This was my first visit to the collection and was a little confused to find the car park was basically in the middle of the zoo. This was a very pleasant surprise for me a great little collection in a beautiful setting the views from the zoo outwards are outstanding. On to the zoo itself now I found it a bit of hard work once we were away from the main zoo itself but did enjoy the walks through the wooded areas to find some of the exhibits great to see Red Squirrels actually running around and looking like they were really enjoying it too. Nice to see a collection with Red Legged Partridge as a species again very active with the Red Squirrels, also along the same path was the pair of White tailed sea eagles a very interesting bird to have in a non-birds of prey centre type collection. On to the aviaries now the waterfowl collection had a few species that had no signage around the exhibit to say they were in the area will list some of the species at the collection that is not in the zootierliste web site guide for the collection. The aviary close to the car park looked great for an old aviary design and was pleasantly filled with Amazon’s and Black crowned night herons (a pair were very visible but no signage again). The aviary next to the Brown bears was very active with both sub species of weaver showing well and again species with no signage for this time a pigeon/dove (in the Welsh Mountain Zoo Gallery) Walking with Lemurs was a little bit of a let-down as I thought it was going to be a walk through and not a viewing platform but did have great views of the Red Fronted Lemurs and of course the run of the mill Ring Tailed Lemurs. Now for the species I went to see the Brown Bears came out on my third visit to their exhibit this was only because they were being fed this was around 14.15pm they appeared to be very agile and really looked healthy and fit, next port of call was for the Margay again after more than one return I think around five times I returned and finally got to see the pair only for around five minutes but at least I saw them many on the trip didn’t see them. The Andean Condor looked beautiful with some great close up views sitting/lying right next to the fence and then a little later sitting/standing on the perch out in the open for some great photographs/dvd coverage. Along with the Condor was some of my favourite species of birds Ibis’s today we were sitting there watching Black Faced Ibis and Cattle Egret just before we moved off the Azara’s Agouti pair showed well walking around the enclosure until they came close to the Ibis were they met a little aggressive behaviour. Loved the Alligators in the small house both species were showing really well and then onto the Reptile house another great small collection with some very interesting species of Tortoise/Turtles would say the path through is slightly narrow but well worth a walk through. Just a quick word about some of the paths if you are a little unste0dy on your feet be very careful of the wooded area walk rounds as they can be a little hard work but other that I found this to be a great place to visit with some very interesting species around. Will be making this a regular once a year visit from now on will be uploading a species seen list a bit later and also indicating which species had no signage visible. Could you please visit the Welsh Mountain Zoo Gallery and help ID a few species I couldn't get info on many thanks for reading my little ditty.
Here is a list of species seen by myself while on my visit on the 08th August 2015. Please note if any species have been duplicated then it's due to the signage around the collection and please let me know. Also the species with * after their names are the one that are currently not on the zootierliste index for the Welsh Mountain Zoo Hope this helps people thinking about going to this great small collection - AMERICAN ALLIGATOR ANDEAN CONDOR ASIAN OR ORIENTAL SHORT CLAWED OTTER AVOCET AZARA’S AGOUTI BACTRAIN CAMEL BEARDED EMPORER TAMARIN BLACK CROWNED NIGHT HERON* BLACK FACED IBIS BLACK HEADED (VILLAGE) WEAVER BLACK LEGGED DART FROG BLUE FRONTED AMAZON BLUE YELLOW OR GOLD MACAW BROWN BEAR BURMESE ROCK PYTHON CATTLE EGRET* CHILEAN FLAMINGO CHIMPANZEE COMMON BOA COMMON BULBUL COMMON WHITE EYE COTTON TOP TAMARIN CUBAN KNIGHT ANOLE DYEING POISON FROG* EASTERN BOX TURTLE EMU FALLOW DEER HERRING GULL INLAND BEARDED DRAGON JUNGLE (CHINESE) MYNAH LARS WHITE HANDED GIBBON LAYSAN TEAL LEOPARD TORTOISE MALLARD MARGAY MEERKAT MEXICAN GREEN MILITARY MACAW MISSISSIPPI ALLIGATOR MOTTLED WEAVER NORTHERN SHELDUCK* ORANGE WINGED AMAZON PHANTASMAL DART FROG* PRZEWALSKI HORSE RAVEN RED BILLED QUELEA RED CRESTED POCHARD RED EARED TERRAPIN RED FACED BLACK SPIDER MONKEY RED FOOTED TORTOISE RED FRONTED BROWN LEMUR RED FRONTED MACAW RED LEGGED PARTRIDGE NEPAL RED PANDA RED SQUIRREL RED TURTLE DOVE RING TAILED LEMUR RINGED TEAL* ROSEATTE COCKATOO SEAL SHARP WINGED TEAL* SNAPPING TURTLE SNOW LEOPARD SOUTH EAST ASAIN BOX TURTLE SPECKLED PIGEON* STRAITED MOUSEBIRD* SUMATRAN TIGER SUPERB SPREO STARLING THREE TOED BOX TURTLE VILLAGE (RUFOUS NECKED) WEAVER WELSH MOUNTAIN GOAT WHITE TAILED SEA EAGLE YELLOW FRONTED AMAZON* YELLOW MARGINED TURTLE GREATER RHEA RED NECKED WALLABY
@ Adrian1963 where the Herring Gulls in an Aviary or the Hospital,because if they weren't they will have been wild and not captive! Also American and Mississippi Alligator are the same species!
Many thanks on the info of the Alligators and yes the Gulls were wild shouldn't have been on the list but on the wild species seen list. I did wonder on the Alligators but one was very impressive in size and the other was rather much smaller.
Thats because the large one is a Bull called Albert and the smaller one is the cow called Nancy.Albert used to be at Cotswold Wildlife Park,until he moved to WMZ to be paired up with Nancy.This pair is 1 of only 2 breeding pairs in the UK and both Bulls are called Albert!
If that were true there wouldn't be much point in pairing them with females; indeed, in these enlightened times, they could be kept together. Alan