Well we have one about London and one about Chester so i thought id start on other UK Zoos. The Welsh Mountain Zoo I Remember there being Lions where the tigers are now Persian Leopard and Black Leopards being where the Snow Leopards are Llamas and Kulans being in the paddocks area Guinea Pigs sharing an aviary with Macaws Red Pandas being where the cockatoos are I Vaguley remember Cranes (maybe Red Crowned Cranes) im not sure where in the zoo they were
My earliest memories of any zoos are Flamingo Land Zoo, Thrigby Hall and Blackpool, all of which I must've visited between about 1990 and 1994. Of flamingo land I remember very little other than seeing an elephant, i'm fairly certain they had no whales or dolphins at that point, or I expect i'd remember them too. Blackpool I remember quite well, I remember the sealions in exactly the same enclosure they're in now, the gorillas and orangs in the same enclosures, but the gorillas did not have access to the island. I remember the current elephant enclosure had a fence down the middle, and whilst one half was used for Asian elephants, the other half was used for giraffe and white rhino. I remember small mammals in the elephant house, stuff like tree shrews and kinkajous and possums etc. I very vividly remember American Bison in the enclosure opposite the zebra. Of thrigby I remember the swamp house, big black gibbons, the tiger enclosure with raised walkway and a row of aviaries with Snowy Owls and a big Hornbill in. I've not been here since, so I don't know how or if it's changed.
The zoo closed in 1977/8. Thats excellent. Photos and footage of Plymouth Zoo seem particularly scarce. Does anyone know who the keeper is?
FLAMINGOLAND - I visited it in the bad old days of the early 1990s, there was only Jangoli left as the other Asian elephant had died, the dolphins had only just left, there were 1.1 Polar bears with 2.0 cubs, the male Polar bear was in with a single Brown bear, adjacent to the female and her cubs, though separated only by bars, there was a large herd of Wapiti, vast numbers of Peccaries with many young, a pair of Sooty Mangabeys, Stump-tailed and Toque Macaques, possibly Bonnet macaques, Andean Condors, blackbuck, timber wolves, caracals, and chimpanzees in the old cages and the sunken Island which looked like a pit (the dominant male I think had just died in the moat when the group were introduced to this part just before I went). A keeper took me into their house to show me two adult males separated from the rest of the group and kept indoors. BLACKPOOL - Visited in the late 1980's, remember Arabian gazelle with white storks, wallaroo, chamois, Markhor on the island, gentoo penguins where the common otters eventually went, hog deer, pileated gibbons and spider monkeys on the monkey islands, the small mammal house with Quokka, ground or possibly even spotted Cuscus, and North American porcupines, other marsupials I can't remember, quite possibly tree kangaroos. Twycross and blackpool seemed to aqcuire an amazing range of unusual marsupials at one point together, which gradually died out over the decades. The ground cuscus and the odd wallaroo seem to be the remnants of this. THRIGBY HALL - Visited around 1987, then 1997. Early visit saw generic leopards, snow leopards, blackbuck in paddock on site of swamp house and sulawesi enclosure, Indian Crested porcupine, smooth-coated otters, pygmy tree shrews, the original crocodile house was a greenhouse leaning against the courtyard wall, where the moluccan cockatoos are now, it housed the mugger crocodiles and a hog badger. In 1997 the site resembled the current layout, although the amur leopards hadn't arrived and the forest house was not yet built. There was quite a sizeable breeding flock of painted storks and the Owston's civets had not yet arrived.
The Plymouth Zoo clip is interesting. Wow, that's not a happy elephant. It also reminded me that Paignton kept, and bred sable antelope until a few years ago. What happened to them? Did they die out or were they moved away? Similarly, when I visited Paignton in 1993, there was a group of Red-faced Black Spider monkeys. Noting how long-lived they are, I wonder where they all went? Now only the Welsh Mountain Zoo, Twycross and London hold them in this country. Did Colwyn Bay recieve the Paignton animals at some point?
I recall that one of the Spider Monkeys at paignton had a badly deformed face which made it pretty distinctive. It would be easily recognisable if he was at the Welsh Mountain Zoo.
I Dont recall any of the spider monkeys at Colwyn Bay having a deformed face though i may possibly be wrong.
Paignton Spider Monkey Sputnik was the red faced spider monkey with a birthmark on her forehead. She died on 8 July 2003, aged 34, of natural causes. One of her sons, Spike, went to Twycross and another, Horace, went to London and then Amsterdam.
The Redfaced Black Spider monkey group were kept at Paignton a very long time- I don't know their early history but I can't remember a visit without them being there in the old Monkey House. They seemed to have disappeared not that long before 'Monkey Heights' was opened. I was surprised they weren't kept to go in the new house as they were very active and would have made a good exhibit- better than having the two very similar-looking groups of relatively inactive Colobus monkeys. 'Sputnik' was distinctive with what appeared to be a thickened skin growth around her eyes and forehead.
It was a quarantine station for their animals, but open to the public also. It was similar sized to the old Southampton zoo- also Chipperfield's owned and may have replaced it...
Both Southampton and Plymouth were quarantine facilities for Chipperfields. They were perhaps the biggest animal importers of the time and were responsible for establishing many species in UK collections. Plymouth (1962-1977/8) was always better known as a quarantine station and Southampton (1961-1984/5) as a zoo. During its time, Southampton exhibited many very unusual species: Elephant Seals (Chipperfields imported half a dozen or more at one time), King Penguins, Northern White Rhino, Black Rhino, Giant Pangolin, Bongo and Forest Elephant. Animals which stocked the safari parks all passed through either of these two collections. A quarantine station was later opened at Salford though this was short-lived.
