I love being there too and there are a few positives recently. The decline hasn't reached Marwell proportions yet, but it needs to be addressed sooner rather than later imo!
I wouldn't say it was £6m wasted, although I agree its not the best piece of design ever (yes I've said that). The area with the big cats seriously needed redoing as it was dank and dark but perhaps the whole area didn't need to be so over the top.
tigers. gorillas. penguibs. cafe. the list of vast, costly projects goes on, while rome burns around the fiddlers.....
Are these exhibits you mean should be at Whipsnade? Londons penguin pool is the best in the country imo and I love the tiger area.
I agree on most of these too and although I don't think any had as much wasted on them as the lions, for leaving out some of the 'frills', also known as the theming, several exhibits could have been built at Whipsnade or smaller ones at London. More money needs to be spent on displaying animals not flip flops etc etc!
In this context it means management are sitting back and watching with their feet up whilst the collections fall apart and money is wasted I think. There is nothing implied about dishonesty necessarily!
nope I dont tbink they should be at WZ, I am just giving examples of massive outlay whilst the basic infrasyructure is allowed to crumble. that is how aquarium get closed, for example
nope, its just an exoression. i dont think any of zsl management are crooks just sometimes tunnel visioned
With respect, a significant sum of money that went on Gorilla Kingdom came from the Will of a terminally ill ZSL member who specifically stated it go directly towards the gorillas and nowhere else. Obviously ZSL had the final say upon the construction.
yes, early december i think. lovely enclosure for it, only 2 feet deep in mud, or a tiny brick stable...should put them in the elephant area and get rod of the elephants
Why they still seem to keep them mainly in those old yards, and not in the newer 'Rhinos of Nepal' building?
because it is an awfully impractical building. the way rach den is connected to a pool means that you cant have tiny babies in there as they cant get out of the steep slippery slopes. cant sedate animals in case they drown. cant get a vehicle in, so cant liad or unload animals. etc. etc.
I get that you believe the rhino should have a better enclosure but why would or should Whipsnade get rid of one of their main attractions? I've never been here before but I wouldn't want to go if they got rid of the elephants. There maybe other options than just remove and replace is all I'm saying.
They won't get rid of the elephants! They only built the new indoor accommodation a couple of years ago and have just brought in a new bull. The Indian rhino building was poorly designed though and hardly used. Usually it's just the male in there, but when I visited on Saturday he was confined to the smaller part of the old house and yard, whilst the not pregnant female was in the larger new paddock.
Confirmed my suspicions as to why its been so little used ever since it was built. One modification might be to make one stall a 'dry' one to avoid some of these dangers, but maybe that is not so easy with the water flow etc. What a terrible design flaw..
The bull often seems to be in the old paddock and house also, presumably because the smaller paddock connects with it. I've seen him in the 'new' house sometimes but not often. What a ridiculous situation this is, with a house that is hardly used.