I would like to echo what has been said above, Nanook, can you not share the plan/agenda with us on this thread? If you can't post it here, should you really be sending PMs about it then?
Of course you and anyone else is entitled to agree with KB's assessment, but i don't consider losing over a third of the mammal collection 'rationalization'! As for the PMs, surely they are there partly to keep certain things out of the public domain, i see no problem with anyone using them however they choose to!
Marwell is my 'Home Town Zoo and I visit twice a year as it is a good day out. However every time we visit we notice fewer species and more 'wasted space'. The general public themselves are also noticing this, we heard several times people complaining about the lack of animals, old enclosures empty etc. Marwell has so much potential it's a shame it's being run in this manner, even by introducing some ABC species I believe the park would be highly successful and add to that visitor experience, instead they keep ploughing money into revamped exhibits that showcase nothing new. The new Tropical House for example seems a strange addition since the current Tropical House is practically empty!
The old Marwell that people like me go on about is no more,and will not come back,after the Tropical House,a new Wetlands area at front of zoo ,new pygmy Hippo area,walk through Flamingo area,maybe new entrance,but your looking at 2020,the large ungulates groups have gone and I think that species like Sable,Nyala,Waterbuck,Sitatunga will go over time,the Colobus are still due to go.Just 3 new species of mammals have come to Marwell in last 10 years,that says it all.
I'm sure I really won't surprise anyone with this, but what the hell is happening here, the decline of a once great, forward looking conservation focused zoo, has continued over the last 8-10 years, will the man at the top please go, so the zoo can have a chance of making it to 2020!!
I can't agree with this comment... ....as, for good or for bad, change can occur very quickly. Good zoos go bad - and bad zoos go good. Most (but not all) would agree that Marwell is a pretty sorry place right now, and while those in power there would no doubt cite apparently healthy visitor figures in their defence, others would suggest that with Twycross, Colchester and Chester all achieving enormous visitor figures in recent years, Marwell's numbers do not look massively impressive. The current CEO will not last for ever. The trustees will change. The direction of the zoo will alter. The big questions: when. And, how much damage will have been inflicted on the place in the meantime?
It's interesting to compare the Marwell described here, which I have not visited, with Dvur Kralove. Spending two days there last summer I saw large herds of a massive variety of African hoofstock. I suspect it is a fundamental miscalculation to believe that people will be happy with much smaller herd sizes. Seeing 30 Impala is completely different to seeing 5 and when those numbers are replicated across a zoo the visitor experience is drastically altered. No doubt Sooty or another member could offer a few choice words about the different approaches to collection management in these two institutions in the last decade.
Again spending money on animals already exhibited at Marwell (Flamingos and Pygmy Hippos); is a walk through Flamingo exhibit really a crowd pleaser or necessary? I really don't understand the direction the Zoo is going in. Every time I visit other Zoos I always think that species would be incredible at Marwell or where that species could be located at Marwell etc. The Old Marwell is definitely in the past now!
