Thylo's Trip to the Land of Tea Drinkers

I was privileged to accompany Thylo on some of his travels and he did seem to enjoy them. I was however puzzled by his choice of collections. Dropping Marwell but doing Wingham and Hemsley still puzzles me, but it is his trip and his choice.

If I were ever to do the States, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum would be on my list.

 

He's still pretty well-known here: not up there with David Attenborough, but better remembered than, say, Peter Scott.

A recent TV adaptation of My Family and Other Animals was massively popular, and that book in particular still sells very well.

 

I'll be 35 in less than 2 weeks. The only place I've ever heard of Durrell is here on ZooChat. I've never once seen one of his books here in the US (and I've looked in many a bookstore and worked in 3 different libraries and 1 bookstore).

 

I've been reading this thread with great interest and it has been a delight to learn about all the various opinions on "Thylo's" trip. For some reason zoo trip threads (and wildlife adventure threads) receive a huge number of comments and gather a large amount of followers. Perhaps we all enjoy living vicariously through the journeys of others.

A few odds n' sods:

- ThylacineAlive appears to have had a splendid time and I don't think that anyone can be too critical of what zoos he did or did not see. There was always going to be a few surprises and while a handful of big zoos didn't make the cut there was not enough time to see everything. I think that he has a nice mixture of U.K. zoos and while there aren't any Berlins, Arnhem's, Zurich's, etc., he is only 18 years old and thus has plenty of years to tour the fantastic zoos of Europe later on in life.

- It is wonderful visiting new zoos, regardless of the size of the establishments. This summer I managed to tour 8 new facilities that I'd never been to before and while they were all fairly local and tiny it was still a thrill and I couldn't believe how excited I was. There is nothing quite like walking into a zoo or aquarium for the first time! Having said that, on my numerous summer road trips (and particularly the last two solo trips with no wife or kids along) I found it important to have a few noteworthy zoos amongst the smaller, somewhat unknown institutions. In the summer of 2014 I toured 64 zoos and in the summer of 2015 I toured 81 zoos on long, eventful trips and while many of the places were new to me I thoroughly enjoyed including some truly great zoos. In my eyes it makes sense that "Thylo" saw the Scottish Owl Center, Wingham, Hemsley, Paradise Park and Wildwood alongside London, Whipsnade, Chester and Edinburgh. Lots of cool little places (perhaps some good and some poor) with a few tried and trusted zoological giants.

- I'm 40 years old and I've known about Gerald Durrell and Jersey Zoo for as long as I can remember. My parents are English and I can recall being rather young and already receiving Durrell books for Christmas. I've got more than 20 of his books and as both a zoologist and a writer he was world-class. His books are easy enough to locate on Amazon or The Book Depository or any number of online sites. Even though his tiny island zoo is not as noteworthy as many others around Europe, if I was in the vicinity I think that I would be tempted to visit simply out of nostalgia.

 

Thanks Chli. Misunderstandings are par for the course in written communication, so I can understand how my post was read as more condemnatory than intended.

All very fair, to the extent that I don't really have anything to add Thanks for the reply.

The ASDM is higher on my "to-visit" list than either Phoenix or Pittsburgh. Perhaps when their new jaguar exhibit opens…

I think this is something we can all agree on

 

I'm 18, and I too, have known of Durrell since I was very young. I think he is still widely known of by young people interested in wildlife and conservation.

 

Yes Durrell is still widely known in Europe, especially after the launch of the TV series his name got again in the picture. Still you could find his books in most bigger bookshops and even people not interested in wildlife and conservation are familiar with his Corfu books, which are getting the status of a classic also on the continent.

 

I suppose the advantage of an itinerary like Thylo's is that he really can claim to have visited a comprehensive range and cross-section of British zoos. Other than human interaction, and who needs that, there is little need for him to revisit the UK for a decade or so. If he'd visited a number of world-class European zoos he'd have lots of countries that needed return trips.
Even though I would have chosen more major collections I'm jealous of Thylo for having what was clearly the perfect trip for him.

On a side note, I feel like Colchester deserves to be in the major zoo conversation. I've not been to many zoos on the continent but I think it stands up to somewhere like Copenhagen very well.

 

Thylo's trip.

Thylo's rules!



Just looking forward to hearing his views (rather than arguing about what makes a collection major/minor, or suggesting that his tour of UK zoos should have been to somewhere else ...

 

Absolutely! Bring on the next zoo!

Alan

 

I enjoy the little bits of 'Day X' logistics/cultural bewilderment as well in between the zoo reviews - always do.

 

I'm glad everyone's enjoying my write-up so far

A heads up, though, I've returned to school and will begin working again soon so my free times for updating this thread will be greatly reduced. Apologies in advance!

~Thylo

 

July 29: ZooChatter's Galore​

This day had three major feats: I met up with the largest number of ZooChatters I would be with, I visited Chester Zoo for the first time (and hopefully not last), and I saw my first tuatara (along with many other very nice species).

I had the pleasure of going around this truly fantastic zoo with not only zoogiraffe and Ophidia again, but also Nisha, bongorob, GentleLemur, and for a short while, Zoospud. Jokes were made, news was discussed, ice cream was eaten.

After the zoo, a few of us continued to the Wheatsheaf, a favorite after-Chester pub of those I was with. This was my first pub dining experience and, while I didn't drink, I enjoyed the food very much.

For cultural differences the only ones which stand out were a few more traffic-related ones, such as the use of speed cameras and round-abouts and the lack of tolls on major highways.

Overall it was a very pleasant day, with one major drawback: I had to suffer the sight of a certain hoofed one's knees

~Thylo

 

Chester Zoo​

This was definitely my favorite zoo of the trip. While not perfect and perhaps lacking a bit in some areas such as reptiles, many of the exhibits, enclosures, and species here are truly fantastic. Not to mention how great many of the animals, particularly the mammals, are managed (such as the elephants being kept in a multi-generation herd and most of the mammals being given 24-hour access to both indoor and outdoor enclosures weather and emergency-depending).

Islands, while obviously a bit incomplete at the time of my visit, was still an extremely impressive exhibit. It could certainly do with more species and more diversity, but the enclosures are truly great and generally very large. It's very aesthetically pleasing as well, with a lot clearly having gone into the design of the overall area. It might not always look the best from every angle, but the little details such as actual canoes bought from villagers in Asia and views such as babirusa overlooking macaque with the orangutan climbing structures in the background as pretty cool. Personally the boat ride seems a bit unnecessary to me, but if it brings in a little extra money for the zoo then I suppose it's not the worst.

Monsoon Forest in particular is the highlight of Islands, and while it is pretty great, it also lacks in a lot of areas. In particular, overall the building just feels a bit empty. There are large spaces with just nothing there, some of which were suppose to. The huge mixed aviary especially feels empty. It's such a large space with very few birds to fill it. The signage and flow is sometimes lacking as well. There are a few unsigned reptile enclosures and the False Gharial area in particular, as anyone familiar with the zoo is aware of, has a bit of a bottleneck issue. However, despite these flaws the building is still pretty spectacular. The indoor enclosures for the primates are very nicely sized and high, and again the detail in the design of some areas has to be admired.

Tropical Realm was probably my favorite exhibit at the zoo. I'm a bit of a sucker for big rainforest houses and when one includes tuatara, Aye-Aye, and several species of odd hornbill I'm hooked. All the enclosures here I found to be very nicely sized and designed for their inhabitants, many of which are on the rarer side in captivity. The large central walk-through aviary is also pretty great, though one might have trouble finding all the species in it.

Despite being the older and considered the lesser of the two orangutan exhibits at the zoo, Realm of the Red Ape is still a very good exhibit. The orangutan enclosures themselves are still much better than what most zoos have, both indoors and out. There are also a handful of enclosures and terrariums for other species that are fairly well done.

Spirit of the Jaguar has probably the best of the admittedly few Jaguar enclosures I've seen, and the first where I actually managed to spot one, if only just barely. It also has possibly the largest and most well-done indoor big cat enclosure I've seen. The real extraordinary feature of this exhibit, though, is the sloth enclosure. It's basically a series of ropes that hang from corner to corner along the very high ceiling and then drop down to the planted portion near the floor, which also has a nice pond for turtles and fish. This awesome sloth enclosure will soon be even better as, during my visit, the zoo was adding a large rope that will exit the building and slope down over the path into a decent-sized outdoor enclosure.

As far stand-alone enclosures at the zoo go, the best hands down is the one for Giant Otters. I've seen Giant Otters at three zoos in my life: Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Chester. Of those, Philly's is pretty bad, LA's is alright, and then Chester's is jaw-dropping. In fact, it's hands-down the best otter enclosure I've ever seen. The outdoor yard is about 40X10 meters and then the indoors is about 15X10 meters, not to mention off-show areas. Not to mention how extremely naturalistic it is. It pretty much looks like the zoo fenced off a natural pond and put otters into it.

The Monkeys exhibit deserves praise as well. The larger species get islands that are insanely vegetated and the smaller species (as in Pygmy Marmoset size) get large sections of live trees. You're not likely to ever see any of the animals unless they're in their indoor quarters, but the mere size and design of the outdoor yards is incredible.

Europe on the Edge is possibly one of my favorite aviaries that I've ever seen. It may not necessarily boast the largest collection of species nor the rarest, but it's a fairly huge aviary with a very nice and naturalistic design, except perhaps for the cliff-face at the back, which I found to be a bit funny looking.

The Tsavo Black Rhino Reserve is just amazing. Basically a series of huge grassy and sometimes hilly enclosures. No surprise they're the studbook holder and have bred more Black Rhinoceros in the past few years then anyone else.

The Andean Bear, Malayan Sun Bear, and Asiatic Lion enclosures are pretty impressive as well. All are very large and naturalistic for their species. The bear enclosures are quite well vegetated and have lots of climbing opportunities (with the Andean Bears' being more rocky), and the Lion enclosure is quite well forested with live trees.

When it comes to disappointments, they were few and far between at this zoo, though there are a few notable ones. The chimpanzee house was very small and felt dirty and dark. The house for both the Forest Buffalo and Malayan Tapir is a bit small and dark as well, though their outdoor yards are pretty nice. The Parrot Breeding Center was a disappointment mostly in the fact that there wasn't really much of anything there. Zootierliste lists a pretty nice variety of parrots for the zoo but it seems the vast majority are now kept off-show, with nothing but a couple of more common species left for visitors to see.

Still, overall Chester is an amazing zoo and one that I am very much looking forward to visiting again. Currently it sits at #2 in terms of my favorite zoo just behind Bronx, though in many ways I liked it more!

Highlight Mammals
Persian Onager Equus hemionus onager
Malayan Sun Bear Helarctos malayanus malayanus
Visayan Spotted Deer Rusa alfredi
Bush Dog Speothos venaticus
African Forest Buffalo Syncerus caffer nanus

Highlight Birds
Yellow-Backed Chattering Lory Lorius garrulus flavopalliatus
Philippine Scops-Owl Otus megalotis
Visayan Tarictic Hornbill Penelopides panini panini
Pink-Headed Fruit-Dove Ptilinopus porphyreus
Mindanao Wrinkled Hornbill Rhabdotorrhinus leucocephalus

Highlight Reptiles
Western Sand Lizard Lacerta agilis agilis
Northern Tuatara Sphenodon punctatus

Highlight Amphibians
Mountain Chicken Leptodactylus fallax

~Thylo

 

I prefer Tropical Realm to Monsoon Forest - which, considering it is over 50 years older, is perhaps disappointing. To put it mildly.

You're "not likely to see" the smaller primates even in their indoor quarters since they still haven't worked out how to avoid reflections on the glass that spoil the view!

There used to be a wonderful variety of parrots - of all shapes, sizes and colours - but it seems they do better without the public. Sad.

But fascinating to read an outside view (especially when I agree with it!)

 

The old Polar Bear enclosure currently houses the Sun Bear's at Edinburgh, not the Barbary Macaque's, unless Mercedes was in this enclosure when she first arrived at the zoo?