Hemsley Conservation Centre Hemsley Conservation Centre

We don't hold either of those species any more - Our bats left us around a year ago and our Morelet's crocodile moved on in November 2017.

We've got several new additions lined up this year, including more cats, larger primate species, more lemurs and several bird species.

 

These are some personal questions, so I understand if you don't want to answer, but if you are willing, how much did HCC cost to create (including land, exhibits and animals), and how much does it cost to maintain the place on a weekly basis?

 

updates & observations from a visit today:

The aviary right by the entrance that formerly held lorikeets currently being refurbished for Bali starlings, which are currently held off-display. The lorikeets have been moved to a new aviary in the extension at the rear of the Centre. (they include a red-collared lorikeet - not listed on zootierliste)

Annam leaf turtles are now on display in the tropical house, with the green tree monitor and caiman lizard currently in the reptile house also due to move into the tropical house in the future.

There are plans to extend the lemur enclosure, and a group of red-fronted lemurs will soon be arriving to mix with the ring-taileds.

A monkey walkthrough is currently under construction, i think to house the callitrichids in the tropical house.

Other species due to arrive over the coming months are Geoffroy's cat, otters and mouse lemur.

Other species present in the collection but not listed on zootierliste are pancake tortoise, red-bellied piranha, common marmoset (with very young twins) & Sri Lankan rusty-spotted cat

Overall, a nice little collection with a strong conservation message, which is expanding in a very positive direction!

 

The Bali starlings are now on display.

 

Three Goeldi's monkeys have gone on-show, having recently arrived from Edinburgh Zoo.

Information comes from the Centre's Facebook page.

 

Male Geoffroy's cat has arrived from Opel Zoo.

Hemsley Conservation Centre

 

I was there for 2 hours on Monday , but didn’t see him!

 

They are nocturnal.

 

In captivity certain individuals have been observed to be crepspecular.

 

Crepspecular?

 

Active at dawn and dusk.

 

I've seen them active in a few other places though and the article said he'd been seen out in his enclosure.

 

I've seen the species at both Dudley and Drayton Manor Zoos and they were usually very active in their enclosures when I saw them.

 

I'm contemplating taking a trip via the 308 bus from Sevenoaks to the collection sometime soon. My first impressions from photographs,is that this looks like a collection someones set up on their allotment,amongst their cluttered sheds,and I don't really see tyres as an animal enrichment other than for primates. I understand that its small and just starting up,but is it worth a visit?

 

I've not visited Hemsley (although I intend to rectify that this summer) so cannot speak from personal experience.

However, given how scarce tayra are in UK animal collections, I would suggest it was well worth a visit if only to see them.

 

Hemsley is an odd place. The staff are great, very friendly and keen to engage people. They did a round up of the visitors every time they went in to feed something so they could do a quick talk on the species to an audience, which I thought was great - got the education and conservation message across, and increased visitor engagement and satisfaction (as well as prolonging their stay).

When I went (2 months ago) it seemed to me like a small zoo which should have been a nocturnal house - some of their most interesting species (for me anyway; the two small cats, prehensile-tailed porcupine, mouse lemur, jerboa, palm civet) would probably have been best off exhibited nocturnally. Though I spent an hour there, I spent most of that zipping around the zoo to see if some critters would make an appearance, as it was I didn't see the jerboa, civet or rusty spotted cat, which was a shame (I almost gave up hope of seeing the Geoffroy's cat, but very glad I didn't!). Having said that, they have got some very visible species which make up (for the general public) for the apparently empty enclosures.

I'd say it's definitely worth a visit if you're in the area - it's small as you say, but I think it needs all the visitors it can get at the moment.

 

I would agree with this assessment almost entirely, it has a bit of a ' still in the development stage' feel to it, some of the stand off barriers are wooden pallets ! But most of the enclosures are fine. The rarities will keep most of us happy, but for the general public, it's often a case of ' walked round in 10 minutes , didn't see any animals' if you read TripAdvisor! Some of the animals are best seen when more of the talks are on later in the day.

 

A pair of Red-fronted lemurs have gone on display.