Twycross Zoo Twycross Zoo News 2019

It is and with a No Entry sign, which I hadn't noticed before (but it may have been there already )

Chester today advised people to consider a Sunday visit to avoid crowds and Marwell's parking was full too. Been a busy week for the zoos.

 

Thanks. I suspect this closure may be permanent, to avoid the stress from the closeness of noisy visitors etc. But again, as a result of this the outsides will often look 'empty' a lot of the time to casual visitors...

 

Confirmation that Twycross will received 1.1 Eastern Black Rhino and the pair will be on show in time for the Easter holidays:

Twycross Zoo welcomes critically endangered black rhinos this Easter | Twycross Zoo

 

I never understand why they don't put these offers on the weekends either side of the school holidays, rather than half term week itself. They may well have a reason, but from the outside it just always seems to create excessive demand in what wouldn't be a quiet week anyway.

 

Also, it must provoke some resentment from locals trying to go about their daily business as well as disgruntled visitors vowing never to return. Paignton managed to be extra-busy over that week without any special offers, but they do have a 30% off deal for over 60s for the quieter period of 9 - 17 March.

 

There were some comments from locals about the traffic queues their deals cause. However it is a very rural area so maybe they aren't a force to be reckoned with....

 

It is good for the European breeding programme for the rhinos

 

So often peak times mean peak prices. The school where I teach is in an extremely deprived area and most of the families cannot afford a trip to the zoo in the holidays. However, when Twycross does something like this, it gives them a chance to visit in the holiday which they just wouldn't get otherwise. Some of them went this half term. They didn't mind the crowds, they were just delighted to be there.

 

I think this is fair comment, there are 2 sides to every story and despite some of us and the locals not liking the chaos the discounts bring, it gets them a trip to a zoo, which perhaps Twycross should be praised for, not many major zoos do this during potentially busy periods! The late spring conditions in February half term meant Twycross would probably have broken their record visitors for this time of year anyway, but they probably smashed them I suspect ?

 

Good in the sense a new holder has been found.

However, it remains to be seen ... what fall-out the coming Brexit will give us and how this will affect EEP / EAZA breeding programs.



{Note from mods - Brexit discussion has been moved to this thread: The EU/Brexit vote and zoos}

 

Great to see them receiving breeding pair of rhino was expecting another bachelor group to go with the giraffes, zebra ect. Been along time since they had large mammals breeding there ( not inc AI elephants ) gives me hope for the same on the tigers, the idea of potential rhino calf and tiger cub there would seam so far away a few years back till this recent resurchal. Not to drift on to the brexit thread though but does anybody think there sudden public anoucment on the rhino arrival by comparison to the tigers make me think they might becoming from Europe and the process is being speeded up to get them in before it becomes more difficult, they could easily have spread them out and gone tigers this year and rhino next

 

No. The work needed to prepare the elephant paddocks for the Rhino is minimal compared to the brand new tiger enclosure. My guess is we won’t see the tigers until late Summer at the very earliest and what the zoo won’t want to do is make too much of a big deal out of their arrival too early as that may cause people to hold off visiting until then.

 

I think there visitor numbers to be fair haven't been a problem given half this tread is about traffic to the site along side the limited species they hold outside monkey. And the constriction assuming it would all be complet is not that small if they create the second paddock and do a revamp on the houseing thinking of there other recent developments I can see cladding on the building. Mabey there is a delay in the tigers arrival so the rhino is bought forward ?

 

People like me! I only visit once a year usually, so don't want to miss anything

 

If anything, it’s likely the final decision to bring the Rhino in was delayed thanks to it taking longer to move the elephants out than originally planned. So the Rhino and Tiger arrivals are happening closer together.

But there was a mention of both Rhino and tigers coming to the zoo 5 years ago when the development plan was first launched. So maybe it was planned this way all along.

 

Female Black Rhino, Nandi arrived earlier today from Zoo Leipzig. Nandi was born at Leipzig on 7 May 1999 and has come to Twycross on an EEP recommendation

 

Wow! They arrived a little sooner than I anticipated, with Easter still being 4-5 weeks away.

Is the full paddock extension finished?

 

Which male black rhino will be transferred to Twycross until Easter, too?

 

A short clip of Nandi arriving at the zoo:

Zoo welcomes endangered black rhino

 

You can see how they've split the former elephant house for the rhinos...