So, as Komodo said in his review last night, yesterday we both visited Blackpool Zoo together. Komodo is a close friend of mine, and I urged him to join this site. On our visit, Komodo was in charge of the photography, so he will upload all of the photos. We both said that we would do a review each, so this is the visit through my perspective. I think that Blackpool is a nice little zoo. This was my first time visiting it in the sun. The past few times it has been either in winter or the rain, so when I visited this time, it felt like a whole new experience. The enclosures were decent in my opinion. They aren't big and fancy like at Chester, but they seem to meet all of the animals' needs. The first thing that we saw was the South American paddock with the Giant Anteaters, Patagonian Cavies, and Capybaras. This was a good little exhibit but the anteaters were pacing a bit, which is usually never a good sign in animals. But the animals seemed pretty active. This was Komodo's first time seeing an anteater, and I don't blame him because the ones at Chester are (or were) practically invisible. The Small Primate house was very nice. I managed to see all of the primates except for the Grey Mouse Lemurs, which was rather disappointing. The primates had lots of enrichment in the forms of ropes, climbing-frames, and the usual primate toys, and they were quite active on them. The De Brazza's monkeys were one of my favourites, though at the entry was a small enclosure for some energetic little Prevost's Squirrels. Inside the monkey house, which is new, is a small vivarium for a Jamaican Boa (a new species for me), and at the other side was one for a frog species. This was a very nice little edition to the house. One of my highlights was the cuscus which was also a new species for me. When I heard that Blackpool had these, they were top of the priority list for what I wanted to see. Another highlight was the North American Porcupine which was actually active and walking around. I had to rush past it though, because the Sea Lion display was on and I didn't want to miss it. By the time that I had come back to see it, it was curled up on top of a tree and sleeping, as per usual. The Sea Lion show was very good. A new baby had just been born and Komodo and I just managed to catch a glimpse of it in a cave. The Sea Lion enclosure is one of the best sea lion exhibits that i have come across, and possibly one of the best exhibits that the zoo has. Blackpool is the only UK holding to have Magellanic Penguins. These comical but amazing birds were "flying" through the water on our visit. On the signs, Blackpool was priding itself for having an underwater viewing area, but every single penguin exhibit that I have seen has one, so what is there to boast about? The Ape House was pretty good. Blackpool is the only local zoo to me that has Gorillas, and it was amazing to see the Gorillas, as I don't get to see them very often. The silverback came right up to the glass, and that was really cool. One thing that I found amusing was that the gorillas had a climbing wall in their exhibit, but I guess that it is all good enrichment. The orangutan exhibit was alright too, but I am not too fond of that rock thing with three tunnels in it. I guess it gives the orangs some privacy though. Also in there, was a small vivarium for water dragons, which was pretty sweet, although I did think that it could have been a bit more wider. If there was one thing that I wasn't too pleased with at the zoo was the elephant, Kate. She seems so lonely and depressed. I hope this "project elephant" comes out fast because it pains me to see the elephant like that. At zoos, reptile houses are usually my favourite parts, but this reptile house kind of let me down a bit this time round. I loved the Yacare Caimans, and they are probably my favourite species at the zoo. The reptile collection side of it was alright. Other than the retics, Rhinoceros Iguanas, and Nile Monitors, I thought that a lot of the reptiles there were pet-shop species. It was same for the amphibian collection as well, though the Cane Toads were quite cool. It was the invertebrate side of the zoo that let me down a bit. They had on-show Mealworm Beetles, Crickets, and Locusts which are mainly just reptile food. They also incorrectly labelled the locusts as "Desert Locusts" when they were, in fact, Migratory Locusts. Something else that ticked me off a bit was that they had Common House Spiders on-show. They were in the old tarantula vivarium, so I guess when the old tarantula died, the zoo saw a random spider on the ceiling and thought 'get that spider there, and stick it in this viv!' The reptile house had three aquariums for piranhas, goldfish and mixed tropical fish. So this is Part 1 of my review. I will write part 2 later when I have the chance.
So for Part 2: Amazonia was brilliant. It is a fantastic exhibit, especially in the rain, which gives it the nice rain-forest feel. But yesterday the heat from the sun gave it the warm jungle feel. Amazonia has a few free-flying/roaming birds, and they let the monkeys out every now and again. If anything, the exhibit feels just a little bit empty, like it needs something more. The camel paddock is quite nice but the zoo displays them as the wild Bactrian Camels, and not the domestic kind. Stuff like that ticks me off a bit. Next to the camels was the Kea exhibit. Komodo spotted the Kea straight away, but it took me a good five minutes to spot it. There were a lot of primates at the zoo. A couple of the primate enclosures had ropes which led out to little islands. I didn't see any monkeys or gibbons on the islands but there were some capybara on them, instead. The zoo also has a wide variety of waterfowl which roam freely around the moats and lakes of the zoo. Unfortunately, I didn't see the Great Grey Owl, but I think that the zoo's owl aviary is one of the better owl aviaries that I have seen. It would be the opposite for the African Barn Owl, though; but I think that is because it is a show animal. The otters were out and active, playing on the rocks and stuff. The otter enclosure was nice, but the water seriously wants cleaning. The small monkey/bird house is decent. It is also home to a small group of Dwarf Mongooses which were active on our visit. The bird that I wanted to see the most was the Emei Shan Liocichla but I didn't see it, though I could hear it. The Red River Hogs were a must-see for us because Komodo and I have a thing for them. Komodo used to hate them, but I managed to get him liking them. Also in the back was a paddock for cranes and sitatunga. Sadly, just like the one at Chester, the paddock does not have a pool. The other paddocks around the zoo were quite decent. There were ones for reindeer (domestic, I presume), Mountain Zebras and Ostriches; and Stanley Cranes and Bongos (one had a dodgy horn). The Red Pandas has loads of people swarming round it because it was curled up and sleeping and all the school-children found it adorable. Usually when I visit other zoos, the red pandas are awake and active, but for some reason, it is never the case at Blackpool. Also, not far from here was a nice little exhibit for Central American Agoutis, and a primate species (but I forgot which ) The flamingo and pelican lakes, were alright, but I have seen better exhibits for these birds like at Chester and Copenhagen. The Lemur wood is right behind here, which is a nice little walk with three species of lemur running round, though I don't think that there is enough trees in it to be called a 'wood'. So this is the endo of Part 2, as I have got to go again now, but I will be back to do a Part 3. Stay tuned!
Interesting that you don't count retics or nile monitors as pet shop species; while it is debatable whether they SHOULD be, they are both species I see in pet shops quite a lot
There is a reptile shop near me that constantly breeds retics of all varieties and used to have a large Nile monitor as a mascot.Now they have four dwarf caiman in there instead.
Shame you missed the L'Hoests Monkey. The primates in with the Agoutis should be Geoffrey's Marmosets if I'm not mistaken
Time for Part 3: The Wolf Ridge was fantastic! The wolves were very active and running round. I love the elevation of the exhibit too. The wolves came right up to the glass and if felt so wonderful to see these amazing creatures up close. The "Waders and waddlers" aviary is basically Blackpool's edition of Europe on the Edge crossed with the African Wetland Aviary at Chester. It is still a nice exhibit though. There were crowned cranes and waldrapp in it, as well as a nice variety of waterfowl. I really wanted to see the eider duck but Komodo dragged me away so we could visit the big cat house again! The old children's farm is now a nice little area with a several exhibits scattered around. It still has some domestic animals there, such as alpacas, guinea-pigs, and rabbits; but there were a few wild species there as well. There were blue cranes mixed with night herons; and Aardvarks mixed with Meerkats. For those of you who don't know, I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Meerkats as they are super popular in zoos and collections. I thought that since they were here now, they had been moved out of the big cat house, but I was wrong as you will see. There was also an aviary here for Red-Sided Eclectus Parrots but I couldn'r see them. A bit away from here was a nice little aviary for cockatoos (Major Mitchell's, I think), and Long-Nosed Potoroos. I couldn't see the Potoroos, but thanks to Komodo and his "sniper eyes", he showed me where they were hiding. The Wallaby walkabout isn't the best kangaroo exhibit that I have visited, but it was still worth a visit. I love the Red Kangaroos because they are just pure muscle. To be honest, despite the name, I saw more kangaroos than I did wallabies! Emus, vicuna, rheas and a few hoofstock species were housed in small paddocks next to Wallaby Walkabout. The Giant Aldabra Tortoise was just as colossal as ever. He had his head buried in the water pool the whole time! He was in a mixed exhibit was some huge Sulcata Tortoises. I quite like this tortoise exhibit, and it is usually the first thing that you see upon your visit. As for the Dinosaur Safari, well, all I can say is that it has had its days. The dinosaurs were overgrown with plants and trees, the sound FX and the waterfall were not on, and the dinosaurs had all been squashed into one area. I think this is because of the "Project Elephant" but the dinosaur models were falling apart as well. The tree-shrew exhibit is gone as well. One nice thing though, is that in the lake there is a large group small carp, that you can pay 20p to feed. I couldn't resist to feed them so I payed my 20p and fed the fish. It was a lot of fun. The Big Cats were as amazing as ever. The tigers were clearly Komodo's favourite part of the whole trip, as he is also a big lover of big cats (and small cats too, for that matter.) The tigers came right up to the glass which was really nice. The Lions just slept as per usual, but they did move back into the house, after a while. And, as I mentioned before, the Meerkats were still there. Why do you need two exhibits for Meerkats??? I loved the giraffes. Giraffes are my second favourite animals, after crocodilians, and I like how you can go to head-height with them. The giraffes were sharing with the Blesboks. I think that the giraffe exhibit is very good, and the house that they have for them is very well-designed. I can't say much for the tapirs because the keepers had them inside when we visited. Another paddock near here had Llamas, Rheas and Reeve's Muntjacs, but we didn't spend much time here. There is a small enclosure with a square-based pool in it that currently houses trained ducks. I swear that this enclosure used to be part of a sculpture that had model flamingos and a peacock in it. Can anyone confirm this? Before leaving, I though that I should just have a quick peek into the Children's frm, just so I could say that I had visited all the animal areas, but I didn't spend too much time. The old Kune-Kune Pig is still around, so that is all that I have to say for here really. All in all, a very nice day out. Though Blackpool is a very classic "city zoo" I quite enjoy it, and I hope to visit again soon. We went round the zoo three times, as it is only a small zoo, but it is certainly worth it. I would recommend it to anyone. Here were a few of my highlights: Yacare Caimans Sea Lion Show Giraffes Gorillas Porcupine Cuscus Feeding the Fish Nile Monitor and Rhinoceros Iguana Water Dragons Lemur Talk Watching the Seagulls make off with someone's donuts
I was really wondering if they were or not, but it has been a long while since I have been in a reptile-based pet shop.
From personal experiences with reptile shops I have seen more reticulated pythons being sold than iguanas and monitors.Never seen a Nile monitor for sale though only savannah and ackie monitors.
