Call of the Wild

"Call of the Wild" It's a film I expect that most have heard of.  It's also a small zoo near South Woodham Ferrers.  It's ideal for young children and was a good place to take our grandchild, while his parents were at a high profile football match.  It is on the site of "Tropical Wings" that closed about a decade ago.  We had been there many times and always enjoyed  the visit.  They are still getting established - more animals are coming next week (alligators) and later in the summer (flamingos).  Some parts of the park are still closed.  Still, it was a good visit - and the new children's (under 6) play area was nice and much appreciated by our 4 year old.

Ring-tailed Lemur

We made it the Lemur talk, which was very informative, and it is great that they let us so close to the animals.

They have quite a lot of birds, meerkats and otters.  I had my new camera with me.  I got mixed results, but there is a lot of learning to do, so I expect to improve.  There is also a butterfly house, which was seriously tropical.  It was minutes before I could see through my glasses, much to the amusement of some of the other visitors.

There are various geckos:

This one I named Harry, after the lizard in Death in Paradise (which is CGI by the way!).  There are some small wild cats - servals:

They are behind a fence that looks a little like chain mail, I tried to get a shot of one eating, but my camera skills weren't up to it.

The birds of prey display should be ready later in the year, the birds are in training.  That seems to mean sitting on their perch, ignoring everything around them.  I hope it works out.

There are also goats, wallabies, a lama, pigs, a rhea.

The Longest Summer Holiday Ever? 3:Coming out of lock down: Colchester Zoo

It has been quite a while since we visited Colchester Zoo.  Yesterday's visit was via an invitation, and I suspect we were there as a 'trial run' for the real opening, which would have happened today.  Much has changed, admission is by booking only, there is a queueing system, carefully marked out in 2 meter spaces, and there is a one way system around the zoo.  Some of the toilets, many of the food outlets and the children's play area are closed.  The train is not open yet.

The new system worked quite smoothly.  Most people are still careful about 'social distancing'.  The paths are marked with arrows, paw prints and spots to mark queueing positions, in some places they could have been clearer, but mostly they were very obvious, and easier to spot when looking for them.  There is even a queueing system for getting out.  There are extra staff about too.  Some visitors, but by no means all, are wearing face masks.  All the staff are.

The smaller numbers meant that the zoo has a less congested feel, indeed there were places where it felt very strange as we could not see another person on the path ahead or behind us.  Occasionally there was a bit of a wait to see the animals, the viewing areas are also marked out to help people keep their distance, when the visitors in front go, move into the space.

We took lots of photos, and I made a short video of some of the animals: