Can't wait till tonight - going to the zoo!!!

[Spirit]

On a special, one off late night opening :thumbs: they open at 7pm until 10pm and apart from getting to see the animals in action at dusk there is a BBQ too - hopefully weather will be dry, if not a tad cold.
Reason I'm going is because I'm sudying a course in large cats and as Lions are their most active at night (when they do the majority of their hunting) I'm hoping to capture some behaviour that you wouldn't normally see during the day and that they are a lot more active too. I know they won't be hunting stuff (well they get fed on raw, already dead meat) but I hope to capture social behaviour from the males and females and maybe even the ritual before mating takes place. And maybe some cubs fighting or being taught balance etc by their mums. :smitten:
So it's note pad and pencils at the ready and armed with video cam, & camera - it's gonna be soo exciting - the nearest to camping out in the desert at night I'm gonna get....... probably. :)
Wish me luck :thumbs:

[Aitch]

Good luck - hope they don't keep you. :p :D

[JB]

As toddler JBess wailed, for most of last night, I seriously considered taking her to the zoo and leaving her in the Tiger's enclosure. Only the though of the court action the RSPCA would take against me for cruelty to an endangered species prevented me from actually doing it.

:indiff:

[MattyGee]

lol @ JB :D

id love to go on a proper safari someday, would be ace :nod:
are they just opening the zoo specially for the people on your course Amy ?

[Spirit]

lol @ JB :D

id love to go on a proper safari someday, would be ace :nod:
are they just opening the zoo specially for the people on your course Amy ?

No not just for the course - it's a home study one that I do (which is bloody hard, considering no-one in my family knows naff all about fossils, latin (well I have to learn all the actual species names so rather than a lion being a lion it's Panthera leo ), big cats, their evolution, little cats, nutrition etc and theres no teacher or classmates to ask questions). It's must be a promotional thing to see if it's successful.

Yeah I'd love to go on a safari :thumbs: and camp out in the back of a 4x4 watching the cats on a kill in the moonlight. :smitten:

And JB you're funny ;) :D

[Cath]

Zoo's :down: like a bloody circus :down:

See animals in their natural habitats???? :indiff: see then in what we humans presume is a natural habitat. See an animal that normally has miles upon miles of open land to roam ect kept in a 1 acre enclosure :down:

Money brings exploitation

Sorry just my opinion

[archenemy.co.uk]

I was at Whipsnade the other week and saw something about late night openings, so I'll presume its Whipsnade you're talking about, if so you won't have much luck with the Lions, there aren't any :indiff: only tigers.

While I was there walking round the elephants were being walked down from their enclosure to play on Dunstable downs, 3 big females and a little baby, all walking along holding each others tails with their trunks, I was about 10 ft away from them, impressive.

Penguins rule :thumbs:

[Jim]

That sounds great...


Hope you enjoy it :D

[MattyGee]

penguins do rule :nod: :thumbs:
and meerkats, the meerkats at the zoo near me (twycross) are ace :cool:

im going to orlando this summer with my g/f and we are going to sea world and busch gardens which is like a big safari park - i cant wait :D

[Cath]

Evidence shows that zoo’s etc encourages illegal wild animal trade and today animal trade is amongst the major global illicit trade activities such as the drug trade .

Even if wild animals are left ‘unrestrained’ in large enclosure, this cannot compare in any way to the extensive territories and the optimal climatic conditions available to these wild animals in their natural habitat!

Zoos have never been the solution for the protection of animals. The best way to protect animals is by protecting their natural habitat not by breeding them.
This is shown in example of China, it has been captive-breeding giant pandas for almost half a century, and has nothing to show for it except a history of failures……..

Animal lovers are not people who look at animals in cages or enclosures, but who want them safe and protected in their natural habitat for generations to come.

Zoo’s etc are judged, any such project is judged by how "profitable" it will be, shows very clearly that the main interest is financial and not environmental which shows the idea of a zoo-project offends the sentiments of those who have come to appreciate nature the right way

We exploit animals for our own pleasure

[JB]

We exploit animals for our own pleasure
Sounds good to me ;)

Anyone been to West Mids Safari Park recently? This thread has spurred me on to organise a little family outing at the weekend :)

[archenemy.co.uk]

we were pretty disgusted when we saw the size of the Sealion pond, and they used to keep Dolphins in there :rolleyes:

I hear what you're saying but I'm sure plenty of people have seen animals in parks/zoos and gone on to work for the good of the animals in their natural habitat.

[Jim]

Evidence shows that zoo’s etc encourages illegal wild animal trade and today animal trade is amongst the major global illicit trade activities such as the drug trade .

Even if wild animals are left ‘unrestrained’ in large enclosure, this cannot compare in any way to the extensive territories and the optimal climatic conditions available to these wild animals in their natural habitat!

Zoos have never been the solution for the protection of animals. The best way to protect animals is by protecting their natural habitat not by breeding them.
This is shown in example of China, it has been captive-breeding giant pandas for almost half a century, and has nothing to show for it except a history of failures……..

Animal lovers are not people who look at animals in cages or enclosures, but who want them safe and protected in their natural habitat for generations to come.

Zoo’s etc are judged, any such project is judged by how "profitable" it will be, shows very clearly that the main interest is financial and not environmental which shows the idea of a zoo-project offends the sentiments of those who have come to appreciate nature the right way

We exploit animals for our own pleasure

This was a party political broadcast by the FRH party :D

Yes I agree, although if spirit needs to study the cats and whipsnade happens to be just up the road, I would argue that despite the greater good of your statement, it is the perfect place for her studies...

[Aitch]

Safari parks are the business - if you take a paintball gun you can do a bit of big-game hunting without actually harming the animals. :thumbs:

[archenemy.co.uk]

Sounds good to me ;)

Anyone been to West Mids Safari Park recently? This thread has spurred me on to organise a little family outing at the weekend :)

Can you keep animals outside that far north :confused:

Don't they need some kind of cold weather gear, little raincoats etc ;)

[mav]

Which zoo are you going to?

Last time we went (couple of years ago) to Woburn Abbey Safari park on the hottest day of the year, we had an Astra GTE at the time :( , crawling around at a few mph. Got to the middle of the wolf pack and the engine dies on me. Wont restart due to heat soak. Eventually a ranger turns up and gets out to give us a jump start.

All those sweet innocent looking wolves suddenly started prowling and circling and it took another ranger in his jeep driving in a circle around us to keep them away. Apart from that we were also stuck in the car not allowed to open the windows and in baking heat that really wasnt funny. To look at me at that point you would have thought I was standing in a shower (im not kidding) as the sweat poured off me. Anyay the ranger got us going again and we made our way out.

Hot day = drilled airbox and craling along is not a good idea :(

Still all in all we thoroughly enjoyed the day.

[Clong]

Enjoy your Camp, if you ever get the opportunity to see them in the wild, do so. It is a truly humbling experience. My wife and i were camping in the bush in Kenya, at Eselenki park and a Cheetah killed a impala 10 feet away from a our tent at 2 am. I was under the impression that cheetah used speed to kill, but given the terrain, dense bush with clearing no more the 40 feet wide, it must of ambushed the impala.

The Lions are something else, first time i saw some in Tsavo i used nigh on 2 rolls of film, just on the one pride. At the time i thought they were all females, but as i found out there were males there too, Tsavo lions don't grow manes.

[arry]

Zoo always reminds me of this:

We got the lions!! (http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/29/)

:D

[archenemy.co.uk]

Zoo always reminds me of this:

We got the lions!! (http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/29/)

:D

Have you seen the version somebody's done themselves LOL :thumbs:

[FullMetalGasket]

Safari parks are the business - if you take a paintball gun you can do a bit of big-game hunting without actually harming the animals. :thumbs:

ROTL :notworthy
I have an image of all the Elephants at longleat covered in bright splodges of paint now! :wack:

[tintin63]

Even if wild animals are left ‘unrestrained’ in large enclosure, this cannot compare in any way to the extensive territories and the optimal climatic conditions available to these wild animals in their natural habitat!

Zoos have never been the solution for the protection of animals. The best way to protect animals is by protecting their natural habitat not by breeding them.
This is shown in example of China, it has been captive-breeding giant pandas for almost half a century, and has nothing to show for it except a history of failures……..

Although i kind of agree with you on your oppinions there are exceptions. The Mountain Gorilla of Rowanda is suffering from a decline in quantity in the wild but in captivity they are breeding as well as they can. It doesn't matter how well you protect an animals environment you also need to protect the animal it's self from poachers and alike. The Dian Fossey foundation spend shed loads on anti poaching teams but you cant be every where at once :(

As for the Pandas of China, it has been proven that their breeding has never been an every day thing. They are their own worst enemy as it doesn't seem to matter what civilization does for them, they just wont shag :furious: