I’ve always found Edinburgh Zoo pretty horrid for the animals, although obviously much of that is historical accident which is difficult to change without *huge* amounts of cash.

Christmas Day is a good day to go – it always used to be free! And a nice family atmosphere too.

The Zoo has a ‘Masterplan’ which over the next 20 years (too long I think) is set to change the whole zoo. There are a few enclosures that need done now, polar bear as an example, but some have recently been changed for the better and the new chimpanzee enclosure which opens in January 2008 certainly looks like a much better living environment for the animals.

I think the sponsorship and extortionate prices of juice, etc is a way that they can bring in extra monies for the zoo. So many places like this have to get extra money in as the funding from the government is non-existant.

Some of the enclosures at Ed aren’t nice. It is somewhat of an old-fashioned zoo with the animals “on display” rather than in habitats that suit their nature at times (the polar bear springs to mind, don’t know if she’s still there but last time I saw her she was just going round and round her pen which was awful) The site is hard work as it’s built up that huge slope meaning that unless some kind soul has tipped you off to catching the “train” to the top and working your way down you end up exhausted before you reach the half way point.

I can’t remember how many of their animals are on conservation schemes and to my mind that’s what zoos should be concentrating on rather than displaying animals for the purposes of gawking spectators. Chester has predominantly species taht are on teh verge of extinction and is involved in breeding projects with other zoos to widen the gene pool and put right some of the damage we have done over the years. Chester is also significantly more expensive than £10 per person (but probably more than twice the size) and has all the obligatory merchandising and invitations to sponsor individual animals, join them for evening meals in their (wonderful, silver service) restaurant followed by being frightened by all the nocturnal noises (!) Many of the enclosures there don’t provide perfect viewing opportunities but are better for the animals, I don’t think I’ve ever seen “caged” behaviour there.

However, the best habitat I’ve seen by far is Africa Alive at Kessingland in East Anglia where they have a huge central “Savannah” for a number of different species which allows them to roam as they would naturally but still have nice dry warm pens for at night time. They have a similar thing for their water birds although the local duck population tend to “gatecrash” that area! It’s probably comparable in size to Ed. and I can’t remember how much it is as we’ve always gone in as a group. They also do a lot of conservation and breeding work there.

I do think that if you want to look at animals then it should be with the aid of some clever camera work and Bill Oddy (or other wildlife comentator) on your TV rather than some furry freek show but most UK zoos aren’t like that now. Most are committed to repairing the damage that we have done to the world’s populations of some animals and really by going we are just donating to that work – seeing the animals is a sort of bonus.

The poorer weather must have an effect on visitor numbers. I’m not convinced that what I saw was benefiting the animals more than the visitors, rowdy behaviour should be nipped in the bud for a start.