Twycross Zoo Twycross Zoo News 2018

I hope they’ll actually be demolished.

My guess is we’ll see a second new major ape enclosure built in the land between the Lemur walk-through and new Chimp Eden. Possibly for the Bonobo first. Then with the old chimp and Bonobo houses demolished, there is space for a large new Gorilla exhibit. Then the Orangutans replace the existing Gorilla, restaurant and second Chimp House.

Then in that corner of the zoo, you have the Kingdom of the Apes as planned on the master plan and it frees up more space in the central zoo area for improved general primate housing.

 

But with all that new building they will need more money than the 55 million that she first mentioned

 

The original plans showed the new Chimp House as the first stage of a 'Kingdom of the Apes' that featured four connected exhibits. But things seem a bit different now- Chimp Eden now seems more like a stand-alone exhibit, its on a different site to the original plan for a start. I don't know if plans for the Kingdom of the Apes idea have in fact been shelved.

As for the existing Chimp accomodation, I rather hope both houses are demolished as they aren't really fit for any purpose anymore, though the dry- moated 'Chimp colony' building could make an exhibit for another smaller species if the indoor area was upgraded. (It wouldn't be any better for the Bonobos than what they have now though).

 

Not really. The Chimp Eden project is costing around £2.6m. So developing new exhibits for all the ape species is well within budget.

The Kingdom of the Ape complex showcased when the master plan was launched clearly has been shelved. It was excessively large so no wonder really, but what that showed was a desire to replace the housing stock for all the major apes. And Kingdom of the Apes is a zoning name the zoo are already using for this area.

The new Chimp House, whilst smaller, is in the same general location as originally planned (just half the size). I think it's design and location still forms part of a larger Ape redevelopment, just one that can be delivered in phases considerably easier. Hence my thinking we'll see the other ape houses replaced in staged over the course of the next 10 years.

Initial focus over 2019-2020 will no doubt be the Tigers and Rhinos though, along with some smaller developments around the wider zoo no doubt.

 

This looks kind of fantastic.

 

So yet again the bonobo's suffer, that house they are in goes back to when it was the original Elephant house when they had Iris and Jitara, and then it was changed split in 2 too house a small group of Bonabos, on one side and the young gorillas on the other side, that is how old it is, they boast about they only zoo in England to have a group of Bonobos and yet they are always forgotten about.

 

The zoo have expressed a desire to replace all ape housing. So I think it's only a matter of time until they see a new home. Whether it's like I envision above, or something completely different - it will no doubt happen.

 

The Gorilla house where Joe and Mamfi lived would be perfect as a stop gap for the Bonobos then the 2 groups could go outside every day instead of alternate days.

 

The current home for the bonobos was converted from the original elephant house in 1991 and originaly also housed gorillas until the present gorilla house was built in 2003, since then the bonobos, now in two groups live there exclusively. Perhaps in the short term, until finances permit it would be a good idea to refurbish the gorilla house(Joe's) for bonobos and thus giving both groups more space and instead of the current arrangement where they have to alternate outside, this situation is clearly unsuitable, how long can they go like this? The gorilla house currently holding most of the remaining chimps was only built in 1998 so in my opinion is still fit for purpose in the short term to hold bonobos. As for the older chimp complex building, that also could be refurbished to hold monkeys.

 

Yes Terry you are right they could have a different group of Apes

 

I am not sure what the zoo have planned for these buildings when they become vacant, replacement species or demolition....

 

I hope that one group of bonobos can be rehoused relatively soon - or perhaps even moved to another zoo. I think the current housing can be quite stressful for these sensitive and excitable animals.

 

Could the bonobos not be temporarily rehomed at Chester in the old orang house or would that not be feasible

 

Are they always in the same groups? I thought fission-fusion was a natural pattern for bonobos.

 

When the new chimp house is ready in the near future I wonder if the smaller group who currently reside in the Chimp Complex will be moving into the new facility at the same time as the larger group from the gorilla house and will then be introduced to each other there. If this is the case would it not have been better to wait until such time instead of trying to mix Danny in with the larger group late last year which resulted in fatal consequences? While I am delighted to see that the Twycross chimps have at long last got a new house I think it should also be remembered that chimp numbers at this zoo are about half what they were twenty years ago and Danny was not the only casualty of mixing these great apes together.

 

They were mixing them quite frequently in the last couple of years from what I witnessed.

 

I find it ironic and mildly amusing that the tiger enclosure plans show so many mature trees* when the zoos been in the process of cutting so many down over the last few years.

*To be fair, this is not just Twycross, all plans seem to show a super abundance of mature trees which, at best, take years to grow and, at worst, never really appear in the density shown on plans. Not a gripe, just an observation.

 

Apologies folks. The pictures of the plans were deleted because sharing them allegedly breached copyright. Which is absolute nonsense considering they're already shared in the public domain. Were shared without being altered and clearly included the marks of their owners and were shared for information purposes only with no commercial benefit. I'd challenge it but admin don't have the decency to contact you and instead hide behind an anonymous notification.

 

The easiest short-term solution to the horrible bonobo situation is to reduce the size of the group to create a group that can be housed together (more or less) permanently.
The old chimp houses could be - temporarely - used to house a group of smaller primates; there is no lack of monkeys in Twycross that need better housing!