Zoo days at Colchester » Colchester Zoo

There is a difference between a good collection and a good zoo. Colchester is an amazing *collection*. It is also one of the most visitor/camera friendly. There are endless glass viewing windows and much of the zoo feels very crammed in, as you are often in between three or 4 glass exhibit perimeters. The site is not very big for the size of the collection, although the extension (the african area) is much more so as it is newer.

Things are constantly improving, but aside from the rare species, you wouldn't particularly rate their lion, hippo, rhino, elephant or chimpanzee enclosures.

Re the rocky mountain goats....that's the trick isn't it, many unusual species bred well in conditions we'd gasp at today years ago, so I guess as they look like goats you can just stick them in the kids' zone and let them get on with it! I have seen water buffalo and anoa at different points alongside domestic stock....

that all said, the level of husbandry is obviously very, very high to have had some of the breeding successes colchester have had.

Zola really does seem to be extremely traumatised. It's strange as she was trained to walk among the public when she was a young animal, maybe she became more nervous and uncontrollable as she matured.

I very much agree with this. Colchester would be a superb zoo if it had twice the land area... There are other examples of this kind of thing; Amazon World has a great collection but generally ropey (and not particularly roomy) exhibits.

Absolutely, although I would make a distinction between those collections in that colchester appears to have very high husbandry standards in terms of enrichment and internal enclosure furnishings, whereas amazon world has the whole tacky exterior to its exhibits but the interiors are the real shocker.

Regarding last night's episode, I wondered why they aren't crate training the orangutans for their short move to the new house. If anaesthetising Rajang could be dangerous in view of his age, it could be the better option. He seems like an amenable old chap.
The repetition in Zoo Days is making me shout at the TV now!

I do argee that Crate training seems a better option! But then each Zoo does things slighty different or they may have already tried such a technique but didn't work and they just havn't mentioned it.

"The Bengal white tiger, which is all but extinct in the wild"....!

Someone actually said that?
Was it one of the keepers? I suppose it would be a bit more forgivable if it was one of the voce overs...

It was Konnie Huq who said it.

I thought I saw a young chocolate chimp on the programme tonight - do they have animals from Twycross's choc line at Colchester?

Yes, they do have a chocolate chimp- I believe they (accidentally) received one or more 'recessive' animals from Twycross and a choc. baby resulted.

Anyone know yet where an additional pair of Orangutans is to come from?

Colchester's enclosures are very different to most other UK Zoos. The main part of the zoo is concentrated along the side of a shallow Valley and so a lot of the enclosures are crammed in rather close together but they are mostly pretty good and the viewing facilities are excellent for most species. There are modern brick pathways linking nearly all the exhibits and they used to have thematic music playing in some of the exhibits- this can be very irritating after a while.

The 'Africa' section is a more recent development on a new area of land- much more open and spacious than the original zoo site. Some of the newer secondary(to elephants & rhinos) enclosures located here are a rather strange design e.g. the Mandrills & Hyaena and which don't have any inside viewing. However Colchester is today a very comprehensive and go-ahead collection and has made tremendous improvements since the current owners took it over. I would definately rate it among the top 'tier' of UK zoos nowadays.

I haven't seen this programme but maybe you should tell Anglia T.V who make this series... they shouldn't put out innacurate information like that.

i got bored of the programme after a week, i think they should do it more like monkey life, more fun and inspiring to watch rather than a presenter who follows the keepers everywhere!

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My Name: James
My Place: Hampshire
My Home Zoo: Marwell
My Favourite: Red-Ruffed Lemur

Wow! Where have they been hiding him? Four weeks of endlessly repeated interchangeable keepers and fairly predictable animals, with the simpering Ms Huq, and then - Antman!
No disrespect to any of the keepers who are all obviously dedicated and conscientious and doing a brilliant job, but that doesn't necessarily make good TV. But the ant keeper's infectious enthusiasm for a probably largely ignored section of the zoo was a revelation!

Ok I just googled some images of Konnie Huq......she seems nice.

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I wonder how much deeper the ocean would be without sponges?

Antman, was great! Such a lively character on TV.