Photos of the zoo, mostly from the 1960s. Chester Zoo from the Echo archives Can anyone identify the bird with keeper Murray?
Some lovely photos! I remember when I first read our zoo by June Williams I was fascinated by the photos of the zoo and animals in it, I've not read it in a while perhaps I should again after getting past the doom and gloom of the current book I'm reading for English.
I recently started reading it again. Every time the drama series comes up in a conversation I just tell everyone to read the book lol.
Also @bongorob I'm now going to have restless night because you forgot to start the thread with a capital letter!!
Interesting to see the Tropical House being built in number 8. Of course the little gorilla was Noelle, not Noel.
You might find Janice Madden's 'Reared in Chester Zoo' an interesting read in complement to 'Our Zoo'. It's now out of print, but there are normally pre-owned copies available online.
And she and Mukisi, regarded at the time as Mountain Gorillas, were Eastern Lowland, probably the last to grace these shores.
Are those real models with the Camels- or Manniquins? I hope that Tiger cub was not stressed by being made to inhale petrol(or deisel) fumes.... The Rhino in the last photo is a Black, so it must have been the one they had prior to the pair of Roger and Susie? Starter for ten- why was Noelle named as she was?
In Rookmaaker's book on captive rhinos, he provides very little information on the short-lived black rhino that Chester had before "Susie" and "Roger". According to Rookmaaker, it was a young female that died in 1953 soon after arrival (which obviously conflicts with the date of 1954 on the photo) and he comments that the zoo "has no further information about it".
