Twycross Zoo, it seems to me, has had quite a lot of bad press in the recent past. That makes one wonder how the Zoo is better run since the retirement of Misses Badham and Evans. Could you eplain why you believe the Zoo is now better run?
I'll leave it to zoogiraffe to deal with the meat of your question - that is to say, how the collection is better-run now than it was prior to the retirement of Badham and Evans. However, it is worth noting that the vast majority of the bad press to which you refer was levelled at the collection during the directorship of the founders' immediate successor, Dr Susie Boardman ( latterly Jackson-Morgan subsequent to her marriage) and that the general feeling is that matters have improved since her departure.
I'll leave ZG to provide a more complete reply but I'd point out that prior to Miss Badham & Evans' retirement there were way too many sub-adequate enclosures (the Lion, Sealion and all the great ape enclosures, except the most recent gorilla one) for a zoo with millions in the bank. Whilst in their time they did a lot of good things they didn't like to spend money much. Their immediate successor, Ms Boardman, had no problem spending money but did very few good things. Hopefully the new management have got the balance right (it generally seems so, so far) and will spend money well.
On a financial side the zoo will probably never be better run than in the days of the Founders running it,as tld said I would say 75% of the zoo problems stem from the days of Boardman,how anyone can justify a foot path cost 1 million pounds is beyond me,but the footpath down the back of the Elephants came close to costing that,plus if staff didn't do things her way,a piss poor reason was found to get rid of them or force them out,the prime example of that was the Elephant keepers that when told they were to change from Free Contact to Protective Contact,they said no because they had not been consulted next minute they are suspended because of abusing the Elephants which was utter ********,just to get them out of the door.I could go on and on over the problems that woman caused the zoo,but I suspect i would lose the will to live long before its finished!!The other 25% of the zoo's problems stem from the founders and there penny pinching ways,like the Lion enclosure that they built that was barely fit for purpose due to the small size of house and enclosure and lack of space to split animals if needed,but it did mean that Boardman had millions to waste!When the current person in charge took over the collection the zoo was about a month or 2 away from having no money at all to pay for anything!So to have done what they have done since then,just shows what a good job they have done as they have done some,very small changes that haven't cost much like the extending of the Giant Tortoise indoors and outdoor enclosure,plus the building of the Gibbon Forest and the Butterfly House.
What were the Board of Trustees doing? Did they approve a £1M spend on a single path? Did they give the Director authority to spend a million on single items? Why did they allow the founders to amass so much money in the bank and not see it spent on improvements? It seems to me they have been very remiss in their oversight.
Other than the footpath (presumably the one that cuts between the elephants and giraffes?), what other changes were made under the leadership of Boardman?
Most of them were blinded my Mrs Boarmans talk of how good things were,and what a brilliant place Twycross was under her.Two Trustees tried to get her removed with the backing of senior keeping staff,but she got to the keeping staff and as a result those two trustees were removed,just leaving the yes people until an outside force moved the goalposts.
Well the main project that was completed under her was The Entrance that isn't an entrance called Himalaya,but most of the money for that came from grants and part of the condition was that it couldn't be the new entrance as had originally been planned for it to be,yes the main area works and the Snow leopard on-show looks very good,but the aviary alongside the building has been a cock-up from start to finish,when it went up some us took one look at the netting and said it would be down in the first storm,but we got told we know nothing,guess I was wrong as its doing a great job of being an open-topped aviary for native birds!!!!Also the Mary Brancker Water Ways was done under her time,which is a partial success just way did they need to spend a fortune importing real Bornean Log canoes that are now rotting away,when they could have had fake ones produced at half the cost!The only really good thing she ever did actually arrived after she had gone,and that was her signing the paper work for them to have the wonderful Dinosaurs that many people love to hate on here,but in this case I will say a big thank you to them and for once in my life a thank you to Mrs Boarman,because if she hadn't the zoo WOULD HAVE BEEN CLOSED NOW!
Not a great track record then! The plans for Kuno(?) were put forward around that time too, weren't they?
Oh yes that was another great idea from the witch,but the plans that were shown were nothing like what she wanted,as the species mix kept changing with more being added into a space that was only just big enough for what the model showed!!
Hi guys will be visiting here for the first time and was wondering if there was anything to recommend other than the bonobos and gibbon forest? Also how many chimps do they have roughly?
The last Lowe's Guenon and Crowned Guenon in captivity within Europe are still held at Twycross - likely the most unusual taxa in the collection, now.
Oh yes, heard about them! Exciting stuff apparently there are bush dogs, striped hyena and snow leopards too!! Very exciting
Any idea when the Lowe's guenon group at Beauval disappear? Did they die out, or were they moved on elsewhere?
Smaller group: Danny, Tommy, Peter, William, Samantha and holly Larger group: jambo, Flynn, mongo, Jomar, labari (I may have got this name wrong), lottie, coco, Rosie, tuli, Tojo, genet, Josie, noddy, choppers. I'm sure I've missed someone but my minds gone blank
