I Knew before they even opened Himalaya, a few days before Easter when the staff were filling the shelves with the merchandise ,as my old Aunty Hilda would say "bloody gunifs and schnorrers" when she used to have items stolen by scroungers in her fashion store!
I have a few sources at Twycross,but not as many as I used to,since most of them were forced out or sacked by the ex-Director!Yes the TZA is making a bit of a comeback at the Zoo,will have to go and pay a visit and see how many of my old colleagues from the TZA have returned,and catch up with them all again,I still have very bitter memories of the very last meeting of the TZA council and the zoo under its old mangement!
The comments made on the zoo's face book page would appear to be favourable regarding the dinosaurs, although I do not live in the area I have seen the Easter T.V. advert for the zoo featuring the dinosaurs and it is very good, have any members visited the zoo during the Easter period and if so, what were the crowds like?, At least, although not a major new live animal exhibit, which I and others ideally would have liked to see at the zoo this year, the dinosaurs are dramatic and attention grabbing, particularly to youngsters, so hopefully their time at the zoo will be financially successful, I understand that they are to remain at the zoo until early September.
Been to twycross today, lovely to see the chimp groups getting bigger, and they seem so much happier than last time I went, that was 10 years ago, but reports since seem to say it didn't improve for a while. No show from snow leopards or bush dogs. An injured rhea had a limp which was rather endearing, although hopefully he isn't too hurt. Most of the primates were inside, a few short swings out by the gibbons were lovely to see though. The new lemur walk-through is lovely planted but the lemurs were not keen on people being in there and only occasionally peeked out of the trees, the food on tables along the walkway was totally untouched. A fair few enclosures had collapsed which I gather was from the snow, odd that they can be brought down so easily. Himalaya, I found the presence of leaf cutter ants in the ladies toilets wonderful, never seen animals in the loo before! The restaurant thing was dreadful though, it looked nice, but the market stalls seemed to mess up any attempt at queueing, there were hardly any staff and it took 20 minutes to get two meals and a couple of drinks! Snow leopard enclosure looked nice, but i'm comparing it to dudleys, which I hate. Loved watching one of the elephants have a swim then spend ages covering itself in brown dust until it looked like a totally different elephant. The highlight of the day was the bonobos, lovely family group, babies were going mad and great family dynamic. Less said about plastic dinosaurs the better!
The ones living in the infamous 'Chimp Row' cages(now a Leopard exhibit) were only moved within the last year into the groupings they now live in.
I'm a regular visitor to twycross and I've really enjoyed seeing the changes in the last few months. Reusing/redesigning what's already there to make good enclosures. I checked out the dinosaurs on Monday, the whole area was buzzing. As these exhibits go I thought it was good. Dinosaurs displayed well and over a good size area. Two of them spray water, so there were lots and lots of happy little boys around! Heard lots of very positive comments from parents too. I really liked to informative signage, in fact I'm liking all the new signage around the whole zoo. Back the the himalaya - I have always really liked it. The snow leopards are a great addition. People love them, and the cats always seem very relaxed. Only saw the male on my visit, as I saw them mating a while ago I've been telling myself that there might be new cubs, but that's just me speculating hopefully and wildly. The one thing about the himalaya that drives me mad is the cafe!! It just doesn't work. The food itself is fine, especially the Sunday carvery, but it takes forever to get served. The queuing system is ridiculous, no one ever knows what to do and there never seems to be enough food ready. We have a bit of running joke: its getting busy, put another fish on!
I'm a fairly regular visitor too and would largely agree with your summary (with agreement to maybe disagree on Himalya). I visited Sunday and there seemed to be a bit of a "buzz" about the place that's been missing for a while. I didn't check out the dinosaurs myself (limited time) but I overheard a lot of people talking about them. Completely agree on the cafe, you're spot on in that nobody knows where to queue or whether going in front of people to vacant serving areas would be deemed as queue jumping (I do it). Additionally the checkouts seem really slow and disadvantaged by what seems an over-complicated and onerous scanning system. I've seen the place struggling to cope and people queueing for long periods even when the zoo's not that busy. As you say the food itself is great but the waiting's a real drag. To be honest I'm not sure what could be done to improve things given they're stuck with the layout. Additionally it might just be one of those things we have to put up with at zoos, I've also had very long queueing experiences at other places including Chester, Bristol and Cotswolds in the past, though to be fair in the latter's case it was fairly "high season".
I visited on Sunday (7th April) and thought some other members would like to hear about recent changes (from my perspective/opinion). Firstly there were no "car parking attendants" directing people where to park. I've long thought these people were a waste of time and expenditure (nothing personal) as I believe people are capable of finding a parking space themselves -they manage it without problems at most other zoos. I'm uncertain whether this is a permanent change or only during the quieter periods but it seemed sensible to me. Strangely the guy standing on the corner as you go in directing you left (is there any other option????) still seems to be there. The new Leopard enclosure (old Green Mile) has been reasonably landscaped on the interior and the exterior softened with the classic half-log trick. The six ex-Chimp enclosures have seemingly been divided into three part enclosures of three, two and one parts (if you see what I mean), I think it might have been nicer to have a four (more spacious) and two but they may be planning for husbandry contingencies of some sort that I've not considered. Personally I'd like to see the interior dividing walls cut back even further but there may be structural issues I'm unaware of. Overall I think the Leopards probably have a little more space than they would have previously and whilst it's hardly a "blow you away" exhibit it does serve it's purpose adequately, avoids a hole in the zoo, and free up space elsewhere to improve other species' lots. Unfortunately the access to the Cuscus is now blocked to the public. The old Leopard enclosure has been filled with Spider Monkeys and whilst I was initially sceptical of the benefits/advantages it is clear that the footprint of the enclosure and therefore swinging space for the monkeys is almost double their previous enclosure with bigger inside quarters and (probably largely redundant) off show areas than before. The enclosure doesn't have a great deal of height and I think some of the plants need cutting back to make the enclosure a little more primate-appropriate but overall it's another species housed in an improved enclosure. Siamangs have been housed in Danny & Tommy's old quarters and again this is another improved situation for the inhabitants. The indoor quarters was nicely roped and considerably improved and the outside areas footprint is probably twice that of their previous enclosure though I felt could be improved by putting in more ropes in a way that offered increased/longer brachiation opportunities. Here's a shocker (but a good one), it appears the Tropical House has abandoned the much hated token/queueing system, we just walked right in. The excitement didn't last long though, although the house seemed in reasonable condition planting-wise it had been denuded of stock, a couple of ducks and two Common Marmosets was all we saw. There has been an outdoor open-topped extension to the house with the Javan Langurs in, but not for the langurs as I had expected. It's for the De Brazza Monkeys and comprises a reasonable/modest size area, with climbing equipment in the middle, surrounded by fences topped with hot-wire. It's accessed from a hole made in the end of their enclosure (where the Swamp Monkeys used to be) but they didn't venture out whilst we were there. It was OK, not particularly impressive if you've visited lots of zoos an see what they do for primates but an improvement nevertheless. To be fair, and a little patronising, I think it'll impress Joe Public as it's novel for Twycross. The much-needed extension to the Giant Tortoise enclosure is also a considerable improvement with the walls that were previously there having been removed and replaced with large boulders. The tortoises have now got more than double (perhaps towards three times) the area they previously had together with an outdoor mini-pool for bathing. Again, small changes which significantly improved the look of the place and the lots of the animals housed. Nothing to do with new enclosures but Crowned Lemurs had been moved to the old Spectacled Langur enclosure and the Francois Langur were in the old part-brick gibbon enclosures (near the old cafe) and both looked good in what seemed size appropriate circumstances. I only saw two Spectacled Langurs, in the old quarantine block, where they looked a bit cramped -I hope this doesn't mean they're not in future plans. The windows to the Hyena enclosure had either been thoroughly cleaned or replaced, either way a very small change which improves the visitor experience. The new walk-through lemur enclosure is sizeable but like all similar enclosures ones experience is largely governed by the random factor of how active the lemurs are and how close they come to the public -they were reasonably showy when I was there. The enclosure is "patched-on" to the existing Lemur House and is more a walk-by than walk-through as the path is all along one of the outside edges of the enclosure. Visitors seemed to enjoy it. The hornbill/seriema enclosures in the bottom corner were in a bad state with one collapsed (probably beyond easy repair) and the other damaged and propped up. The Kirk's Dik-diks looked good in their enclosure (the old Aardwolf one) and were reasonably showy too, a great species addition. The owl aviaries, though not completely new still look good and ZooGiraffe will be pleased to know the roofs now look to be properly secured. The Coati/Bush Dog enclosure still looks like a fantastic addition but I wonder about the long-term compatibility of the species and how long it'll take the Coatis to strip all the trees of bark. The Yellow-throated Martins are still not on display (grrr) and I didn't see them. The Borneo Aviary looks like it needs significant repair on the road-side (which was empty). The "walk-extension" to the Penguins still looks stupid/pointless to me. There's also a massive fenced off area in this part of the zoo where the Monkey House used to be and encompassing the old seal enclosure. There are no signs saying what intentions are (probably because there's no money to do anything soon, but who knows?). Funnily enough the Camels weren't out on the hardstanding which left their enclosure looking a little abandoned. All in all I was heartened by the changes which, in my opinion, are as good as anyone could have imagined/achieved in such a short time given the constraints the management were/are working under. As I've posted elsewhere there seemed a "buzz" about the place that's been long missing and a general feeling of positive momentum. Here's hoping it's the beginning of a continuous journey of steady improvement for the place to put it back in the premier league of UK zoos.
Good review/update Shorts. A few comments/questions; 1. Presumably the advertised 'Outdoor Langurs' has become 'Outdoor De Brazzas's' I wonder why the change in the species- perhaps its due to their relative leaping/escape capabilities? (This was the third advertised 'new attraction' along with the Leopards and Walkthrough/by Lemurs). 2. Green Mile/Leopards. Have the mesh partitions between the old cages been completely removed, or can you still see parts of them? (IMO they were the most unnattractive part of the enclosures). 3. Coatis/tree bark removal- pretty soon is my guess and I would expect them to excavate craters in the soil also! 4. Fenced off area- from a plan I saw this was the area labelled 'Chimpanzees' (for the new 'Chimpanzee Complex'.) But with little money for major new projects and the Chimps at least housed temporarily(?) in better groupings, I can't imagine they are going ahead with this soon(though I would hope they were!). The Spectacled Langurs seem to have been dwindling for a while now. They were one of Twycross' first unusual Primate species back in the early days and it would be sad to see them die out now. But the freely-breeding Javans and Francois may well eclipse them..
That was my conclusion too, I wouldn't feel confident that the enclosure that's been built would contain langurs without some significant risk of escape. No, which is a problem aesthetically. They remain as separators between the various sub-enclosures and they're far from completely cut back within individual enclosures (I'd estimate the gap in the centre of the meshes within the enclosures are between a third and a half of the total mesh length). Completely concur, it should still be a good exhibit though. My thoughts too, I suspect by the time they get round to building it'll be for far less Chimps than they currently have. Personally I'm in two minds whether the moves are currently an overall improvement (indoor yes, outdoor no, especially Joe's old enclosure). I fear you're probably right on this too, though it doesn't seem that long ago that they had a fair sized group.
Thanks for the answers Shorts. With respect to the Green Mile/Leopard enclosure, its a pity they can't erase more of the old 'feel' of the cages by removing more of those ugly partitions, but there we are. I concur with what you say about the Chimp numbers- the oldest ones are slowly dying off over the years. A new complex might realistically be built for say- 15 animals rather than the circa 25 they have now. I think the moves from the Green Mile were beneficial in so much as there is a better chance they will keep them in larger/better social groupings which is much more stimulating for the chimps. Enclosure-wise I think the indoor accomodation is certainly better too but outside there's not much to choose between the former and now. But in the case of the old 'Joe area', someone posted that this enclosure may be knocked into one for a single larger group- in which case they could put more climbing equipment at least in the centre. Maybe the fenced area will just sit there for now while they decide where they're going with it (chimps- not chimps- something else- nothing?)? Three(?) years go I counted 5 spectacled langurs- I fear they may be gone completely soon.
Thanks to the members who have visited lately and given us their reports,things appear to be coming along nicely and done at no great expense, amazing how you can improve an exhibit like the giant tortoise enclosure with materials that consist of mainly old baldy tyres,there would appear to be now light at the end of this tunnel, and a very dark one it was in up to the Autumn of last year.
Just reading the Colchester Zoo thread and I am glad to see they are publishing a book to commemorate its 50 year anniversary, which I will look forward to reading, are there any plans for Twycross to do likewise, I sincerely hope so, even if not a book in hardback form, a booklet in guidebook form similar to what they had ten years ago to celebrate its 40th year would be good.
The fenced off area shorts was posting about is an interesting area, in as much as it seems to get seriously flooded. I imagine that draining in and protecting it from future flooding would definitely add to the cost of revamping that area. Saw Banya's baby last week, she's an unusual mum, she puts him down a lot! Apparently she's not a first time mum as I'd assumed and this seems to be her rather laid back (and very scary to watch) parenting style. The keepers have now put a sign telling people about this. I was having kittens watching her!
Its interesting that this area now floods,as much as it does now as never remember it flooding this bad when the primate house was still standing!
I'm a bit confused about which Primate house has disappeared- is it the big one on the Lawn bounded by the Elephants and the ex Sealion and ex Giraffe enclosures? From memory it held; the Dianas,Roloways,the single Crowned & Red-tailed and some other Guenons, plus Howlers and other South Americans? Or is it a different house?
