London Zoo

A cool bird hanging out near the gorillas

I have to say that I like a good zoo and the other weekend we finally got along to London's.  It's in the middle of Regents Park, so I've already had a free peak at the African hunting dogs, though I thought they were hyenas at the time.  Regents Canal actually runs through the zoo, so when we walked along it we also got to see a bit of the aviary.  We had attempted a visit on one of the glorious September days we got last year, but were foiled by the 400m long line.  So this time we came armed with internet tickets, I tell you we are turning into hardened tourists!

The zoo was opened in 1828 and contains over 600 species.  I actually think the age wears on it a bit, it must be hard having to use enclosures that are over 100 years old and still try to implement modern zoo practises.  I think perhaps the old enclosures wear on the animals a bit too.  There was one giraffe there which I was sure was crazy.  We watched it for maybe 5 minutes and it just kept doing the same action over and over again.  It would walk to one end of it's indoor house, take a bit of hay, throw it's head back, turn in a circle, walk back through the door to the other end of the house, put it's head in the food trough, and repeat.  The keepers did talk a lot about "enrichment" which I think was their way of trying to gloss over the fact that their animals were bored out of their minds.

I always wonder why they don't feed some of their animals in a more natural way, you know release live fish into the otter and penguin enclosures, or maybe some mice in with the owls.  You couldn't feed them this way all the time, because the weakest members would probably starve to death.  I guess the argument is that it's cruel to the animal to be eaten, but then is it more cruel for the animals in the zoos to be going crazy with boredom?  Actually I think if people saw a lion hunt they would probably be horrified.  So perhaps not for the big cats, maybe balls soaked in blood or something for them.

Though I do wonder about keeping the big animals in zoos anymore, can't you keep them in semi-safari conditions, like Western Plains zoo or something.  They just seem to need so much room to move around in.  And in zoos I don't think they could even run.  And the bonus would be if you moved all the big animals the little animals could get more room too.  Maybe the keepers have some place outside of London where they rotate the animals, give them a break from all the people.

The Galapagos tortoises

They had a few animal shows, most of them were just where they fed the animals.  Though they did have one bird show, which was kind of cool, though nothing on the bird show they have at Taronga.  I think Taronga is a better zoo to be honest, the animals seemed happier there, and the enclosures were a bit more fit for purpose.  It seems a bit like perhaps London zoo should just bulldoze and start again, or just turn it into a petting zoo, so all the city folk can see what their dinner looks like before it ends up overly packaged in Sainsburys.

It wasn't all bad though, they did have one awesome rainforest enclosure, which was a massive building and all the animals were free to roam around together, so the monkeys could be hanging out in a tree right above the boardwalk, if you were lucky.  That was really cool, it was like you were walking through the jungle.

I have to say though that the aviary near Regents Canal was a bit of a let down.  I mean they had black swans in there, and ibises, they are not special birds by any stretch.  But I guess because that aviary was a fair way away from the main buildings, and separated by the canal, they probably couldn't put their endangered birds there for fear of bird-rustlers.

Would I recommend it?  Maybe if you had small children and it was a really nice day, but in that case definitely take tickets with you!