Thylo's Trip to the Land of Tea Drinkers

July 27: Reetings​

This day, while certainly busy, was a fairly simple one compared to many that would come. I landed at Heathrow, took trains to Regents Park, walked to ZSL London Zoo, and after visiting walked to another station which would take me to Crewe, where I'd meet up with zoogiraffe.

The walk to the zoo was one of the most memorable parts of the trip, as it gave me my first glimpse into British culture and wildlife: grey squirrel and Rock Pigeon After those, though, I saw several species like wood-pigeon, Carrion Crow, and robin which, to someone living in the UK, would be nothing special but to me they were all fantastic.

I'm not entirely sure when it fully hit me that the trip was actually happening, but it was definitely only after landing. I do recall, however, several "holy crap I'm here" moments on that first day in London. One was when customs stamped my passport, another was seeing one of those famous red double-decker buses, and a third was walking through Regents Park.

~Thylo

 

Did you see the lake in Regent's Park, with exotic waterfowl?

 

ZSL London Zoo​

Overall I thought the zoo was really good. I thought most of the exhibits were very nice, with good sized enclosures and a nice variety of species. The most noteworthy exhibits to me were the Reptile House, Aquarium, B.U.G.S., Blackburn Pavilion, and Rainforest Life/Nightlife. I was less impressed by Land of the Lions and Outback.

While I think it's safe to say that American reptile collections tend to be larger and more diverse, the zoo's Reptile House is still probably one of my favorites and certainly one of the largest I saw over there. My only complaint is that there seemed to be a good few repeated species and empty enclosures, the number of which grew between my two visits. Considering the fact that they have a number of other species off-exhibit, you'd think this would be less of a problem.

The aquarium was truly fantastic. Very large for a zoo aquarium, with a very diverse collection of species from all over both freshwater and marine ecosystems. Personally I think it would have been nicer if they displayed some of their more rare and endangered species, especially from Madagascar, but can't complain too much with what I saw.

B.U.G.S. has the size and quantity, Bristol has the exhibitry and quality. Both are fantastic invertebrate houses, but that's how I'd best compare them. While London boats a much bigger building and larger array of species, they're often displayed in much smaller enclosures (although size isn't always a big necessity for inverts I suppose). By far the standout of this exhibit is the spider walk-through, which features two species of orb-weavers and a few other species in stand-alone terrariums. A few vertebrate species can be found in the building, too, such as a few cichlids and birds.

The Blackburn Pavilion is a very nice bird house. Now I've found I can be a little biased on bird houses, being so used to the two-story World of Birds at Bronx, but I think this one was of decent size. It certainly had a very lovely collection of species, many of which you don't see too often in captivity. The house pretty much consists of three sections: a room with multiple enclosed aviaries, a walk-through with a handful of separate enclosed aviaries, and a walk-through with a handful of open aviaries that the birds can freely pass between. The last room was probably my least favorite as it had a much more concrete and cagey feel to it. My feelings may also be due to having hit my head on multiple low-laying branches as well There are a couple of outdoor aviaries here as well, which were quite large and well vegetated.

The remains of the former Clore Pavilion seems to be a building surrounded by a lot of negativity, and I can understand why having heard what it used to be. I, however, quite liked it for what it was. I thought the rainforest section was quite well done and had a good mix of species, though for its size the mixed enclosure did feel a tad empty. The nocturnal house is one of the best I've ever seen and, apart from the Brown Rats, is home to a very nice selection of species. My main complaint is that there are quite a few repeated species, though when those species are Mohol Bushbaby and Northern Ceylonese Slender Loris I suppose it's more forgivable. I also personally found the house to be quite bright for a nocturnal house with the exception of the cloud rat enclosure which was very dark.

Now with risk of getting my head put on a spike, I will say that I didn't think much of Land of the Lions. I'm not sure what the area looked like before, but I found what it is now to be a bit of a waste of space. Being a city-locked zoo, proper use of space is important, and I found this exhibit to be a whole lot of space spent on nothing but unnecessary theming and only a handful of species. Not to mention the whole area is very confusing to get around. In fact, on my first visit I managed to miss a large chunk of it because it seems to split into two completely different paths, one that takes you to an elevated platform and another on ground level that takes you to more or less a dead end. But that dead end path is the one with many of the animals, although I'm not sure if the muntjac are actually part of the exhibit, as their main viewing seems to be outside of this exhibit. There's also the fact that the exhibit is designed around India, and then features Ruppell's Vulture and Common Dwarf Mongoose. Personally, I also don't like that they exhibit hybrid grey langurs. I just find it to be a waste to give valuable exhibit space to continue working with and breeding animals that are as pure as McDonald's meat when there are other, more endangered species that need holders.

As for Outback, there isn't anything wrong with the exhibit per say, I just think it's another wasted space. It's quite a large area with some pretty impressive looking ex-Caprine enclosures that's now just a small handful of the more common kangaroos, wallabies, and Emu.

Highlight Mammals
Natal Red Duiker Cephalophus natalensis
Panay Cloud Rat Crateromys heaneyi
Australian Water Rat Hydromys chrysogaster
Northern Ceylonese Slender Loris Loris lydekkerianus nordicus
Bornean Bearded Pig Sus barbatus barbatus

Highlight Birds
Scarlet-Chested Sunbird Chalcomitra senegalensis
African Grey-Headed Gull Chroicocephalus cirrocephalus poiocephalus
Red-Legged Honeycreeper Cyanerpes cyaneus
Superb Fruit-Dove Ptilinopus superbus
White-Throated Toucan Ramphastos tucanus

Highlight Reptiles
Amazon Basin Tree Boa Corallus batesi
Black Mamba Dendroaspis polylepis
Vietnamese Pond Turtle Mauremys annamensis
Inland Taipan Oxyuranus microlepidotus
Mount Kenya Chameleon Trioceros jacksonii xantholophus

Highlight Amphibians
Majorcan Midwife Toad Alytes muletensis
Chinese Giant Salamander Andrias davidianus
Sardinian Brook Salamander Euproctus platycephalus
Rio Cauca Caecilian Typhlonectes natans
Lake Oku Clawed Frog Xenopus longipes

~Thylo

 

Not that day.

~Thylo

 

I never have a problem in there.

 

Yes, this is a bit of a London 'thing'. All those piranha and characin species, yet still two tanks of Red-bellies. Keep them in the Clore if they must and then use the Aquarium tank for something else I say.

This bit was much better when it had hummingbirds (as it was designed for when the house was done up and renamed the Blackburn Pavilion). The sunbirds are nice but they are not quite the same 'big finish'.

Seems you were lucky with your timing on this one, sadly.

 

Nowadays the smaller more delicate exotic ducks are confined to the end of the lake nearest the Zoo, in the small inlet where you cross over a small bridge between the cafe and the toilets. The main lake has only Canadas, Egyptians and a few other random big geese as well as the usual mallard, tufted duck etc.

He would have passed it if he came from the Baker Street entrance, but not the Camben Town or Portland Place ones.

 

I think that's a common experience abroad, especially when exchanging continents. I had similar experience in the USA, in Central Park I think it was.

 

I provided directions to that exact spot when I found out he had a second London day afoot - I guess we'll find out in time if he found it!

 

SPOILER: I did

~Thylo

 

Indeed. Found that out on my second visit much to my disappointment.

There is a story behind me and the cloud rats but that will be told in due time

~Thylo

 

July 28: A New Way to Zoo​

After spending the previous evening recuperating from nearly 30-hours with no sleep and getting to know zoogiraffe in person, we set off for day one of an 11-day journey. Before this, I had only ever visited one collection in a day and only two within a week's time. On this day, I would visit three back to back.

The first stop was the Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park, where I met Ophidia and Devilfish. It was very nice getting to finally meet them in person, and overall the visit was good as well even if a bit rainy. By far the highlight was being taken off-show for a while by the person in charge that day, making the zoo the first I've ever been off-show at.

The second visit was to the Rodbaston Animal Zone, this time Ophidia-less. Another nice visit to a nice little place that gave me my second off-show when a very nice keeper allowed us to see the Ethiopian Eagle-Owl.

The third and final visit was to the Gentleshaw Wildlife Center, which I found to be a pleasant little place. While I didn't have any off-shows here, we remained until closing and had a very nice chat with the center's owner.

It's at this point in the trip where I really started to learn a lot of the little differences between the US and UK, such as the UK having an average speed limit about 20mph faster than Connecticut!

~Thylo

 

ZG's car is enough of a risk from age-related decay before we get onto speed. I remember a particularly nervous ride I had it one night - we got there, but we counted ourselves lucky..!


(sorry ZG, but we all know it's true!)

 

I do remember that but it was but a little fault which caused a lack of electricity to operate the car.

The old girl might be knocking on a bit these days but she is in the best nick she has been for many a year,due to another car being scrapped and many of its parts been fitted to mine!

 

Ah - heading into Ship of Theseus/Trigger's Broom territory? Fair enough.