I do dislike London’s weather at this time of year – it’s just cold without anything interesting happening like snow – a bit depressing. So, to make us all feel a little better I’m going to draw some more material from last summer’s unpublished archive, this time all about Chester Zoo.
Established by local philanthropist George Mottershead in 1934, the ‘North of England Zoological Society’ as it was then known has now grown into a series of enclosures and buildings covering over 110 acres of land. I have rather mixed feelings about zoos, but I do recognise that without them some species would be far more threatened than they are. One of my particular favourites at Chester Zoo is the ‘Realm Of The Red Ape’, a modern building and outside enclosure which houses the zoo’s orangutans. Inside there are viewing windows at all levels, and on our visit one of the females took great delight in suspending herself just on the other side of one of them and studying her visitors, as we in turn studied her – it was a wonderful experience looking into her intelligent eyes and wondering what she might be thinking – ‘ugly humans’ probably! I also rather liked the Butterfly Journey, a long tunnel which contains hundreds of butterflies, great and small, which floated about from branch to leaf to flower and back again.
Chester Zoo contains all the animals you might imagine – elephants, rhinos, giraffes, lions, leopards and tigers, and I had great fun on my visit back in August. Here’s a sample of those that caught the attention of the camera lens. Enjoy them while we all look forward to sunny Spring weather…