Join our zoo community

Mini English zoo trip - recommendations?

Discussion in 'United Kingdom' started by Dormitator, 3 Apr 2018.

  1. agnmeln

    agnmeln Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    29 Dec 2017
    Posts:
    1,201
    Be still my beating heart!
     
  2. Dormitator

    Dormitator Well-Known Member 5+ year member

    Joined:
    23 Jul 2017
    Posts:
    289
    Location:
    Hampshire
    They're just awesome critters. Alas, obviously Twycross don't have them anymore. Fortunately Dudley did! Still managed to get my Otaria fix. Very odd to see them next to an English castle mind.

    Pied cormorant died a couple of years ago sadly. Borneo longhouse aviary is still pretty good though, but the new lorikeet aviary is shocking. Complete lack of attention paid to the plants, lots of them near dead from lack of water. Comparing Twycross' lorikeet enclosure to the one in Dudley was chalk and cheese, Dudley was far more interesting, more species, more interest.
     
  3. BeakerUK

    BeakerUK Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    21 Oct 2017
    Posts:
    421
    Location:
    UK
    I always enjoy watching Dudley's Patagonian sea lions. The size of the male always blows me away, no matter how many times I have seen him.
     
    FunkyGibbon likes this.
  4. Dormitator

    Dormitator Well-Known Member 5+ year member

    Joined:
    23 Jul 2017
    Posts:
    289
    Location:
    Hampshire
    He's a big boy! A bit of a poser as well. Thanks to everyone for recommending Dudley, it's a really nice place, unique to have everything built into the castle as well.
     
    Benosaurus likes this.
  5. agnmeln

    agnmeln Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    29 Dec 2017
    Posts:
    1,201
    Yes! I haven’t got to Dudley yet, but I’ve seen plenty of photographs and he is a bit of a head turner to say the least!
     
  6. Dormitator

    Dormitator Well-Known Member 5+ year member

    Joined:
    23 Jul 2017
    Posts:
    289
    Location:
    Hampshire
    Just a final word on this, a huge thanks to everyone who's commented, the advice has been great and I think it's more than fair to say that I wouldn't have had anywhere near as good a time (nor would I have spent as much money!) without the advice. Quick one sentence summaries regarding the last zoos:

    Dudley Zoo: great exercise if you don't use the stair lift, a really well balanced zoo with a good variety of taxa on show (needs fish and inverts though) which just so happens to have a castle in the middle, and good interp though conservation message could have been stronger.

    Twycross Zoo: one of the, if not the, best collections of primates I've ever seen, sadly very mixed elsewhere with great unusual species dotted in the corners, but some terrible missed opportunities as well (lorikeets...).

    Hamerton: possibly one of the best small zoos I've ever been to, great displays of unusual mammals and birds, but let down by a terrible reptile house and white tigers, definitely somewhere I'll revisit soon.
     
    Benosaurus likes this.