Chester Zoo Review

We've always loved Chester Zoo, but we haven't visited since our sons were children, our 19 year old sons girlfriend came to stay and we told her what a wonderful place it was to visit, even though expensive, it was well worth it as you could see many species of animals. We decided to go on a Sunday 28th June 2010, the weather was glorious and the zoo was not crowded due to the world cup on TV.

Upon arrival at around 11am we got good 'near to' parking, there was no queue and no waiting. we thought £16.95PP was a little expensive, but thought it would be well spent. The first exhibit we saw were the elephants, there were none outside so we had to go inside. we found the enclosure smell nauseating and in need of a clean. One of the elephants looked very drawn in the face and unhappy.

Most of the other exhibits were very disappointing, and nothing like they used to be. many of the animal species they used to have are gone, and the ones they do have are in fewer numbers, most of these animals prefer to live in groups or prides, but we found the majority of animal 'groups' we we lucky enough to see, consisted of just 2 animals.

Viewing each exhibit is a feat in itself, with most enclosures being surrounded by trees, bushes and/or 6 foot fences. you have to walk around the full size of each enclosure to find a small viewing area, this is very tiring and it would be hard to get to see through the small gaps during busy days full of people. The high fences are ugly and give the appearance of a building site. Other enclosures consist of a small fence, a large space then the cage fence, a row of trees then bushes. it is impossible to see anything behind that, others are 6-7 foot walls/fences with small slits you have to put your eye up to see through. There are also islands across a river, which supposedly contains animals, I don't know if there was, all I saw was bushes and trees far across a river. In total I can count on one hand the amount of animals I saw outside, I saw plenty of trees, fences and bushes though.

There were lots of oranutans in the indoor house, however it looked more like a pre Victorian prison than a home for them. they needed a nicer environment, this was just awful for them. They also needed some decent toys,

I would have liked to see the babies playing with something better than a tatty old cardboard box.

There were plenty of penguins, but outdoor viewing again was blocked by fencing and bushes, the underwater view would have been good if the water wasn't filthy and green. There was a notice saying that the water was bad due to technical problems and the penguins were ok, but swimming in a swamp can't be good for them.

The yellow mongooses were really cute, but there were just 2 of them.

We also saw kangaroos, which surprisingly were in a decent group, looked happy and were not obscured by ridiculous fencing or bushes.

We were very disappointed and felt that we had taken an expensive walk in a park rather than visited a zoo. We didn't see many animals at all, and some conditions need improvement.



We left with the feeling that most of the exhibits were ridiculously obscured to hide the fact that there were very few animals inside. Since our last visit the amount of species has halved and the amount in each enclosure has also halved.



The picnic areas also lacked anything to looks at, unless you like bushes or the sides of buildings.



Verdict:

Good: if you like trees, bushes, fences, rivers, walking, kangaroos then Chester zoo is the place to go

Bad: If you want to see animals. Try pets at home.



We won't be visiting again.