BRISTOL ZOO

'Bristol Zoo' is a tourist attraction in the city of Bristol in South West England. The Zoo's stated mission is "''Bristol Zoo Gardens maintains and defends biodiversity through breeding endangered species, conserving threatened species and habitats and promoting a wider understanding of the natural world''".

History

Opened in 1836 by the Bristol, Clifton and West of England Zoological Society, Bristol Zoo is the world's oldest provincial zoo. It is a Victorian walled zoo located between Clifton Down and Clifton College, near Brunel's Clifton Suspension Bridge; it covers a small area by modern standards, but with a considerable number of species. In the 1960s the zoo came to national prominence by appearing in the UK television series, Animal Magic, hosted by the comic animal 'communicator', Johnny Morris.

South American Fur Seal seen through the observation windows at Seal and Penguin Coasts, Bristol Zoo.

The zoo's official name is Bristol Zoological Gardens ('Bristol Zoo Gardens' for commercial purposes). This is not in recognition of the flower displays but recognises the first use of that title at the Regent's Park Zoological Gardens. Bristol, like its earlier London counterpart, includes several original buildings which have been praised for their architectural quirks, despite being unsuitable for the care of animals; the (former) Giraffe House^[2] joins the main entrance lodge^[3] and the south gates on Guthrie Road^[4] as a Grade II listed building. The old Monkey Temple, resembling a southern-Asian temple, is now home to an exhibit called "Smarty plants", an interactive exhibit which shows how plants use and manipulate animals to survive.

Animal overview

Chandra and Moti, the asiatic lions at Bristol Zoo

Most of Bristol Zoo's larger animals have been removed. For example, there is no longer an elephant, giraffe, tiger, camel, bear or zebra. This is because the zoo authorities felt that large animals were not happy in the limited space that had been allocated to them.
The zoo has 300 mammals in its collection, representing 50 species (from a total of over 4,300 mammal species on earth); these include a pair of asiatic lions, okapi, pygmy hippo, red panda, capybara and primates.
The zoo has the world's first 'Twilight' zone, as well as insect and reptile houses, an aquarium, several aviaries and a world-class seal and penguin enclosure. Ducks swim on the lakes, while the lake islands are home to gorillas, monkeys, lemurs and pelicans .

Penguins at Bristol Zoo

Seal and Penguin Coasts

The ''Seal and Penguin Coasts'', a major attraction at the zoo opened in 1999, allow South American Fur Seals, African Penguins and Gentoo Penguins to be watched both above and below the water. The two pools contain 145,000 gallons (660,000 litres) of salt water, with waves (made by a wave machine), waterfalls, rocks and pebble beaches to simulate their natural habitat. The attraction is netted over the top to allow Inca Terns, Common Eider Ducks and Great Cormorants to be kept in the same enclosure.

Gorilla Island

''Gorilla Island'' is home to five western lowland gorillas (One male, two females & two recently-born babies), which are the largest animals kept at Bristol. As well as an indoor enclosure, they have an island to themselves. Although they are very strong with vicious-looking teeth, gorillas are herbivores and are not aggressive. Nevertheless, their keepers do not enter their island home because zoo policy is to keep the animals' captive environment as similar as possible to that of their natural African habitat.

Bug World and Twilight World

Lesser Malay mouse deer in ''Twilight World''

''Bug World'', the zoo's collection of invertebrates (animals without a backbone), includes insects such as locusts, grasshoppers and leaf-cutting ants. Ninety-five percent of the Earth's species are invertebrates, including insects, spiders, worms, snails, crabs, jellyfish and corals.
Bristol Zoo's ''Twilight World'' was the first such exhibit to offer the daytime visitor the chance to view the twilight behaviour of nocturnal animals. By exchanging night and day, the animals (which are awake during their 'night') can be observed during daylight hours. The lights allow a natural transition from night to day and vice versa. Animals that can be seen include fruit bats, sand cats, sloths, blind fish and Naked Mole Rats (Bristol's smallest mammal species) ,and the extremely endangered aye-aye.

Fish, Reptiles and Amphibians

The South East Asia tank in the zoo aquarium.

The Aquarium has over 70 species of fish. It shows three main watery habitats: coral reefs; the Amazon River; and the lakes and rivers of Africa. The Reptile House has lizards, snakes, iguana, turtles and dwarf crocodiles, as well as frogs (amphibians). Visitors can see reptile eggs incubating, this helping to maintain a sustainable captive population.

Wallace Aviary and Zona Brazil

Most of the species in the walk-through ''Wallace Aviary'' are from the Philippines where they are threatened with extinction through loss of habitat, hunting and killing for food. ''Zona Brazil'', which features a variety of South American animals, is another popular walk-through exhibit.

Monkey Jungle

In 2006 the zoo introduced a new exhibit, ''Monkey Jungle'', which features Red Ruffed Lemurs, Ring Tailed Lemurs, Lion-tailed Macaques, Black Howlers and De Brazza's Monkeys, with the former 2 being a walkthrough exhibit with no separation between the lemurs and the public. Its location allows the De Brazza's Monkeys access to ''Gorilla Island'' through a hollowed log, and so far only the female De Brazza has been seen on Gorilla Island

Wendy the elephant

Wendy the Asian Elephant had to be euthanised, because of arthritis, in 2003 at the age of 42. The zoo authorities say they will never again house large animals, including elephants, at their Bristol site. Wendy's enclosure has since been redeveloped and the area is now occupied by two okapi

Conservation & future projects

Bristol Zoo supports wildlife conservation, education and breeding programmes world-wide. For example, Bristol works with other zoos around the world to breed lemurs in captivity. Native to Madagascar, the lemurs are critically endangered because their forest habitat is being destroyed. Closer to home, the zoo has helped to reintroduce the water vole to parts of Southern England.
A number of mammals are kept on an additional site to the north of Bristol. There are plans to relocate many more species to the Hollywood Tower estate near Cribbs Causeway, as part of a second zoo. In the more short term, an agile Gibbon enclosure is being built on a couple of islands on the zoos lake

References

1. Bristol Zoo Annual Report 2006
2. Bristol Zoological Gardens, Giraffe House
3. Bristol Zoological Gardens entrance
4. South entrance gates and screen walls to Bristol Zoological Gardens

Gallery

External link

★ Bristol Zoo official site

★ Panoramic images from the BBC

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