And by the way, half the squirrel monkey enclosure isn't closed off, it's just that the entrance near the Blackburn has been closed for some time now to enable staff and volunteers to manage it more easily. Certainly puts a stop to the occasional visitor who leaves their buggy at one entrance, walks through and expects it to be waiting there for them at the other exit!
Another question (I've had London on the brain recently): does anyone know if the Mappin Cafe is also Listed?
After 5 years in London, male Sumatran Tiger Jae-Jae will soon be moving to Ree Park Safari in Denmark. I know I'll be very sorry to see him go no date has been announced for his departure that I can find ZSL London Zoo
ZSL talks tomorrow night around the theme of giving animals choice Giving animals choice: how ZSL's Zoo Keepers use science to positively impact animal welfare
I (along with some other members of my MSc course) will be going to see that talk tomorrow. It looks very interesting, all things said.
Visited Regent's Park on Monday for the first time in (too) many years. Hope it's ok to post a review on this thread? Only had about 4 hours there so it's a partial review, and very mammal-centric, since they are our main interest. ENTRANCE : Very quiet, no queue at all - in fact struggled to find the way in! Thought admission was expensive and slow by the time we had discussed voluntary donation, Gift Aid etc. Few yards later encountered two further staff who I assumed were going to tear our tickets in half (which is what used to happen). No, they wanted to check our bags, which they did. Curiously, the previous day at the V&A Museum - home to millions of pounds worth of stuff - the security desk was unstaffed! Skipped the Aquarium since it was a fine day, and the Reptile House. MAPPIN: What a mess! Tiny part at foot fenced off for wallaby and emu, which were fine but ... well, a bit dull. Sitting on the terrace of the Mappin café hardly offers much of a view! KOMODO: Steamed-up window and nothing to be seen. to be continued
TIGER TERRITORY: Quite liked the exhibit - a sort of smaller version of Chester's, with the same issue of actually seeing the animals ( ) until we got to the inside den and there they both were, offering good views - so one up on Chester! Liked the gibbon enclosure. Plain and simple, and presumably didn't cost a fortune, but we got good views and the two animals seemed very content interacting with visitors at the windows. CASSON: Oh dear. Could this, in its original form, have had the highest cost:uselessness factor of any UK exhibit? But at least it had impressive animals in an impressive setting. Now has only outside viewing of ... well, nothing on Monday. Like the Mappin a lot of space to very little purpose. LABELLING: On a more positive note, and inserted here in an entirely random position, I thought the labelling was generally pretty good. tbc
GORILLA KINGDOM: Was slightly surprised to see that the walk-through aviary in Gorilla Kingdom featured that well-known African species the Mandarin Duck! I rather liked GK - good groups in decent enclosures (took me a while to recognise the re-use of the Sobell pavilions - which I'd always rather liked). The gorillas make a good group; saw the two youngsters wrestling and generally being delightful. The other species were also good to see - a nice display of African primates. Skipped the Farmyard, had a look at the (Listed) (empty) ex-penguin pool. Another waste of space. There's a sculpture park elsewhere in Regent's Park - move it there if it's so important. BIRD HOUSE: (which is now the Blackburn Pavilion) I always liked this exhibit, and still do! All manner of good stuff in there. GETTING AROUND: This might be the place to say that we found getting around the place difficult - getting from A to B was complex, usually involving a curved route via R, G and X (going via C, D and E would be too obvious). I highlight it here as getting to the next exhibit involved circumnavigating BUGS to get to: IN WITH THE MONKEYS: Very good. Enjoyed it. tbc
I am sure that if Dr Johnson were a contemporary ZooChatter, even mammal-centric one, he would modify his famous saying "a man who is tired of London Zoo's Reptile House is tired of life". And we don't have too much longer to enjoy the Aquarium either.
In passing, although we didn't go into BUGS, I did notice an information board re bats. It made reference to the splitting of the Pipistrelle into the Common and Soprano species, which is quite "old news" by now. No reference to the further splitting into three in the form of the Nathusius' Pip, which suggests that the information board has been there a long time. Anyway, LAND OF THE LIONS was next: typically RP with winding paths and partial views. Rather liked it, probably because the lions (are there 4?) seemed to be moving with us so every viewpoint seemed to offer new sightings. Was surprised how recently it was opened because it did seem rather tired and unkempt. The "railway station" feature was clever and effective, though there's a fine line between "local character" and "stereotyping" and there were features (such as the barber's premises) which seemed very close to that line. Would be interesting to know how South Asian visitors view it. MACAWS were impressive; quick look at PENGUINS which seemed ok. By which time we were ready for a cuppa and something to eat so off to The Terrace, which was ok. Our feelings at this point? GOOD - some interesting species, animals in good condition - obviously well cared for, labelling. BAD - the words we used were "unkempt", "unloved", "disjointed". Too much clutter, difficult to navigate, too many empty buildings / sites. Anyway, time to head through the tunnel and to see what the Clore (always a favourite of mine) now offered ... tbc
I completely agree with both of these points. If you stuff an exhibit full of human-made things, they’re going to start looking scruffy after a year or two. I don’t know how long they intend to keep all that market / barber nonsense for, but how awful will it look by 2020, or 2025? And I do find the evocation of India to be deeply uncomfortable....
So through the tunnel and "Happy Families". Silly name, decent exhibits. Nothing special. CLORE: I was really worried by what I'd find here. I'm partial to small mammals and the Clore I remember was a real treasure trove. And ... well, it was very good! The Rainforest Life was great. Really, really good. Sloth at (literally) armslength; very relaxed, in fact fast asleep. (Which was interesting, given the criticism that Chester's sloths were stressed by the proximity of the public.) Titi monkey, bats and Bullet the one-armed Tamarin! My sort of enclosure - reminded me of the pioneering free flight aviary at Aberdeen (c. 1968). And so it continued ... really good throughout rainforest and nocturnal section. Only slight quibble was the erratic labelling, especially in the nocturnal section where some backlit signage would be useful. IN WITH THE LEMURS: after passing the sign at the entrance featuring six species a little disappointed that it was basically ... some Ring-Tailed. But there are Aye-Ayes inside so I was a happy boy! To see three Aye-Ayes in ten days - wow! Never thought that would ever happen. On to INTO AFRICA which remains a highlight for megamammalme ( ). Even the zebra seemed special - add in Okapi and Giraffe. Good (but, I suppose, no longer exceptional). Didn't see the Hunting Dogs which was a shame as we are both rather partial to them. By now it was almost closing time, so we skipped the North Bank (is there anything there now apart from pheasants and owls?) A final trip to the toilets meant we saw the Caracara in "those" aviaries with the piano wire fronts and - a late bonus - a group of around 8 Passer domesticus - something of a London rarity these days. to be completed
To summarise: Still a decent collection with some outstanding species (but not the array of unusual species that once made it so special). Some good exhibits, some very ordinary. Too many redundant buildings. Welfare standards seem good. Very quiet given that Central London was very busy. Difficult to navigate; too cluttered. What would I do if the ZSL took the wise step of appointing me as Sole Director and Supremo? Demolish and redevelop redundant buildings (Mappin, Casson etc) Remove 40% of tree cover and 70% of clutter. Put in more signage. Resign when Camden Council/ English Heritage refused permission for most of the above.
