No big cat-feeding at London Zoo, I'm afraid, Nanoboy! The only thing I can think of where you can pay a lot extra is the penguin encounter and I'm not sure whether that's still going in the winter season... it was £30 a head and really you need to be a BIG penguin fan to get your money's worth! At the moment there's a Santa's Grotto event which costs extra and involves reindeer but I don't think that's what you have in mind. However, there are two walkthroughs – well, three if you count butterflies – where you can get very close indeed to squirrel monkeys, tamarins, titi monkeys etc but none of them are "tame" so you'd be unwise to try and touch them!
Pertinax, as far as I know there are two baby Francois langurs and the first one is fine, still with mum; just the later one (different mother) is being hand-reared (correct me if someone has already said this!).
Me and devilfish were nearly pounced by the tamandua in the Clore the other week. Had to keep a close eye on the claws!
Paradise wildlife park have a good range of animal encounters available - I'd imagine they'd be quite expensive though: Animal Experiences at Paradise Wildlife Park Broxbourne (their nearest train station) is about 30 minutes by train from London Liverpool Street, and they send a minibus to pick you up from the station at no extra charge.
Well, Maguari, you can count yourselves very lucky indeed! Most people don't get to see more than the tip of her tail way up behind the lamp where she normally snoozes!!
Thanks for putting me right on this. Does anyone know the sex of the first one? (the h/r one is a male)
Thanks for all the suggestions guys! I am not a big penguin fan, and we have done similar encounters in Oz as they offer at Paradise Wildlife Park, so I think that we will settle for the walk-through enclosures at the London Zoo. I'll keep you posted on how it played out. Cheers.
We had a grand old time at the London Zoo. We saw many species that we had never seen in Australia, such as: Prairie Dog Aardvark Bactrian Camel Giant Anteater We were disappointed, however, that some of the animals were either off display or tucked away inside the warm areas of their enclosure due to the cold (?), such as: Hyacinth Macaw Pygmy Hippo Toucan Lion cubs (?) I was also disappointed that we missed the lunch time bird show by a few minutes: my wife preferred to feed squirrels in Regent Park instead... All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed our visit, and we were impressed by the enclosures, especially the walk-through enclosures. Not much in the way of animal encounters, but patting a llama is always cool!
Yes, funding is going very well, planning permission has been granted and construction should be starting in the next month or two.
I really look forward to this one ...: Sumatran tigers, Malayan tapirs .... hopefully the anoas and perhaps even babirusas for a new S.E. Asia section there. What is planned opening date (spring 2013)?
