Member's Day at Chester

MORE MONKEY PORTRAITS

20th April 2013

Chester Zoo has three Member’s Days each year. Members can bring guests at reduced prices and they get a few little freebies too, although I have never bothered to use any of my free monorail tickets. There is also a programme of meetings with keepers, which can be interesting. It was a very busy day as Member’s Day coincided with the first nice Saturday in weeks, so the zoo was expecting more than ten thousand visitors (and I would be surprised if they didn’t exceed that number).

It’s an interesting time at the Zoo because work has just started on the Islands exhibit which is a major extension on undeveloped land behind the oryx enclosure. It is due to open in two years time, which might seem slow going, but after all the great crested newts are moved, a big new tropical house will be built for birds, crocodiles and Sumatran orang utans, with a smaller house for Komodo dragons. There will also be a new waterway for boat rides, enclosure complexes for the orangs, Sumatran tigers (with a tunnel), aviaries for hornbills and various other livestock. Then it will take time to install drains, filters, heating systems and visitor facilities, more time for planting and theming and finally of course the animals will have to be settled in.

Zoos always aim to have new exhibits open around Easter, when visitor numbers start to rise during the school holidays, but before the peak visiting period in summer. This year’s developments at Chester are linked to the planning for Islands. There is a new off-show breeding aviary complex which may be used to raise birds for Islands. The old crane aviary has been turned into a bird rearing unit, particularly for cranes and waterfowl, which will be interesting. A couple of new species are already on show, but they will eventually move into Islands: a Malayan tapir is in the old Cattle House instead of the wart hogs and Javan banteng have replaced the bongos near the old entrance. The bongos have been moved next to the zebras in the West Zoo. Many of the other animals for Islands are already kept in the Zoo; once they are moved we expect that their current enclosures will be renovated for further new species.

Of course I had my camera with me, but as I spent so much time talking with friends and a couple of keepers, I didn’t take my usual number of photos. I did spend some time in Miniature Monkeys where the golden-headed lion tamarins and emperor tamarins had been moved back to their old enclosure and were calling loudly to each other as they explored the trees. It needed patience to get good views and even more to get some photos, particularly when the sunlight was filtered by the leaves, but I got a couple of decent shots with my trusty 500mm tele. The first is a sort of MGM shot, (although lion tamarins don't roar, they chirp), the second is a moment of caution while checking it is safe to descend to the ground.

Chester’s monkey house only holds four species, but they are all kept in big groups, so there is always something going on. Their outdoor enclosures are large and thickly planted so it can be difficult to see the monkeys if they don’t come near the moats. I was lucky to get good views of this lion-tailed macaque and young mandrill.

At the end of the day, I was walking with a couple of friends when we found the aardvarks were active. I confess that I had never seen them awake before, so I was pleased that the light was still good enough for me to get decent results with my 105mm lens.