I know there has been talk of the Cuban crocs on this thread but I didn't see any mention of their new exhibit. The following is taken from Colchester Zoo's website: Has anyone seen this World's Apart exhibit yet? It's hard to get a sense of what the overall theme is from the species mentioned. Also it mentions six enclosures - so what other species are exhibited there? There's a tantalising mention of a new Tropical House on the site of the old orang exhibit. I assume that this will be Colchester's next major project after the completion of Orangutan Forest. I've not been there yet but kudos to the zoo for the pace of new development there.
Worlds apart: 1st Enclosure- 2 cubans (will house a water monitor when they move to part of dragons of komodo) 2nd- Blue poison dart frogs 3rd- Indo-pacific marine tank (enclosures 2 and 3 are still in place from the aquatic house) 4th- Rhino Iguanas 5th Yellow Anaconda 6th- walkthrough tamarin exhibit Going to colchester 2morrow!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks Roz. I found the planning application drawings for the new tropical house on the Colchester Council website. It's a 2 storey shed-type rectangular building - cheep and cheerful. There's a ramp up to an entrance at the upper level, a bit like ROTRA at Chester. Inside, the pathway coils down in a loop underneath itself and exits the building at ground floor level. No info on what's going inside yet, other than it will have South American species. The size of the building is slightly larger overall than the current exhibits on the site. Budget about £2 million. The zoo article I quoted above mentions that the Cuban crocs will be moving into the new tropical house.
Not sure if a direct link will work, but here's the way to find them: Go to Colchester Borough Council website and click on "Online planning and building control including current applications" on the RHS of the page. Click on the "Accept" button, then search under application number 081166. You'll get links to all the plans there.
