I went to as many UK zoos as I could last year, but didn't manage any above Chester (apart from Edinburgh) and thought I'd take them in this year. However, for the reasons sooty has given, I have not rushed into it and will be looking at possible continental destinations to follow the summer holidays.
I have to say, I agree entirely. That's not overly to do down the zoos of the North of England, for though they are scant in number, they are interesting. I do places like Yorkshire and Chestnut regularly - they are nearby, and they are fantastic. I do places like The Deep and Martin Mere that are pleasant and combine nicely with wildlife. Blackpool is always worth a look. But otherwise the next-closest zoo I'd make a journey for northwards without strong and specific motivation (Giant Armadillos unexpectedly turning up at Kirkley Hall, that sort of thing!) is Edinburgh. Plenty of other interesting collections that I would do on passing (they tend to happen on the way to Edinburgh!) or if in the area, but if I were in Inverness with the time and money for a few days away, and I were looking to build something around zoos specifically, then I'd be looking to fly to somewhere like Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague or Frankfurt and build a zoo trip that way.
A few years ago I made a list on here on collections in Northern England. It's a bit outdated and probably incomplete, but you might find it useful: http://www.zoochat.com/38/list-collections-north-england-242817/
Oops, haven't visited this thread for a few weeks. Thanks for that Mr. Weasel, a good list and also other suggestions.
Anyway I'm off on Thursday morning and currently the schedule, which has extended beyond Northern England, is as follows: Thursday 3rd - 5+ hour drive from Inverness to Ryton near Newcastle. Actually it'll be longer as I'll stop in Edinburgh on the way to visit my Mother; Friday 4th - Kirkley Hall Zoological Gardens and WWT Washington followed by a 2 hour drive to Balby near Doncaster; Saturday 5th - Yorkshire Wildlife Park followed by a 3 hour drive to Ipswich; Sunday 6th - Shorelands Wildlife Gardens and Africa Alive! Monday 7th - Colchester Zoo followed by a drive up to somewhere in the Leicester area. Tuesday 8th - Hamerton Zoo Park Wednesday 9th - Tropical Birdland followed by a drive somewhere north. After that I'm thinking about maybe visiting the Chestnut Centre, Gauntlet Birds of Prey, WWT Martin Mere. Accommodation already booked for Thursday to Sunday so after that my route is still flexible.
Nothing booked yet but wherever I stay it'll be for two nights (the night after I visit Colchester and the night after I visit Hamerton) as I prefer not to change accommodation every night on trips like these. I'll probably find somewhere between Hamerton and Tropical Zooland so that on the morning I travel to Tropical Zooland I have a 40 minute journey rather than a 1 hour 20 minute journey.
Well Friday didn't get off to a good start. I arrived at my first destination, Kirkley Hall Zoological Gardens, as planned at 10am and was surprised that there were no other cars in the car park? I soon realised why, they were closed!! It’s part of a college and it turns out that they don’t open on weekdays during term time! I had picked up from their website about them being closed on Mondays and Tuesdays but not about being closed during term time! Well pissed off I was, as I was looking forward to seeing a few interesting species there. So it was straight on to the afternoon venue, WWT Washington, and as I got there earlier than planned I ended up staying longer than planned. The only other WWT venue I'd been to before is WWT Slimbridge and certainly WWT Washington is on a much much smaller scale with only a small number of resident species. There is lot of woodland space where you are unlikely to see anything but it does make a pleasant walk. Overall though I enjoyed the visit and I did get my first photos of a Great spotted woodpecker and also my first ever sightings of a Bullfinch, Jay and Treecreeper.
Had I realised that the term times in Tyne and Wear started a week sooner than they do in County Durham I could have warned you as the term times in this area don't start until tomorrow, but presumably the ones in Newcastle started last Monday. Depending on how long your trip continues past the 9th, if you are in the Newcastle area again on a weekend it would certainly be worth your visiting.
Well Saturday didn’t get off to a good start either! It was meant to be a single venue day spent at Yorkshire Wildlife Park, but perhaps I should have researched the venue a bit more first, because I arrived at 10.20am and was finished by 11.40am?! That is the shortest time by far that I have ever spent in any wildlife collection! Not impressed! Nuff said! So to rescue the day I drove back north about 30 miles to visit Lotherton Hall, which has a small bird collection and very nice it was to. Four new species for me, Cape Barren Goose, Elliots Pheasant, Peruvian Thick Knee and Erckel's Francolin, so even better.
I have to say, I am frankly surprised it only took you an hour or so to get around YWP! I would have estimated at least twice as long is required for a visit.
Did you stop and actually look at any animals,or just walk round as fast as you could? I know there aren't a huge amount of enclosures as the ones they do have are huge compared to most other zoo's/wildlife parks I have been to,but you must have stopped and looked at the Amur tiger cubs for a while,and the Polar bears didn't grab your attention?
Sorry for taking so long to respond but trip now over so perhaps I'll now find time to finish my brief review. I'm not the only one to have been surprised at the briefness of my visit but perhaps if I'd reviewed better what YWP has to offer then I wouldn't have been quite so surprised. I took the clockwise route, mainly because the battalion of mothers and 4x4 pushchairs took the anti clockwise route, and the collection as I saw it was Guinea Baboons (surprisingly a new species for me), Painted Dogs (sleeping), Lemur Walkthrough, Red River Hogs, Polar Bears, South American Viva (didn't go in), Common Marmoset, Anteater (no show), Camels, Tigers (sleeping), Giraffe (inside), Leopards (no show), African Plains, Wallaby Walkabout, Lions, Meerkats and Mongoose. So apart from Guinea Baboons there was nothing I hadn't seen many times before and tbh the incessant noise of the shouting, screaming, crying kids kept my pace up.
Big Rob, see response to TLD above. I did stop for a while at the Tigers but they showed no sign of doing anything other than sleeping and I do get to see them regularly at the HWP. Again I also get to see Polar Bears regularly at HWP but did stop for a bit. Having now been there, YWP isn't really the place for someone who has been to many other (much better) zoos. Imho of course.
Irrespective of the zoo you go to, this can really put a damp squid on a visit for me too. However if it helps Jackwow, I have really found through experience that visiting the place for the last two/three or so hours before closing drastically reduces 'kid pollution'.
Sunday was a two venue day starting at Shorelands Wildlife Gardens, which is basically a wee bird collection in someones back garden! However it was well worth the visit and it had a few new species for me including Blue-winged Goose, Blue-winged Kookaburra, Little Pied Cormorant and White-collared Lemur. It also had some free ranging Pygmy and Black-tailed Marmoset. However I didn't see any Geoffroy's cats that someone mentioned in the Shorelands forum.
