Zoo Trip #40: Twycross Zoo

My membership of Marwell Wildlife in Hampshire allows me one free admission at a number of other zoos, including Twycross Zoo in Leicestershire. My stay at Tutbury afforded the perfect opportunity to visit it on my return journey as it less than 40 minutes drive from there, and I arrived there mid-morning.

I had been there on two previous occasions in recent years but knew it of old when I lived in the Midlands, and used to visit when it was a much smaller enterprise at its former home in Hints, near Lichfield (when it was called Hints Zoo and was known for its chimps that featured in PG Tips adverts). The woman who founded it used to run a pet shop in my home town of Sutton Coldfield, and used to buy from me the baby mice I used to breed as a boy.

The place was almost deserted when I arrived but filled up as the day progressed. I spent over four hours there and made more than one circuit of the entire grounds and came away with a mountain of photographs. Although best known for its primates I was more interested in other animals such as the lemurs, leopards, snow leopards and elephants. There is a lemur walk-through but as it was slightly cold, the lemurs refused to come out of their heated enclosure, but I was far luckier with the leopards as I was able to photograph both of the Amur leopards and their two cubs and also all four snow leopards including the two one-year old males who emerged to play right in front of the viewing area in the afternoon under the watchful eye of their parents. One of the adults was on a ledge just above the viewing area, spying on the public through some wire netting, unobserved by most of them until I pointed him out, to see their delighted reactions.

I could have chosen leopard or snow leopard shots but I have blipped these in the past, whereas I have never had the opportunity to blip elephants before. I visited the elephants in their enclosure three or four times during my visit, including their feeding time, and saw this baby elephant, very popular with the visitors, among them.

L.
17.11.2014 (1847 hr)/
18.11.2014 (1057 hr)(image changed)

Blip #1423
Consecutive Blip #007
Day #1686
LOTD #658 (#778 including archived blips)

Alternatives:
Black-tailed Prairie Dog
Flamingos
Cattle Egret
Asian Small-Clawed Otters
Chapman's Zebra
Female Amur Leopard
Leopard Cub

Twycross Zoo, 5 November 2014 (Flickr album)

Lens: Pentax 55-300 mm

Zoo Trip series
Twycross Zoo series

Lozarhythm Of The Day:
Sinéad O'Connor - Take Me To Church (recorded live, 16 October 2014, Later... with Jools Holland)

One year ago: Bowood 2013 #29: Bowood House