved on.. and yes they did have Chimps and ones name was Judy ....For anyone that is interested I have a blog and am writing short histories and info about some of the closed zoos... its not fantastic but keeps me amused ..... all information would be gratefully received