A newsletter states they are to recieve African elephants from a European collection . Admission prices will increase once the elephants arrive .
Now they've changed the goalposts. How can we speculate on where they are coming from within the UK- which is where they said they would be from, if that has now changed?. I'm not playing anymore.
Want to bet they cancelled their original plans - or had them cancelled for them - when the likelihood they were getting elephants from the Aspinall Foundation came out?
Why should they though? The Aspinall Foundation do what they like regarding placing their (own) animals, so what difference would it make? It must be a lot more expensive if they are coming from Europe too.
Stupid move If it is it a quality exhibit (which it won't be) then it will be worth it but what is the point of Noah's Ark, potentially, building more sub standard enclosures. Improve on what it has. This move seems very commercial. This could have been an opportunity to build an elephant exhibit that is revolutionary in the 21st century but with a budget that small I doubt it very much.
Give the place a chance, then judge the enclosure. There's not always a direct link (some might argue negligible) between the amount spent on an enclosure and how good it is. Some places have achieved great things on tight/reasonable budgets (Dudley's Lemur walk through, Highland's Tiger and Pallas Cat enclosures, pretty much everything at Yorkshire Wildlife Park) whereas others have wasted fortunes on ineffective and underwhelming enclosures (virtually anything in Twycross' "Boardman era"). I'm not saying the enclosure will (or won't) be good, bad or average -just that it's wrong to pre-judge. What's wrong with being commercial given we live in a mixed economy democracy? All zoos are commercial to some extent or other, even the charitable ones, otherwise they would not survive/thrive. Would you criticise any zoo expansion (such as Chester's Islands for instance) for being commercial? If zoo's weren't commercial there wouldn't be any (except some of the smaller council funded ones and even they have to justify themselves financially to some extent).
I personally think some basic husbandry elements would have to be substituted if the enclosure is only £2 million. There is nothing wrong with being commercial I just think animals should always come first and while spending £2 million on a new enclosure seems unnecessary when other animal enclosures could be improved there.
Again, let them finish and then judge -if they've got in-house builders they can achieve far more with £2m than if they employed external sub-contractors. Also, just think how much extra cash they'll potentially earn from the Elephants to enable them to improve all the their other enclosures (hopefully). If the enclosure's bad and/or if they fail to spend extra generated money on improving other aspects of the park feel free to give them both barrels then, but at least give them a chance to fail first.
I don’t understand some of the comments. Other enclosures are being improved; The Meerkats have just had their quarters more than doubled in size, with more indoor and outdoor areas new under floor heating and cctv in there underground sleeping area. Six new babies this year seems to show that they approve. A new Lemma house is nearing completion, also new housing for tortoises and some frogs and birds. We also have to provide new footpaths loos and the like to keep up with public demand and improve disabled access (difficult on such hilly ground). As for the cost; we probably could have done it for a lot less if not for the very wet winter. A considerable amount of the work is done in house, resulting in significant savings and our principle contractor is both reliable in his work and reasonable on prices. I could find plenty of things in the elephant enclosure that we could have spent more money on but it would have been mostly aesthetic and of little use to the elephants who will have everything they need. I’m always interested in reading criticisms, especially when they come from somebody who has actually seen what they are talking about and is specific. There is always room for improvement and where criticisms are genuine and factual I will do my utmost to rectify the problem. So far everybody who has visited the site has been very positive about it.
While I will admit to not been the parks greatest fan,I have to ask have you ever visited the place at all? I have more than a few times while I still think many enclosures have alot that can be done to improve them,many of them have improved by more than 100% from what I saw on my first ever visit,which in some case has brought them up to just about okay,but for others has made them basic but cannot be faulted in design for the animals living in them!! Also when I visited last year,I saw the early start of work on the Elephants,and have to say what I saw was impressive!!Even if it was very early days,so what I will say is give the place a chance it could surprise us all!!!
okay I'll give it a chance, but if it's in the headlines of a respectable newspaper for THE WRONG REASONS, then I'll say told u so!
Well I can tell you one thing the owner of the place can write a far more honest,and enjoyable autobiography than another zoo maveric in the North of England!!
OK so something that really annoyed me on the commute to work this week is the local radio advert for noah's ark zoo farm. Its advertisign elephant eden, saying to come and visit the elephants this summer ( ill no doubt hear it again tomorow and will post the whole quote). There is no mention onthe website of any elephants at all being on site (its now august) yet the advert implies they are. There may be a lot of annoyed families rocking up this summer with the empty promise of seeing elephants. Im very supprised they havent taken the advert down. There are also numerous posters advertising it which have not been recalled, in my opinion they should have givent hat its now mid august and no elephants are on site. its VERY misleaing!
Another 3-4 weeks was the last update with regards to an arrival date, which means they miss out by not having them for the main kids school holidays....
Bit more detail re local advertising: the radio add says 'stomp your way to elephant eden at noah's ark zoo farm blah blah....' to later say 'you'll never foregt your day with the elephants!' You bet you wont. You wont see any!
Visited Noah's Ark today for the first time this year. The elephant enclosure is nearly completed, although they are ready for their arrival. They are receiving an African cow and bull from a UK collection, with plans to breed them. I took a tour of the elephant house with the head keeper, it looks impressive inside, with a sand floor which should be fantastic for the elephants. They have 2 new Lioness' they acquired 3 and a half months ago, joining the 2 current male brothers they hold. 1 breeding group will be formed, and the other pair will leave for a new collection. Building work around the new lemur and tortoise enclosure is near completion, and is a nice addition to the zoo. There is also a refurbished meerkat and bird enclosures.
