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Helen Fowler
Say hello to our resident Edinburgh expert! Helen is here to keep you posted on the latest goings on in Edinburgh. This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to talk about the blog.
| On the Budongo trail |
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Anyone visiting Edinburgh with kids - or, indeed, anyone with an interest in animals and animal conservation - will enjoy visiting the Budongo Trail at Edinburgh Zoo. It's a new, world-class chimpanzee enclosure that challenges all the out-dated ideas (concrete cages, iron bars, minimal space for miserable animals) many of us have about what zoos are like. There are no cages in the enclosure, which can house up to 40 chimps, but instead a series of huge rooms and outdoor spaces, complete with climbing frame and vegetation, through which the animals are free to wander at will. Visitors can enjoy watching the chimps roam about the rooms via interconnecting passage ways, swing from scaffolding, feed, rest and groom each other - all from a large viewing gallery complete with plasma screens, interactive statues, games and samples of the tools chimps use in daily life. The rooms differ in their temperature, humidity and light levels and each chimp tends to have a preferred hang-out. Keepers will identify different animals by name, if you are interested, so do ask them to tell you who is who, and they will also point out who is the current 'alpha male', 'mother of alpha male', 'dominant female' etc. within the chimp group. There's also a lecture theatre in the complex where you can hear more about the zoo's conservation work in Uganda, Africa with the species. The entire set-up could not be more different to the cages I associate with zoos from my childhood and, seeing the chimps so content in their enclosure, it succeeds in removing all guilt from a family zoo outing. The Budongo Trail is worth a visit on its own merits, and would easily fill a morning, but it's also worth knowing Edinburgh Zoo has many other attractions to occupy a day out, including the penguins, lions, rhinos, zebras and flamingoes. Good cafes, a hilltop safari trail, shop and several playparks deservedly make the zoo a favourite destination for visitors and Edinburgh residents alike. |
