Marwell Wildlife Marwell Zoo News 2019

Unbelievable! It just goes from bad to worse to hopeless !

Another year I won't bother visiting I suspect!

 

Has this been confirmed by the zoo? Surely they can think of something to do with it?!

This at least is good news.

 

Maybe,but its early days,Wetlands will now open in 2021.

 

Nothing to encourage me to visit - no visit for a second year running is on the cards!!

 

We get in with our Colchester passes and it is within 45 minutes for us so we will visit - but if we did not get in for free or it was further we definitely would be giving it a miss too. Which is sad.

 

I had a Marwell pass for about 7 years, visiting at least 3-4 times a year before I finally lost patience and went for a (cheaper) Colchester pass instead! I always visited Colchester as much as Marwell anyway!

 

For what it's worth, after Bristol, they do by far the best keeper for a day where you get to work with a number of ABC animals. Plus learn plenty and get very hands on.

 

Fair enough but I'm not sure that this excuses the zoos Decline over the last decade! You also rated Longleat highly on the basis of it's extra experience, but that place is a rip off for the general visitor imo!!

 

If anything that makes it worse. Have they engineered it so that the only way a visitor can have a good experience is to fork out £395? That's not a good deal.

Incidentally Bristol's keeper for a day is £250... so I think I'd still be opting out of the Marwell offering.

 

While this is moving off the Marwell thread and onto a Keeper for the Day one, I find it hard to comprehend why people are willing to part with £395, or £250, or any three-figure sum, for these "experiences". I can understand, though, why zoos offer these activities as they provide a source of income and fulfil an educational role. But they take up the time of staff and add health and safety responsibilities so their charges must allow for the cost of that.

 

I guess it boils down to what your interests are.
At Bristol you get to get up close to a lot of the nocturnal animals, hand feed the Keas , learn about diets, hand feed red pandas. See the seals, Penguins and Tree Kangaroos up close
In my opinion these are once in a lifetime opportunities and I wouldn’t say it’s bad value for money at all, but we’re all different.

 

The new male Red Panda (from GaiaZoo) is now onshow.

Another female Hartmann's Mountain Zebra also arrived from Usti Nad Labem (Czechia) last week

 

A pair arrived giving 1.3

 

Oh good. Where is the male from? Landau?

 

You could say the same about anything - I can't understand why people spend vast amounts of money on handbags and shoes etc but it seems to make them happy. I'd much rather spent £300 on a great experience than a 'thing' to own. Each to their own.

 

Sorry dont know

 

In addition to the Hartmann's, a Przewalski horse also arrived this month. This year's ungulate births include a Lesser Kudu (first of this species to be born at Marwell) and Roan antelope. Other arrivals are a male Crowned lemur to replace the animal lost last year, Blue-grey tanagers from Leipzig and a group of Golden orb spiders from ZSL.

 

Everyone will be pleased to know that Brickosaurs have arrived and will be on show from Friday 5th April....

 

The Crowned Lemur that died last year was female,Marwell have just got another male giving two in the walk through.