ZSL London Zoo London zoo impressions and thoughts

Just visited for the first time in absolute ages and having seen what has changed, I felt it might be suitable to post (another) thread on this. I had fresh eyes on the situation because I hadn't been there since 2013 (I know, appalling, is it not).

Anyway, quick run-through of the exhibits:

Gorilla kingdom: The outdoor exhibit could certainly do with being slightly larger and having some more vegetation, but otherwise good. The indoor exhibit is good but given I visited today in the cold winter, the gorillas were all in there, so could have more space. There was a very amusing young one who kept frustrating an older gorilla, who was running away constantly
The smaller monkey outdoor exhibits could be a lot taller and larger, but there are good climbing options. Would be lovely to see at least a bit of greenery, if only just like the Tiger enclosure, because it looks sterile. As ever glass needs washing
The aviary in Gorilla kingdom is also nice, but would love it to be slightly larger scale and with more species. There was a Mandarin duck in there for some strange reason and the smaller birds were hard, if not just plain impossible to find. Did see a cattle egret though

Casson (pavilion?): No animals there at the moment except Reeves' muntjac and Malayan tapir, which I talk about in Tiger territory, so this is just brief. However, the Red river hog enclosure seems to be coming along well, with some nice soft substrate for digging and a few other ornaments. However, it doesn't seem to be very large, so I only hope it is larger than I interpreted.

Land of the Lions + Flamingos and Pelicans: The flamingo lake is nice, but I'd rather it were netted than the flamingos being pinioned, feather clipped, or whatever other method they use. Then the lion exhibit(s). I really liked this exhibit - it was very well done. Of course I meant on a day when there was probably little more than 200 people around the entire zoo at any time, so probably more enjoyable. The theming was interesting and attention-seeking in a good way, since it got visitors to actually read what it said. Secondly the pure wealth of viewpoints and areas allows the visitors to immerse themselves into the exhibit. At times funny theming also livened it up. I vastly underestimated the quality of the exhibit when I saw photos of it because the exhibit is split into many parts and it is therefore hard to take photos to illustrate the size and quality of the exhibit. The langurs also got a large area with lots of climbing options. The only things that puzzled me were that the lions didn't seem to have an entirely indoor area and that the exhibit was pretty hard to navigate (even though it was quite fun getting lost. Bhanu was also much more active than other male lions I have seen, getting in the odd roar and sprint for us. There was also a very kind man in long robes who seemed to be a regular visitor of the zoo who told us all about all the lions and their personalities

Tiger Territory: I think I saw Tiger Territory back when I went but I can't be sure. At any rate, I found it to be a first rate exhibit. Great viewpoint selection, nice and spacious exhibit and good 'supporting species'. My only criticisms would be that the Malayan tapir enclosure is too small, the muntjac enclosure similarly, the gibbon indoor enclosure is not viewable, the tiger lives alone (I think) and that the viewing for the muntjacs is hard to look through because the windows are low down and the tent over it is very low so problematic for tall people. So all minor criticisms, but nonetheless points to improve in. Last thing would be that the greenery could go slightly further than grass and bushes - otherwise there are just logs and rocks. But in conclusion, another very good exhibit. The walkthrough aviary next to it is small and nice, but could have a bit more water area due to the 3 waterfowl species in it (about 15 White-faced whistling ducks) and other storks and hamerkops.

Parrot aviaries: There seems to be around 3 aviaries for Blue-throated macaws, which is great, because it helps to save the Critically endangered species, but more variety would be welcome of course. The aviaries themselves could certainly be larger and they could also do with updating, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ they have other important things to worry about (*cough* *cough* giraffe enclosure )

Penguin beach: I've seen this exhibit before, but it still struck me just how many penguins they have! There mus have been around 40-45 penguins! However, they had a large pool and a nice deck for viewing. Only criticism: The glass is filthy and impossible to take half-decent photos from. Also, is there any way to stop the herons and gulls from stealing the penguins' food?

Reptile house: Nice and large, with lots of exhibits, some very nice, some slightly smaller and some could do with a subtle makeover. The African bullfrog exhibit was too small and the Chinese Giant salamanders could have more space (having said that, I couldn't find them so...). The Philippine crocodile exhibit was also a bit small, but again I only just spotted it after a few minutes' search. The poison frog exhibit was larger than was necessary, but certainly can't complain about that . Otherwise, it was all very nice.

Other exhibits in main area of the zoo: The bird-of-prey aviaries are good-ish. The strange thing about them is that sparrows can easily dart in and out of them through the gaps in the wiring, resulting in a few deaths
The Animals in Action show was - all right I guess. I wrongly expected there to be Servals, realising later that servals could only be seen on the Display lawn (or am I again wrong), and the animals concerned were domestic ferrets, tawny owls and meerkats (hardly the 'trip around the world promised )
Outback was fine but nothing special. The mock rock mountains behind aren't very helpful to the zoo's space problem at all. Not the most exciting Australian exhibit I have ever seen .
In with the Monkeys was all right, although all the monkeys were inside and the indoor viewing exhibit doesn't have a square inch of clean space. Again, the clearly well-visited man with the long robes was there, talking to the keepers, who he seemed to be on very good terms with.
I didn't see BUGS due to time constraints but I didn't really mind missing it, especially the spider walkthrough
The Blackburn pavilion was also nice. One thing that was particularly frustrating for me was the mesh on the front of the enclosures. With a camera, if a bird is right up to a fence, it is physically impossible to get it in focus without entering the enclosure.
I didn't visit the Farmyard or Animal adventure, although I ran through Animal adventure just to see the Yellow Mongoose. I don't know what treasures lie in the Butterfly paradise area because I didn't even go in.

Meerkats and Otters: Not anything I'm interested in, since both are extremely common in European zoos. Good enclosures for both and large for both. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Rainforest Life: This was a fantastic exhibit. The only tiny thing that detracted from my elation was the spurt of fog that entirely fogged up my glasses and the lens of my camera as soon as I entered . I had to wait for a long time before I could even take a photo again Anyway, the exhibit was large and well planted, with good humidity regulation and temperature. It was great seeing the sloth family from up close, including an incredibly cute baby. There was also the narrow-striped mongoose, which was one of the highlights of my day due to its relative rarity in zoos and the fact that I haven't seen one (despite having been to 4 zoos which have them ). There was also a young one there. I think the neighbouring exhibits might also have been for them, so I was very happy with that . Great mixed species exhibit in the centre, with some of the species however quite hard to find
I would have certainly not found the tamanduas had a very kind and informative volunteer not miraculously found him and showed me him. However, since my camera was acting up all throughout the day, the autofocus kept overriding the manual focus and so I ended up with a depiction of the tamanduas backside as my best photo of him. Oh well
The pied tamarins and Goeldi's marmosets also have good enclosures, and there is also a nice tank for anglefish.

Night life: Well this was probably the most important part of the visit for me and it went brilliantly! I saw every species, although some very fleetingly, and the exhibits were great. Nicely planted, with lots of space and different enclosures for all of the species. Only enclosure with enough light to take a photo in was the Moholi bushbaby one, so that can be found on the media page along with a few other pics (lions, tiger, mongoose, tamandua (not really ). The Aye-aye enclosure was a bit small and I was very surprised with how big it actually was!
Anyway, fantastic area of the zoo!

In with the lemurs was all right but none of the lemurs were outside due to the cold weather and I only saw one ring tailed lemur in the visible indoor enclosures, so missed out on the Aloatran gentle lemurs However, still good and lots of space in the indoor exhibits, especially for the ring tails.

Aaaaaand I won't even comment on the enclosures at the end except saying that the Okapi enclosure is appalling, so is the giraffe enclosure, the warthog enclosure is too small, the painted wolf enclosure is all right and good at best, and finally the pygmy hippo enclosure is good with enough space.

And on a final note - any recent or frequent visitors of the zoo may know what I mean by the terrarium with the massive sculpture of the anole to illustrate their UV glowing chin pouch. For those who don't, there is a well-planted terrarium with a large sculpture of an anole and a button on the outside which allows the visitors to turn on and off a UV in the exhibit, allowing the visitors to see the luminescent red glow of the anoles chin pouch. The sculpture is around 5 times larger than the real animal and visibly not real or living.
So this couple walks up to the exhibit and starts turning the light on and off quickly and repeatedly. Then, as they are leaving, the man says to the woman (with a straight face, so not joking): 'Do you think it gets annoyed with all those people turning the light on and off?'


And that's it. I'm sorry for giving everyone on this chat 2 hours of verbal diarrhoea but just felt like putting my thoughts on here. Anyway, if the both very kindly and informative man in the long robes and volunteer in the Rainforest life are on Zoochat, I thank you wholeheartedly for ameliorating my trip considerably Thanks a lot.

And you are right @Crowthorne, I couldn't find any Red duikers in the Okapi exhibit - they were probably hiding in the straw-covered areas.
Also thank you @Crowthorne for telling me where all the animals and their exhibits were located around the zoo where I wasn't sure (which was the case with most of the species ) - I probably wouldn't have seen many of them without that help.

 

Were the pottos out in the "Night Life" exhibit during your visit ?

 

I saw one very fleetingly (I'm talking a half second seeing its back or another bodily appendice).

 

I see pottos almost active all of the time for some reason. Maybe its because I love them so much! And them being active is great!

 

The ones I saw at ZSL during both of my two visits were incredibly active and were constantly patrolling their enclosure using the fake foilage running along the top presumably so that they were half hidden from any "predators" while doing this (albeit at a rather unsuprisingly slow and lorisidae pace).

I read in an old journal article about their ecology that these primates can be quite territorial and spend a lot of time doing this in the wild so I assume this is just a continuation of this behavioural trait in captivity and not indicative of any kind of stereotypical behaviour.

 

The what enclosure? I know not of this "painted wolf" you talk about, hunting dogs on the other hand, I know what they are!

 

Oh that's really sad about the tigers. I think I heard about that sub-consciously. I hope that they find another partner soon, and one that he gets on with.
I guess the red river hog enclosure will actually be quite big then. Are they renovating the inside of the Casson?
And about the pelican and flamingo pond, wow. I didn't expect it to be that old, especially since it now looks like it is stuck to the hip of Land of the Lions

Thanks for all the info. I am going to try and visit more often, it's just that I haven't had much free time in ages

 

Oh well, I like the new name better - it is much more graceful and pleasing to the ear in my opinion.

 

The tiger lives alone because he had a misunderstanding with the female and killed her. In the fullness of time, and subject to studbook recommendations, he'll either be moved on and replaced with a compatible pair, or they'll try him again with a partner. In the interim, there's nothing unnatural about a male tiger living in his own.
I have an idea that was a Little Egret, but my memory may be at fault.

 

I've visited it in May.
It's good (in particular I loved the Bird Pavillion and the okapis )but can be better.

 

I also visited this year for the first time since 2014. Honestly I found it a bit of a let down. Great collection but several areas (Blackburn pavilion, Gorilla Kingdom, Bird Safari) mostly had one or two animals per species and had lost many species since my last visit (I go to zoos for the birds). In addition to this, I felt if zebras left, the okapi enclosure could be expanded and if the warthog left + renovations, the painted dogs could have a nice exhibit.

 

I think the best plan for the zoo is for the giraffes to leave along with the zebras, allowing a Congo rainforest themed area. Not sure about the wild dogs and the warthogs - I find that that area could be subsequently used for animals more in-fitting with the theme.

However, I think Land of the Lions is really well-done ; previously (before 2013), I visited frequently and never saw the lions well. However, on Friday, I saw all the lions very well and they were in a significantly larger and nicer exhibit. So there are upsides and downsides as ever. However, I was very disappointed about the Aquarium closing and I feel that areas could be renovated to form more space.

People have posted on this subject many times I assume, but Into Africa needs changes of course and other parts of the zoo do need to become more efficient as well. I guess it is just a matter of demolishing needless exhibits, making important ones larger (in the case of Blackburn pavilion and some other exhibits, and try and do something with Casson and all the other listed areas.

 

When I visited Bird Safari I didn't see any bird...

 

Really! I saw around 11 Abdim's storks, 15 White-faced whistling ducks, no Comb ducks and a couple of Hamerkops in Bird Safari.
In the African aviary in Gorilla kingdom, I saw a (Little?) egret and a pair of Mandarin ducks but nothing else, since they were all inside.
In the Blackburn pavilion, I saw around 20 Black masked lovebirds, 1 Snowy capped robin chat, 3 Purple starlings and a few emerald doves. I also saw 2 Bali mynas.

 

I confused the bird safari with the aviary next to the gorillas.

 

London Zoo is the best zoo I’ve visited (to date) for history and architecture. What were your impressions/highlights here @amur leopard?

 

Given I have visited Vienna, it sadly didn't rank as highest for me, but I found the Reptile house to be a very nice building and I liked to see the abundance of old statues peppered around the zoo. The Blackburn pavilion was also a very nice building and I liked the building with the spire for first aid in the bottom left corner of the Gorilla Kingdom area.
Obviously it's history as the second oldest zoo and the thousands of animal species that have inhabited its grounds struck me as I walked around, but only because I knew about it before. There was a nice area detailing its history through the years in the tunnel leading from the pygmy hippos to the Aquarium area, but I don't think they put enough emphasis on their great history and the species that have come and gone.

On another note, I think now they are trying to modernise well with Tiger territory, Land of the Lions, etc. However, I think Vienna does a much better job of embracing its history and putting it alongside new developments to make it a better zoo. This means that Vienna view it as a positive element, whereas I think London may well still think of their old and listed buildings as a liability. Having said that, I can see why it is difficult to add to, for example, the old Penguin pool. However, I think maybe the three mountains in the top right corner of the zoo could be used for an enclosure for, for example, ibex or Barbary sheep instead of standing useless next to a wallaby enclosure.
I think they can also use old buildings - for example, if they decide to export the giraffes and zebras, the indoor area for giraffes can then be used for the okapis instead, and then there can be signs about why the doors are so high. There is also a lot of wasted space. The parrot aviaries, the bird of prey aviaries, the 600 m2 of pathways and grass in the middle of the main zoo area, Butterfly paradise, obviously Outback, which adds very little to the zoo due to the lack of other Australasian fauna, and the whole Aquarium area. There is also lots of space in the section of the zoo near the canal and in the around the meerkats and the otters. This space must be used to expand enclosures or make new ones.
They also need to choose a few geographic areas to focus on. Right now, the zoo has almost no orderly geographic distinction apart from perhaps Tiger territory, Into Africa and Gorilla Kingdom. Their last few developments, instead of being around taxonomic groupings are around geographical groupings. However, they still have a mish mash of geography and classification which results in the following map:


In this map, red represents Indonesia, orange represents Central Asia, light orange represents the Indian subcontinent, yellow represents Sub-Saharan Africa, light green is Congo rainforests, darker green is South America, peach is Europe, purple is farmyard, dark blue is North America and lighter blue is Australasia. Black represents non-geographically arranged areas, white represents Antarctica (in principle) and brown represents areas with no real sorting.
The map helps to pick out stronger areas and weaker areas. If the giraffes and zebras leave, the okapis' enclosure may be expanded and there may also be space for another enclosure. In this case, given the theming and the fact that the nearby Snowdon aviary will soon be Congo-themed with small monkeys, that new animal should be from Central African rainforests. That area could also be linked with Gorilla Kingdom, another Congolese area. Furthermore, the top areas of the zoo seem to be generally themed around Asia. If the otters move into animals in action and replace the coatis, the Animal adventure area could serve as an Asian link between the lions and the tigers (the two large Asian areas. Furthermore, the coatis could link up with the rainforest and night life areas to form a South American area, and the smaller South American monkeys could move into larger enclosures. The squirrel monkeys in In with the Monkeys could be moved to that area along with the macaws. The In with the Monkeys area could then be used for a larger species of Asian langur. The macaw aviaries could be turned into a single large aviary for Indian vultures. The bird of prey aviaries could just be turned into a single large aviary for Congolese birds. The Farmyard could be turned into a larger enclosure for Bactrian camels, and say, blackbucks or Pere David's deer. And the Outback ara could become an exhibit for Himalayan serows or takins. That would turn the map into something looking like this:



Lastly, the zoo needs to show its pedigree. Right now, it has a foundation, with tiger, lions, gorillas and penguins. However, it needs to start breeding a unique species that brings in visitors, yet is useful to conservations. Examples would be douc langurs in Cologne, Eastern lowland gorillas in Antwerp, etc. A few suggestions might be African manatees, Tora hartebeests or Mountain bongo. My choice out of those would be the manatees, since the old aquarium could serve as a sort of Manatee house with lots of cichlids etc.., still linking up the Congo areas.

I found that aviary a bit small and the smaller birds just stay inside, especially when it is cold.

It would be interesting to find out what they will do with the space in Gorilla Kingdom freed up by the smaller monkeys' departure to the Snowdon aviary. Maybe they could expand the aviary?
I understand that the Snowdon aviary will be used for Kikuyu guereza, Diana monkeys and White naped mangabeys, so perhaps an exhibit for bongo might be good, since it would be next to the red river hogs and be compatible with the Congolese theme of Gorilla Kingdom.

 

Since you're interested in the zoo's history it might be worth commenting that:

• The Blackburn Pavilion was built in 1882 as a Reptile House and the construction was financed by the sale of the famous African elephant "Jumbo"
• The "building with the spire for First Aid" is known as the Clock Tower. It is the oldest surviving building in the zoo and dates to 1828. It was originally built for llamas and subsequently housed camels.

 

Black-cheeked Lovebirds.