London Landmarks - London Zoo

London Landmarks - London Zoo

22 February, 2011
by: Spoonfed Team

Tomas Olesen visits London Zoo, and no there aren't any camels with no humps called Humphrey.

Value:  8
Queues:  7
Shop: 6
Family-friendly: 9
Enjoyment: 9

Total: 39/50

It's been a long time since I last went to London Zoo, about 20 years in fact. It's been a long time mainly because seeing animals in cages makes me sad. I know conservation is the watchword for the Zoo now, and they're involved in a lot of very worthy projects, but try and tell the red panda he's better off here than being hunted for ceremonial bushmeat in the wild. As I watch him pacing back and forth, clearly distressed, trying to find a way out of his cage I can't help thinking that, given the choice, he'd take his chances with the hunters. It's a feeling reinforced by watching a cheeky pigeon mockingly land on top of the aviary holding a pair of striated caracara (birds of prey, duh!) as if to say, "not so tough now, hey!".

Of the other inmates I visit, highlights include the butterfly house in which an enormous butterfly lands on my shoulder and hangs out for a bit as I wander around. It's a magical moment despite making me look like a really soft pirate. The newest areas, Rainforest Life and B.U.G.S, are both fantastic additions to the Zoo and an indication of the direction they're taking now when it comes to exhibits. Rainforest Life includes a dusk and night area where you can watch a swarm of bats in a mock cave and a constantly misted slice of daytime rainforest full of critters with a walkway around it that allows monkeys and tamarins to clamber overhead. There's a Meet The Monkeys area in another part of the Zoo that allows you to watch spider monkeys whizzing about overhead on a series of ropes and wooden structures as you follow a path through the undergrowth. It's these walk-through areas that I enjoy the most because the animals in them seem relaxed and happy and, as staged as it may be, it gives one a sense of encountering an animal in the wild.

Going to London Zoo early in the week is a great idea too. Bar the school groups marauding around the place it's nice and empty and you don't have to jostle for position to see anything. London schoolkids are something else though, and I'm shocked by their behaviour and the seeming lack of control their teachers exert over them on numerous occasions. They bang on fish tanks, shout at the pygmy hippos (who to be fair don't seem overly phased by it), and make loads of noise and use flash photography around the gorilla enclosure that currently houses a newborn, all despite masses of polite signs requesting the opposite.

There are a lot of remarkable things to see at the Zoo, and thanks to the redevelopment of various exhibits it's only really the Red Panda and the most miserable looking aardvark in the world that leave me with pangs of human guilt. It's definitely a whole day out, and even though I hot-foot it around I still don't manage to see everything, and eventually get ejected at closing whilst halfway around the reptile house checking out some iridescent blue poison arrow frogs.

But then that's the beauty of London Zoo – it's not just another tourist trap, it's a resource for London in the same way that our parks and museums are. It demands revisting as it's constantly changing. And besides, how could one ever get bored of watching newborn tamarins or ceaseless lines of leaf cutter ants. With a fantastic looking new penguin area under construction and a packed schedule of daily events the future looks very bright for London Zoo. There are certainly few rivals for a better day out in the capital.

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Spoonfed Team