We dropped the car off at Reddy's, said hello to all his dogs and cats before heading to Chester Zoo. We arrived there about 11.30am. We'd bought our tickets online (for a small discount) so headed straight for the turnstiles and in we went. As we entered they mentioned the Elephant House was closed but would see any elephants out in the yard. We'd gone to see the newborn baby elephant and orangutan so we hoped we still would!
The first animal we found was an Asian Elephant (we could tell because of the small ears). There was just the one elephant out in the compound and no baby! One of the keepers was giving a brief talk about the elephant while it munched on some hay. At least we found a little one to play on.
Next we saw some two-humped Bactrian Camels. They were being cleaned out while we were there - I think they were hoping to get fed! There were also some Persian Onagers, a rare breed related to the horse. They are critically endangered - I'd never even heard of them! They look similar to donkeys but can be aggressive and resist domestication.
The big problem with taking pictures in zoos is when they have wire mesh fencing. If you only have an autofocus camera (even a good one) it will insist on focussing on the fence rather than the animal beyond. This really is an Andean Condor (below left) and an Amerian Black Vulture (below centre). We carried on as the keeper was going to give a talk at the Giraffes next so we were headed there. On the way we spotted this baby Moorhen (I think) (below right).
Theo decided to chat to a duck before we arrived at the Giraffes. They had several youngsters here. We know from our Natural History (animal) expert Twitter pals @EllieandEdmond that these have black tongues which are very long. I tried to get a picture for you but I wasn't hugely successful.
These are amazing creatures, so tall and so cleverly designed to get the blood up the neck to their brain.
The Congo or Forest Buffalo were pretty tired during our visit. Impolitely, they didn't get up. We saw a couple of black and white Malayan Tapir but had fence trouble again. We were then at the Okapi enclosure. These are forest-dwelling relatives of the Giraffe and also have a long tongue.
In with the Okapi are Red Forest Duivers. These are very small antelopes, growing only about eighteen inches tall. We decided to see how big we were compared with a Rothschild's Giraffe. We are apparently very short! Who knew?
Next we found a Red River Hog (below left) before entering Tropical Realm. This contains a number of free-flying birds although there are also some reptiles, including Radiated Tortoises.
There were a lot of birds in here - some flying loose, others behind bars. Not sure who they'd upset. I spotted these chaps having a bath!
There were also some very pretty - if poisonous - frogs in here. They had Blue Poison Dart Frogs, Green and Black Poison Dart Frogs as well as Cone-headed Lizards.
We climbed a ramp to see a variety of birds in cages, like the first chap (no idea what he is, thanks [total lack of] assistants) and the White-crested Turaco. The Green Aracari was a bit hornbill-like too, I thought.
At the far end was a Scops Owl (not sure what model...er type). Then we saw this brightly-chested Golden Heart Dove. Theo wondered what would happen if he set this off, but it was a manual-wind one so he figured he wouldn't bother trying. Way too much effort (fortunately!)
By this point - about 1.30pm - we decided it was time for a coffee break. Fortunately for us, they also had cream teas for sale. So, a little #JamFirst and we were away. Plain scones too - far better than the ones with dead flies (sultanas) in them. The Roddas clotted cream was just out of the fridge though, making it a little hard to spread. Needs to be a little warmer than that!
We headed to the Spirit of the Jaguar house, sponsored by car-makers Jaguar. Initially we couldn't see much in the way of Jaguars, just footprints in the large indoor enclosure. We spotted a Two-toed Sloth perched high up the wall - we hoped he didn't turn over in his sleep! It was a long drop.
We found a saddle so took the photo opp. As we were heading to the exit we spotted a crowd of people gathered around a couple of windows. When we could get to the window to look there was a Jaguar just sitting on a rock, posing.
Outside we spotted a Black Panther. It was walking a clearly well-trodden path around its enclosure.
We had to get a photo with this guy - I think he was pretending not to notice us. We then entered a large wooden structure with a ramp to take us up a floor or two. In here were a number of apes and monkeys. We started with a couple of orangutans who were hanging about.
We found a giant leaf which was also just asking for a photo. Fortunately, we didn't see any giant caterpillars to go with it! Suddenly someone spotted that some orangutans had gone to the outside enclosure. We saw a young chap at first and then we saw the baby! Both were with mom, I assume.
Suddenly mom picked up a blanket and decided to head off. The tiny baby followed, also pulling a blanket, just like mom. The bigger youngster followed along but he must have been a teenager as he was not helping set up the picnic (or something).
They have a few Lar Gibbons here - apparently they like to pretend to be pencil toppers!
We found some more birds outside - a group of very pink Flamingos and some Humboldt Penguins. The penguins are from the most threatened species of penguins such that sixty zoos across Europe are co-operating to save them.
We got to see some Giant Otters. There are only about 5,000 of these left in the wild as their habitat - the rainforests - are destroyed. We got to watch them running and swimming up and down their zoo enclosure, but they were hard to photograph. Chester Zoo has a monorail that will take you around the zoo, but we didn't have time to ride it during this visit. Maybe another time.
Theo's favourite part of the Zoo was the Oakfield Pub! This can be found in the Victorian Manor House which used to be the home of the Zoo's founders, the Mottersheads. Okay so Theo's a little biased, but it's not every zoo that has a pub. Theo ordered a Somersby Cider while Frank and I had Kopparberg Pear Cider.
We continued on, noticing the Pub was closed when we left - phew, we must've only just made it. Theo was relieved! We passed Oakfield Manor with a red phone box outside.
We found some Asiatic Lions and amazingly they were on their feet - well, apart from this dead one. So okay, she wasn't dead, her ears were twitching, but the other two were walking about and stuff. I've rarely seen lions do much other than sleep in zoos. These are severely endangered, with just four hundred left living in protection in India, having been almost hunted to extinction in the mid-1900s.
Across the way we found another big cat. This time it was a Serval. This cat is able to leap three metres into the air to catch a bird or insect in flight. They also have big ears to sense animals tunnelling underground and long limbs to reach into burrows. We continued across a wooden walkway to Fruit Bat Forest. This is kept pretty dark (with few light sources) to emulate the bats' habitat so that we can see them flying around in the dark, which, I have to say, is amazing. They have Rodrigues Fruit Bats and Seba's Fruit Bats, but we couldn't really make them out that well. Just that we could see them flying about and dangling upside-down from branches.
The only bears - aside from us - that Chester Zoo has are Spectacled Bears. As the only bears from South America, Paddington Bear must be one of these - in case you were wondering. This guy looked like he was trying to make a run for it - he was pretty high up in that tree, certainly above fence height. However, he climbed back down the tree rather than jump on us! There was another bear in the enclosure.
We passed some Eastern Bongos - chestnut red antelope - the largest antelope in Africa - which have been hunted in Africa almost to extinction. There are less than 150 left in just a few small populations. These are some of the rarest animals in the World. Chester Zoo is part of a breeding programme. The Grevy's Zebras at Chester are also endangered and are part of a Europe-wide conservation programme.
Our penultimate animals as we headed towards the exit were the Rhinos. These are Eastern Black Rhinoceros.
Hunted for their horns they are critically endangered, with less than five hundred left in the wild.
Through the Black Rhino Conservation Chester Zoo has helped monitor rhino numbers in Kenya and Tanzania and educate the local communities.
And finally...the Meerkats! These ones do NOT have smoking jackets or speak with Russian accents, but they are still cute.
They live in groups of around twenty to thirty. As in the wild, there's usually one on guard duty, making sure everything is safe. We liked the sign telling folks these chaps do NOT make good pets. I can't imagine the mess they'd make of your sideboard.
We had a great day at Chester Zoo, with the humans paying £22 each. We could have spent more time there - we didn't ride the monorail or go in a boat. We didn't even see all of the animals. Of course, we did make time for the gift shop! Apparently I didn't need an elephant stool (it was only £299!) At least I got a picture with it! This elephant was cute too - I really wanted his sweatshirt but I don't like mugging stuffies for their clothes (very often).
Having driven up and leaving the car meant we were returning home by train. There were a few options but the faster train meant an hour's wait on a station half way through. Instead we opted for the slower train but it meant we'd have an hour in a seat, with power, without moving about. We got a lift to Chester Station to pick up our tickets. They had a very nice train plant pot!
We had a half hour wait which was good, as initially we got on the wrong train (Asst Di thought we were on the 5.35pm train but we were on the 5.31pm one. Oops. Fortunately we noticed before the train left and we hopped off and got onto ours (luckily on the same platform).
We had a nice journey back through from England to Wales and back to England on a sunny evening. We had our own supplies which made the journey a pretty good one. We changed trains at Wolverhampton and made it home on time. Yay!
TourGuideTed
comments powered by Disqus