I think that the Lion, Drill & Aye-Aye enclosures are very poor! The Drill exhibit is like 1970's Drayton Manor or Paignton monkey house and the Aye-Aye cages/cells would make Mr Durrell very uneasy in 2018! However, as many have mentioned previously, Bristol are doing great work with reptiles, amphibians,
I know, but for the purpose of this argument it's surrounded by development on all sides. Maybe an urban zoo would be a better description.
I hope this means they'll pull down the awful little wooden cages that the show animals were kept in.
I think both of these comments are pretty harsh! The only thing wrong wth the lion enclosure is its size, but a big Wuppertal-sized field for lions seems unnecessary for such a sedentary species. The lions here do well enough, and, like @gentle lemur, I think it would be a real mistake to cease to keep them - for all the reasons he cited. The frustrating thing is that they do have such a house, which, even if it is not of the highest quality, could certainly be a great deal better than it is. And, relatively recently, it had a rather nice walk-through added to it - only for that to be converted into a Lorikeet-feeding thing. I would agree. I think it's also one of the most professionally-run zoos in the country, and I would also think that the new management team will serve to make things even better than they currently are.
I was born in 1984 and as my grandparents lived in Clifton we would visit very, very often. To a child in the 80's and 90's, it was an awe-inspiring place, walking through the Guthrie Road entrance into that walled city zoo was like stepping into another world. Lions, tigers, leopards, gorillas, orang-utans, reptiles, sharks, monkeys, elephant, giraffes, zebra, okapi, tapirs, hippos, polar bears, vultures and eagles, seals and penguins, pelicans, flamingos, small mammals, it had everything and in a beautiful garden setting. It is without a doubt what started my obsession with wildlife and zoos. Sadly, I don’t think it has the same effect these days and I actually gave up going about 5 years ago as I did not like the developments I was seeing there. What was also great about the zoo up until the late 90's was it had a myriad of small paths and hidden seating areas that made it seem so much bigger. It also focussed on the gardens as much as the animals and branded itself as 'Bristol Zoo Gardens'. The major redevelopment of the heart of the zoo in the late 90s and the creation of seal and penguin coasts did produce some nice exhibits, but at the expense of biodiversity and did destroy some of the quaintness and order of the zoo that has never really returned. For example: -Opposite the main entrance was the north aviary which used to hold monkeys but was converted into a bird house by the early 90's, with a monkey enclosure opposite that now hold drills. Between them, there used to be steps down towards the prairie dogs, with the pavilion/cafe on the right and the rose garden on the left. The side of the north aviary that faced the entrance had a large rockery that was so well kept. Then, late 90's, whole rockery/aviary demolished to make the flamingo enclosure. The steps between the aviary and monkeys were closed off to visitor access so the vista down the zoo towards the south you saw as you walked in was lost. The birds in the north aviary were relocated to the round aviary and the vultures left the zoo. -The southeast corner of the zoo held okapi in 2 yards, a paddock of emu, muntjac, white storks, wallaby and a red kangaroo. My hatred of emu comes from one of the bastards in that paddock that nicked my tuna roll right out my hand when I was 8. There was also a yard containing arabian (?dorcas) gazelle up the ramp, which lead round to the polar bear pit (later held sumatran tigers, that just paced, paced, paced, like the bears use to), then down past some small monkey enclosures, kookaburra and a floral house. The walkway was covered by a large plant-covered trellis and lead you past the okapi to the monkey house. In the late 90's this was all smashed down in tactless fashion. The area was home to several large mature trees, so whilst the zoo lectured visitors on protecting the environment and not cutting down trees, it had no qualms about chopping its own down to make way for seal and penguin coasts. This came at the expense of the gazelles, emu (thank ****), tigers, some of the monkeys, most of the white stork - a few were bunged in with the flamingos but the flock was massively depleted - wallaby, deer, kangaroo and zebra, who were evicted by the okapi. - The giraffes had a small yard next to the pygmy hippos. The fence was very low and when I was about 6 a giraffe swiftly bent over and stole my grandfathers cap while we were posing for a photo. We never got it back. Between the giraffes and seals was a pathway towards the lake that was sheltered by dense foliage and had benchs in alcoves. This was flattened to make way for Wendy's new home who herself was displaced by the new gorilla island. The giraffes left the zoo. The creation of the gorilla island reduced the size of the stork/wallaby paddock and destroyed the wading bird enclosure. - Creating the butterfly exhibit more recently resulted in the beautiful rose garden and half of the aviaries opposite the prairie dogs being demolished. The prairie dog enclosure used to house mara and alpaca and occasionally penguins, and peccaries lived at various times in the enclosure next door. There was a covered walk past some aviaries leading to the penguins. Now the main enclosure only holds prairie dogs, the peccary enclosure has been demolished and the aviaries have been demolished to make way for the Japanese garden thing, which as been merged with the long-standing herbaceous border. The old penguin enclosure has become the area's single aviary. I'm well aware that the conditions in the zoo for some animals were atrocious in the 1980s and 90s and clearly the megafauna had to go. My gripe with the zoo is the loss of biodiversity, gardens and smaller, intimate and quaint areas to make more room for play areas, dinosaurs and to keep a few big animals that it even now doesn’t really have space to keep – despite the large area of the zoo taken up by the gorillas, it is still not massive and the maximum group size is limited. Turning the Wallace aviary into another lorikeet feeding exhibit, the monkey temple/children farm into a plant exhibit and losing the okapi and replacing with warty pigs is just terrible in my view. Despite pouring money into play areas and new education centres, many animals are still in dubious enclosures – drills, hippos, even some of the monkey enclosures in the 10 year old monkey jungle are very small by modern standards. The pygmy hippo exhibit is just too small and they don’t have a decent expanse of water to swim in – so why was the former seal pool demolished and given over to zona brazil's tamarins and capybara instead of merging it with wendy’s enclosure and using the whole thing for hippos/duiker/cranes and possibly even the okapi? Many zoos have managed to incorporate decent mixed exhibits which keep the number of species/animals up in a space-efficieny way – Bronx zoo has mandrill, red river hogs and de brazza mixed, Antwerp has cape buffalo and about 30 species of birds, chester has orangs, lar gibbon and otters etc etc. More creative design and carefully planned mixed exhibits with smaller species could have been less destructive and maintained biodiversity, still been appealing to children/families and still filled a conservation need. Sorry to have waffled on but just my take on my local zoo. If anyone is interested have all the old zoo maps from the 1990s and the artist impression leaflet of the new heart of the zoo development I can scan and upload.
I second @Waddi, it would be great if you could post these! Also, just out of interest - for those who have expressed opinions on the decreasing biodiversity of the zoo - what would you do to remedy this? Say if you had to come up with a 5-point masterplan of exhibits to replace or renovate, or new exhibits to introduce etc, what would it be??
Worth noting this is a 'recycled' enclosure and quite old. From memory it previously housed Gibbons, Spider Monkeys etc and if I remember rightly part of it might have been a bird aviary also when it was divided in two in its earlier form. I think its spacious enough for the small group they have, but not a lot more.
I was very impressed with my one and only visit to Bristol zoo in the early 2000's. I was much younger then but I do remember even then being very moved by the zoos focus on smaller animals. Now with much more knowledge regarding zoos and conservation it strikes me that focusing on smaller taxa is not only appropriate for the size of a site like Bristol but actually should be considered by zoos in general. In terms of my memories I remember vividly having seen quite a few "firsts" there such as the beautiful Livingstone's fruitbats that were kept in that huge netted walkthrough enclosure and the aye-ayes and slow loris in the nocturnal house (think I may have seen a spotted quoll there too but I might be mistaken). I also remember having seen some rarities that sadly are apparently no longer kept such as like the black lion tamarins that were kept on one of those small island enclosures surrounded by the moat. I think I would definitely like to pay a visit there again in the future as they seem to have quite a few species that I would like to see like the kowari, mouse lemurs and mouse deer for example (I may have seen these the first time but have no memory of them).
Ive always thought that Aye-Aye have been given short shrift when it comes to enclosure design - “it’s nocturnal, no one’s that bothered so don’t invest too much” type mentality. Anyone know of any good Aye-Aye exhibits?
Jersey has several aye-aye enclosures across the zoo, but the best is the female in the old colobus enclosure. I recently stated that Bristol was my second favourite zoo in the UK that I have visited and 'briefly' mentioned why. Given that this is a thread dedicated to that very topic, let's examine my opinion in a little more deeper, like I know everyone wants. The historical feel that Bristol has, particularly the entrance and perimeter wall add a secret garden vibe to zoo. They are able to lean into the history of their collection because they aren't hampered by listed buildings as much as other zoos (basically just London). Things like the old monkey temple in the gardens and the old giraffe house made the zoo feel less urban that it is. The collection is hits all the marks with families but there is still plenty for a rarity hunter to get their teeth into. The flamingoes, penguins, gorillas, lions and monkeys let the younger visitors stay interested and their interest funds the smaller filler. This lets me sit and watch emperor newts for ten minutes. I saw 122 species there (26 mam, 24 aves, 21 rep, 4 amphs, 47 fish) in addition to the many species of inverts. that I don't count on my lists. The gardens are very impressive. I went in February and the gardens still looked great so they must look incredible in summer. The zoo is small but still feels the need to dedicate a large area to gardens and the zoo really benefits from it. My only problem here is that the two lawns along the left side are a little too big and could be used for enclosures instead. But zoos rarely have the foliage one expects such a place to have but Bristol is one of the few where plants are a valued part of the landscaping. None of the enclosures are bad (at least since the drill left) but I could see some needing to be improved such as the lions. But despite this, all the enclosures are well maintained and they make good use of the space. Indeed quality is more important than quantity when it comes to enclosure design as long as the enclosure isn't stupidly small. Most of the zoo is high quality with the aquarium and insect house being worth mentioning. Personally I'd like to see more done with the Forest of Birds and lorikeet enclosure and improvements made to the monkey house and kea/red pandas
Oh yeah aye-ayes. I have seen the aye-ayes in Jersey, Chester, Bristol and London in that order and Bristol has the worst I've seen. Seeing Jerseys' first is a luxury so I'll put them aside for now. Bristol's could use some work in terms of content and visibly. If I am remembering correctly, the viewing window was hard to see through and very crowded with poor views of the enclosure. But the interior enclosures seemed to not have anything really past a few climbing structures. Definitely an area for improvement
I will say this about Bristol - it has one of the best invertebrate houses in "Bug World" I've ever seen in a zoo...and I don't generally like going into invertebrate houses because Tarantulas.
Bristol is involved in-situ conservation and most months holds a lecture about the work they and other zoos do, it's viewable on facebook for those who can't get there.
