Hamerton Zoo Park Hamerton Zoo News 2012

Some departures...

2.0 Southern Cheetah, Makali and Tyson have both gone to Serengeti Park in Germany

Maned Wolves, Orion and Jaali have been split up, with one going to Belfast and the other to Berlin Tierpark

 

Does that leave them with any maned wolves? There were 2 enclosures for them when i went earlier this year, but i only saw them in one. Shame if they have gone out of the species.

 

They bred these two males, afaik they still have the parents.

 

Thanks, sorry the names didnt mean much to me, i assumed when you said split up that they had been a pair, not brothers.

 

What's Hamerton Zoo like? It's a zoo I've never been too. In fact, as far as zoos go Twycross is as far east (in the UK) I've ever got. How big is Hamerton? Is it a thriving place or does it run on a shoestring? What's in their collection? Who's behind it? Is it a charity, company, or family run?

 

Andrew Swales is the guy behind it, it expanded from a private collection (mainly birds) and was boosted by receiving quite a few mammals when Guernsey Zoo closed. It's family run via a company.

Historically it's seemed to develop if fits and starts with long period of enclosures being half-developed, possibly due to financial restrictions (but who knows?). More recently it seems to have found it's balance and recent developments such as the bird of prey aviaries look impressive (for what's basically a fairly small zoo). There's also been recent improvements in catering (still basic, but previously close to non-existent) and the labelling is now comprehensive (there used to be a lot of unlabelled species).

I think the stability to enable the more recent improvements have been down to smartly catering to the local population (as TLD says it's in the middle of nowhere and unlikley to be visited by anyone travelling more than, say, 40 miles by anyone but zoo-nerds). There's a large, well furnished playing area, sheltered picnic areas and a well-done little petting zoo area all of which I think leads to local families repeat visiting. The car parks are definitely fuller than they were five years ago.

The zoo itself is probably (very roughly) equal in size and number of species held to Newquay or Welsh Mountain Zoo (I'm trying to find a touchstone given your never visiting further east than Twycross) though the appearance is nearer the WMZ. The enclosures, whilst not always the prettiest, are typically adequate rather than spectacular but the animal collection, per TLD's points, is superb from a zoo-nerd perspective -including Bengal Slow Loris, Binturong (a personal favourite), Serval (not that many about), Rusty-spotted Cats (currently offshow*), Tayra (currently offshow*), Pitou Donkeys as well as those already listed by TLD.

*pending the in-progress building of new small carnivore area

 

I made my comments on my first visit in march this year earlier in this thread. I liked it and will definitely return at some point. At under a tenner it was also good value!
There is very little i could add to the previous 2 posts, except to say i think shorts is spot on about relying on locals , i live roughly 40 miles away & it took me not much under an hour, similar travelling time to Colchester & Whipsnade. Its not quite in their league yet so i wouldn't visit as often as i do them. If i lived half the distance i would probably take membership option of less than 30 pounds & visit regularly. An annual visit is a definite for me now though.

 

An undeniable drawback of Hamerton is its site, which is, essentially, flat East Anglian farmland. There's not much wrong that wouldn't be put right by a couple of hundred years of tree growth, some hills, and a great deal of shrubbery. In the meantime, for all its charm as a collection of animals, it is wholly lacking in the aesthetic department. I dread to think what some of the knowledgeable North American posters, such as Red Uakari, or Zoo Plant Man, or Snow Leopard, would make of the place.

 

You possibly have a valid point here, but i don't think anyone is claiming Hamerton as a major UK zoo, simply an interesting collection that's worth a visit and certainly good value!
I'm sure there are plenty of worse zoos in N.America and many of the regular posters from there may think some of our bigger or 'top 10' zoos were very poor, e.g where would London or Bristol or 'theWorld Primate Centre' rank in the US?! Please note, i don't dislike any of these, i visit 2 at least annually.
Everything is relative.

 

I have only been to a few of the major American Zoos once and that was many years ago, but it was a bit of an eye opener. Overall the ones I visited were no better or worse then, than what you have in Europe. The ones I saw all had high points and low points. I was surprised at how even some of the better-known ones still had some very antiquated buildings in use.

Things have obviously advanced over the years but I think the similaraties of good and bad are still shared wordlwide. Look on the US photo Galleries and you may see what I mean.

 

I think it is unfair for people to just say the site is poor or unsuitable. Its never going to look particularly suited to tropical primate species, but is entirely suited to grassland species. Given the lack of themeing or landscaping in the exhibits, I have never seen a cheetah or maned wolf exhibit in the UK which has shown these species in their element quite as much as Hamerton.

It would be nice for the natural environmnent of Hamerton to be used as a grasslands 'Biome' exhibit in itself (I know that term used in zoos annoys some people). If this were done, I think the obvious solution for a place like Hamerton would be, when funds allow, to bring most of the primate and tropical bird species into a large tropical house (where outside access could still be permitted), but whether they will ever accumulate that kind of capital is perhaps the key question.

I can think of at least one other small UK zoo which started off with mostly small open paddocks, on a piece of farmland that, as the vegetation they planted took decades to mature, built up its visitor numbers by offering more and more 'all weather' exhibits, and connecting many other exhibits via covered paths. To me, it seems as if Hamerton has gone a different route, opting for a few ABC animals (camels, white/wild-type tigers), which may have been the cause of the percieved rise in visitor numbers locally.

 

Thanks to everyone who answered my question about Hamerton.

@Shorts: you compared Hamerton in size to Newquay Zoo and the Welsh Mountain Zoo. This left me puzzled. Newquay and WMZ are very different in size. I think Newquay's about 10 acres and the WMZ is 30+ acres.

 

I think Shorts intended size of collection, rather than grounds - in which case the three are broadly similar.

 

Thanks! That makes sense. I agree there’s a lot of WMZ that isn’t given over to animal enclosures.

 

Thanks, i'm sure your right, and all i was trying to say really was that it doesn't really matter what our friends in N.America would think of Hamerton , because i can't see them rushing there if they were over here anyway!

Johnstoni's response was mostly in tune with my views on the collection.

 

I can entirely agree what johnstoni has aired on the subject.

 

Absolutely (thanks), I was meaning the size of collections and, connected to this, number of enclosures.