I believe they had been semi-derelict and the upper walkways closed to the public for a number of years. Possibly there were still some animals in the lowest level enclosures.
yes and yes. Unfortunately the Bears didn't seem very appreciative of it- in fact they hid away much of the time and made for a very poor exhibit- a huge empty space. They've now been moved to a new enclosure at Whipsnade where they appear much happier...
Could be e.g. spectacled bears+coatis/yellow-breasted capuchins/spider monkeys; or geladas+nubian ibex+hyrax+klippspringer, or asian black/sun bears+gibbons+otters, or tahrs/takin/goral+Assamese macaques, or pyrenean brown bears+otters... ...well, anyway, they already did it.
I'm not sure if the new developments on the Mappin would render the old sloth bear indoor dens inaccessible, as someone has mentioned the access was down in one of the gullies which appears to be gone. I don't think that ZSL would struggle to build new indoor facilities for the Mappin however, they would just have to be smaller off show dens. There is a sort of cover viewing area thing on the West side of the Mappin, which is a sort of tunnel covered in climbing plants (it's unaccessible to the public). If this was gone, couldn't a long thin shelter be built? I guess the only problem with a small shelter would be that if any animal had to be separated it'd be limited to quite a small area. I don't think the question of barriers would be a problem on the Mappin for any animal really, I think if a high glass barrier with electric above was built, it wouldn't be too detrimental to the look of the area (like the wild dogs). Maybe the back or side walls would be trickier to secure without lots of ugly looking electrickery.
(How available are dingos? )[/QUOTE] In Australia Dingos in captivity there is plenty of stock. I dont know how hard it would be to export them to the UK. It is now very popular to have a pet Dingo! They do require a permit butt that is easily obtained. Stuart R Webster
Thanks Pertinax, I hope the bears are happy at Whipsnade. I thought they would have enjoyes there ZSL exhibit. Making a very interesting exhibit had it had used enrichment tools to move them around. Exploring there curiosity instinct. Stuart R Webster
ZSL did go to great lengths to create enrichment devices which would stimulate the bears, but it just didn't work for long enough...
When I saw them at Whipsnade recently they were extremely active- as I mentioned before. Perhaps here too activity levels will decrease once the enclosure is no longer novel and of interest to them, I don't know?
The bears left the mappins around 1984-85, I think the polar bears went to dudley, they also still had brown and black bears until then but I don't know where they were sent. I don't think any other bear species were on the mappins past the late 70s. I first saw them in 1985, after the bears had left, and there were brown pelicans in the bottom pool, wild boar and collared peccaries in the pig pens, and barbary sheep/mouflon/markhor/ bighorn on the mountains. I believe the mouflon were loaned to a farm park in somerset, I've no idea where anything else went. Bear mountain was opened I think in 1997, that's when I first saw it. I think gibbons were tried on the mappins briefly at one point, these were the lar gibbons moved from the long cage under the trees by three island pond, not the golden-cheeked/hybrid pair, I never saw them but remember an email with the news story. It obviously didn't work as they were soon gone. Visually the exhibit is now very impressive, although I wouldn't like to be up there with all that sand on a windy day! Structurally, the terraces were never designed to have tonnes of earth dumped on them, maybe that's also why the change has happened?
In the book titled 'Zoo: The Story of London Zoo' by J Barrington-Johnson there's a good image of the mappins and you can see a gibbon sitting on top of one of the poles.
Short article from the Telegraph on the redevelopment of the Mappins. Apparently the new exhibit is supposed to be a "climate change educational centre". London Zoo polar bears make way for Australian Outback - Telegraph And lo and behold there's also an article on the ZSL website: http://www.zsl.org/zsl-london-zoo/news/zsl-london-zoo-turns-up-the-heat,504,NS.html
thanks for that chris! i must say this is what we were all NOT expecting, asuming that it would be a temp exhibit, but it sounds interesting and maybe other aussie fauna will be added in the future
This is just beyond a joke. People go to zoos to see and learn about animals, not to have a primary school geography lesson. Oh well.
Well, there is scope for them to keep other wallaby/kangaroo species, as well as australian waterfowl species, so I wouldn't say this is as far as it will evolve in terms of species.
The two concepts don't seem to sit very neatly together- why not just call it an 'Australian exhibit', I wonder... too simple for ZSL in 2008?
I don't think it actually is being billed as a 'climate change education centre', it's just the marketing spin linking the fact the mappins had polar bears once, and conveniently circumventing any mention of why the last bears had to move. Just a dead keen PR department....'hippos in their brand new bath', 'anteaters getting taken for walks', 'macaws in shock frozen-food enrichment incident' etc etc......I mean kids are going to watch emus in the pouring rain wander down to the large pool along the front of the exhibit to take a drink, it's hardly going to look like animals surviving desert conditions. But, as a difficult building to rennovate, it's pretty striking. Another wallaby species or a few kangaroos, a couple of magpie geese and some young being reared, I think it will make a fairly dynamic display. And if a little interp shows adaptions to arid lands, then even better. I'm actually looking forward to seeing it. Aesthetically, from the photos, it's the best the mappins have ever looked, just a shame the braver sloth bear/langur experiment didn't work out. I think the grey langurs are now 1 of the 2 small sobell cages previously holding mangabeys (with the dianas in the other). I will be interested to see what happens to all the langurs/spider/macaques when the lion terraces are redeveloped.
are koalas or wombats a possibility? and even tasmanian devils if they can get thier hands on a few! i await nervously the future!
Yes, it actually looks pretty good. A few more Australian species to make it a bit 'busier' would help- magpie geese, brolgas, black swan etc though its bound to always be rather quiet compared to other parts of the zoo. Its probably pretty hard to market this exhibit too so I see what the 'climate change' refers to-from 'arctic to arid'??- not the actual exhibit itself. the two remaining langurs are in the Sobell cage nearest the clock tower- now almost unnoticed there. They are two females. As such I fear this species may well be lost in the Uk again unless somewhere makes an attempt to 'rescue' them...
