In my spare time I design zoos on very big pieces of paper (its a good job my parents are civil engineers). I decided I would tell you a bit about one, I happened to choose this one because its one of the smaller ones and as I write this it is just off the press! This one is a coastal zoo, I'm not sure where it's based but probably a small English seaside town. This is my first time doing this so I'm sorry if it's not very good. I hope you enjoy! We begin by entering a large room which includes a shop, you come in and are greeted by the admissions desk, which behind it has a large globe to demonstrate how much sea and coasts our planet has. You go down a short corridor (passing the toilets), and come to a small exhibit for Atlantic Horseshoe Crab (limulus polyphemus). It is a simple design featuring a low barrier which allows you to see underwater and above water, along the back is a rocky island. Next you enter British Coasts which displays species from British waters. You immediately see a round tank containing Short-snouted Seahorses (hippocampus hippocampus). Next you discover a large tank containing many British saltwater fish and corals. You can also find a tank containing various British rockpool creatures. As well as the rockpool tank the is the rockpool touch zone, which includes crabs, anemones, urchins and other rockpool creatures. In British Coasts you can find interactive displays about our coasts and the species found around them. You can also see the dolphins (more about them later) underwater in here. Now you enter Living Jelly which includes oddly shaped tanks containing various species of jellyfish. Next you enter a non-themed area containing Common Octopus (octopus vulgaris) and Giant Moray (gymnothorax javanicus), these are housed in rather basic tanks in a dark room. Next you go into Sea Forests which is themed around mangrove forests. You enter and exit through hanging plastic strips (not sure on their name?). You go over the pool on a board walk. This exhibit has a glass roof which allows their to be real mangrove trees and plants. Many species of fish live in here including Lemon Shark (negaprion brevirostris). Above water Cotton-top Tamarins (saguinus oedipus). As you exit you come across the Café and Ray Touch Pool where you can meet Common Stingray (dasyatis pastinaca) and Thornback Ray (raja clavata). At certain times you can purchase food to feed them with. Now you have the option to head towards the exit or outside, we will go outside. You come out in to a large avairy, which you also exit through. It is split into two zones, estuary and cliffs. Its main theme is where land meets sea. In the Wader Estuary section you encounter Pied Avocet (recurvirostra avosetta), Ruff (philomachus pugnax), Black-winged Stilt (himantopus himantopus), Ringed Plover (charadrius hiaticula), Pied Oystercatcher (haematopus longirostris), Eurasian Curlew (numenius arquata), Common Tern (sterna hirundo) and Inca Tern (larosterna inca). In the Cliffs section you can find Herring Gull (larus argentatus), Eurasian Great Cormorant (phalocrocorax carbo sinensis), Atlantic Puffin (fratercula arctica), Common Guillemot (uria aalge), Tufted Puffin (fratercula cirrhata), Northern Gannet (sula bassana), Common Eider (somateria mollissima), King Eider (somateria spectabilis) and Red-breasted Merganser (mergus serrator). The waders aren't able to fly and are limited to their area via a hidden barrier underneath a bridge, as well as rocks which surround the paths. Exiting the avairy you come to Otter Falls which is home to four male Asian Small-clawed Otters (aonyx cinerea). Their enclosure feature a small rock cliff which disguises the avairy behind; from this a small stream flows with occasional water falls. Due to a natural hill underwater viewing is found into the main large pool. Pelican Beach is home to a small group of Eastern Brown Pelican (pelecanus occidentalis carolinensis). It is simply a small pool surrounded by a pebble beach. Penguin Coast is where the African Penguins (spheniscus demersus) reside. It is a very simple pool with man made burrows for nesting. A decking area with outside seating for the café looks out over it. In daily 'Meet a Penguin' session the penguins come out of their enclosure and meet visitors. In Seal Bay you can find three species of pinnipeds in two enclosures. In enclosure 1 you can find Cape fur seals (arctocephalus pusillus pusillus), in enclosure 2 you can find rescued Grey Seals (halichoerus grypus) and Common Seals (phoca vitulina) both of the east-atlantic subspecies. The enclosures both feature large pools with rock shores. Antarctic Penguins is an exhibit similar in design to Seal Bay. Macaroni Penguin (eudyptes chrysolophus), King Penguin (aptenodytes patagonicus) and Subantarctic Gentoo Penguin (pygoscelis papua papua). Dolphin Bay is the zoos main attraction and includes the only cetaceans in the Uk. You can find Harbour Porpoise (phocoena phocoena) and Common Bottlenosed Dolphin (tursiops truncatus). A twice daily show features the keepers talk about dolphins in the wild and it features demonstrations on their natural behaviours. The two species live together although they can be separated. It features two pools the main pool and the show and training pool. Eventually you find your way back to the avairy where going past the Ray Touch Station you enter the final exhibit Rainbow Reef. In here many coral reef fish can be found including Blacktip Reef Shark (carcharhinus melanopterus). Two Hawksbill Turtles (eretmochelys imbricata) also live in here. This is all viewed via a glass viewing tunnel. Although you can view from a glass wall in the shop. Thank you for reading this longer than expected tour!
Very good . The only thing i would swap is I'd have sealions in your main pool and remove the dolphins altogether I think as a nation we have moved on from holding these animals as captive . Although as a cavaet perhaps you could also deal with rescue dolphins until they are ready to return to the sea. I have been to seaworld in Florida and yes its probably the best of the best but even there dolphins and whales in captivity just seems wrong.
I wasn't going to include them but I had a lot of free space so I decided they could have been rescue animals which were unable to be returned to the wild.
