The Dublin zoo appreciation thread.

Ghandee

Yeah so I went to the zoo today for probably the last time this year.

I'm not convinced Dublin zoo, and the hard working staff that work relentlessly to keep such a magnificent collection of animals, in some, if not, the most modern and excellently maintained enclosures in the world, survive,and prosper, could ever get enough praise from the general public, on such an excellent job they do.

Imho, Dublin Zoo is one of the best zoos in the world.

What are your experiences of Dublin zoo?

Where To

I've never been in it. Been to Belfast zoo loads of times though, it's class, they have monkeys. No pandas though, which is good. I hate pandas.

Mr. Incognito

Expensive,

Expansive

And okay in general.

Animals all seem a bit sad though. Locking them up deffo drains their spirits and mine

Nodin

Where To wrote: »

I've never been in it. Been to Belfast zoo loads of times though, it's class, they have monkeys. No pandas though, which is good. I hate pandas.

I suspect that they are perverts, myself.

Smidge

Third oldest zoo in the world!

kerry4sam

I've not yet been to Dublin Zoo but it does sound like a place to add to my must-see list though, going by your opening post Ghandee

mikemac1

Where To wrote: »

I hate pandas.

:eek:

That's just impossible

Ghandee

Where To wrote: »

I've never been in it. Been to Belfast zoo loads of times though, it's class, they have monkeys. No pandas though, which is good. I hate pandas.

Well I got to within an inch of a silver back gorilla today.

Bit of glass reflection, but you'll get the drift.

Edit, can't attach pics at moment.

BUBBLE WRAP

Where To wrote: »

I've never been in it. Been to Belfast zoo loads of times though, it's class, they have monkeys. No pandas though, which is good. I hate pandas.

Aw my favorite crustacean.

Where To

mikemac1 wrote: »

:eek:

That's just impossible

They're an abomination, they should be allowed to become extinct naturally.

Bipolar Joe

I love Dublin Zoo. On one trip, I saw several animals peeing, one of which was being drank by another, and a chimp getting oral sex. Good times.

Tombi!

I once saw two animals (it might have been badgers or wolverines or something like that) rip apart a (I assume) dead animal for lunch.
Was on a class trip.

Quite possibly the best trip ever.

Peregrine

Smidge wrote: »

Third oldest zoo in the world!

Why do Dublin people do this? See anything in Dublin and suddenly claim it's the oldest in the world. I've even seen Dublin being claim as the oldest city in the world

Is it really the third oldest?

Stheno

Nimrod 7 wrote: »

Why do Dublin people do this? See anything in Dublin and suddenly claim it's the oldest in the world. I've even seen Dublin being claim as the oldest city in the world

Is it really the third oldest?

Open since the 1830s

Richard Hillman

Id kinda like to go as i have not been since i was about 3-4 and dont remember it. The thing that really holds me back is that i think it would be greatly sad to see Great animals like the Tiger, the Lion and the Snow Leopard caged in. The snow leopard is not an animal you should just pay 15 quid to see. You need to earn the right to see a snow leopard. Its too great and elusive an animal to just be boxed in behind perspex glass.

Its not my cup of tea and I dont like it at all. It would make me very sad to see this.

SeaFields

Fota for the win

dodderangler

It's wayyyyy too expensive and bit boring
For a start the wolves are kept in a small enclosure.... Way too small. They are a pack animal
The Penguins are never there
Last time I was there I didn't see them because a fox was on the loose in the park and they had to put them away
And as a falconer myself the snowy owl is in terrible condition
As for the reptile house the biggest snake was like 5 foot
Come on scare me ffs

AllGunsBlazing

I went to Dublin zoo in the early 80's as a kid and it was a thoroughly depressing experience. My abiding memory was of a polar bear swimming in rank green water that was littered with coke cans.

No doubt they've cleaned the place up a bit since those days, but watching animals wander around aimlessly in an alien environment is not for me.

LiffeyValleyB

It's seriously cruel and unnatural in my opinion. You can almost tell from the animals expressions how upset they are being locked up 24/7.

Tombi!

Don't animals only move from area to area because of lack of food/predators in the current area?

I'm not trying to start anything but it's just something that I thought of.

Kinda like how you could say "it's cruel" to not let housecats hunt birds or rats because it's what they do.

Smidge

Nimrod 7 wrote: »

Why do Dublin people do this? See anything in Dublin and suddenly claim it's the oldest in the world. I've even seen Dublin being claim as the oldest city in the world

Is it really the third oldest?

I never said it was the oldest in the world!!

I think its a great fact about Dublin zoo, that's all

syklops

dodderangler wrote: »

The Penguins are never there

Thats because lads keep nicking them.

syklops

Little known fact:

The lion you see at the start of every MGM movie, was born in Dublin Zoo.

Da Shins Kelly

I was there a couple of times as a child, but I find the zoo incredibly depressing, to be honest.

dodderangler

syklops wrote: »

Thats because lads keep nicking them.

Look
As I told the Garda already
I put the bag down the penguin jumped in to eat my tuna sandwich and I walked out with it
I didn't know it was in my bag

markie29

went back to Dublin Zoo last year for the first time since i was 6 when i was surrounded by a ferocious herd of goats,yes you read it right :P ....they wanted my tayto crisps i just threw them away and ran :P

Lapin

Ghandee wrote: »

Imho, Dublin Zoo is one of the best zoos in the world.

How many other zoos have you been too around the world ?

BUBBLE WRAP

What are your experiences of Dublin zoo?

Hmmm lets see. I hate the zoo and everything about it. Been to it once when I was younger and never want to go again. I was expecting the animals to have a lot more space. I hate how the animals are just locked up and not in their natural habitat. Animal cruelty IMO.

PhlegmyMoses

Crazy how the experiences of internet people differ wildly from my own. So many people here saying they went as kids and found it depressing. When I went as a kid as part of a school trip we all thought the monkey having a drag off a smoke some oul one threw in was hilarious. I was more interested in Tonka trucks than animal cruelty back then, admittedly.

Calibos

Bipolar Joe wrote: »

I love Dublin Zoo. On one trip, I saw several animals peeing, one of which was being drank by another, and a chimp getting oral sex. Good times.

It was the giraffes, wasn't it???

Haven't been since the late nineties IIRC but have heard about the improvements in the last decade and was reminded again recently after catching a few episodes of the Zoo on Animal Planet. Was just saying to myself that I'll definitely visit sometime in 2013

Anyway, last time I was there the male giraffe was drinking the golden 'nectar' of the female After that myself and my brother went to the hippo pond. It was surrounded by a crowd 2 or 3 deep. We couldn't get to the front.....luckily!!
The hippo backed its arse up to the edge of the pond, started to take a piss and flicked it everywhere with its tail. The front row of people in the direction of the backside of the hippo got sprayed with hippo piss. They all screamed in disgust while everyone else broke their sh1tes laughing.

uck51js9zml2yt

AllGunsBlazing wrote: »

I went to Dublin zoo in the early 80's as a kid and it was a thoroughly depressing experience. My abiding memory was of a polar bear swimming in rank green water that was littered with coke cans.

No doubt they've cleaned the place up a bit since those days, but watching animals wander around aimlessly in an alien environment is not for me.

polar bear is gone.
Worst zoo I've been in was in Slovakia.
Like Dublin in the 70's only 100 times worse.
Have an annual ticket for Dublin which is great value.

darced

This post has been deleted.

Smidge

Does anyone remember the crocodile/alligator that they had years ago in Dublin zoo?
It was in a tiny(for the size of the animal)tank in what is now the Aviary House(I think that's what its called now)

Oranage2

I know zoos appear cruel but if you ever see animals in the wild all they do is sleep, such lazy bastards.

Dublin zoo is great alright though very expensive.

Feelgood

Some fcuker at work left a note on my desk a few years back, told me I missed a call from Rory Lyons and to call him back.

Twas Dublin zoo. :pac:

WoollyRedHat

I hear they whore the animals out between the respective zoos.

Wompa1

Lapin wrote: »

How many other zoos have you been too around the world ?

I've been to the zoo's in Sydney, Phoenix, San Diego, London, Cologne, Tampa, Dusselsdorf and Dublin

The only two Zoo's I thought were better than Dublin was Phoenix and San Diego

DEFTLEFTHAND

syklops wrote: »

Little known fact:

The lion you see at the start of every MGM movie, was born in Dublin Zoo.

Yeah that's right, I think it was the first Lion they used though back in the 20's and 30s. They've changed them over the years, the Dublin lion is not the one you see onscreen today, By 1957 they'd settled on their permanent model.

Ghandee

Lapin wrote: »

How many other zoos have you been too around the world ?

Belfast, Edinburgh, New York, London, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, the late Steve Irwins Australia zoo, I've been to a zoo/wildlife park in Portugal which name escapes me now,

Tbh, one of the more depressing ones on that list was the NY one ohm central park.

Here's that close-up of the gorilla.


Heres that gorilla pic btw.

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/4897/gorillaol.jpg

xOxSinéadxOx

I find the zoo to be a bit boring, not really my cup of tea. Although I went to the zoo in the bronx in new york and I quite enjoyed it, maybe cos the weather was so nice and it's better than dublin zoo.

FullblownRose

I haven't been to the zoo since I was about 9...I would love to bring my son to see it even though I do feel sorry for the caged animals as well. It's going to be expensive with accomodation and it's confusing trying to work out how to get around from A to B without the car up there.

I had fair hair as a child and I think a llama mistook my hair for straw and I can remember it had a good nibble on my hair through the fence of the enclosure.

DEFTLEFTHAND

I haven't been in a long time but am I right in saying that a lot of the enclosures have been expanded, the lions and tigers for instance I hear now have a decent area to roam.

I'm no animal psychologist but I imagine most of the creatures are happy, they've a good standard of living and I've always heard Dublin zookeepers go above and beyond in the love and care they show to all of them.

Krieg

Went there as a kid, I want to go again
But being in your mid-twenties, friends dont care for zoo's

Micky Dolenz

Shur With all those nature channels, we hardly need Zoos.

keithclancy

Ghandee wrote: »

Well I got to within an inch of a silver back gorilla today.

Bit of glass reflection, but you'll get the drift.

Edit, can't attach pics at moment.

Was that you in Rotterdam :pac::pac::pac:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokito_%28gorilla%29

On May 18, 2007, Bokito jumped over the ditch that separated his Rotterdam enclosure from the public and violently attacked a woman, dragging her around for tens of metres and inflicting bone fractures as well as more than a hundred bite wounds. He subsequently entered the nearby restaurant, causing panic among the visitors. During this encounter, three more people were injured as a result of the panic. Bokito was eventually sedated with the help of a tranquilizer gun and placed back in his cage.

The woman who was attacked had been a regular visitor to the great apes' enclosure, visiting an average of 4 times per week. She had a habit of touching the glass that separated her from the gorillas, while making eye contact with Bokito and smiling at him, a practice that is discouraged by primatologists, as apes are likely to interpret human smiling as a form of aggressive display. Zoo employees had previously warned her against doing this, but she continued, claiming a special bond with him: in an interview with De Telegraaf she said, "If I laugh at him, he laughs back".[1]

Micky Dolenz

Feckin ape.

juan.kerr

Meerkats rule. Simples.

Ghandee

keithclancy wrote: »

Was that you in Rotterdam :pac::pac::pac:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokito_%28gorilla%29

The silver back in Dublin zoo can regularly be seen at the viewing glass, looking at the zoos visitors.

He was sat there yesterday, starting right back at me, made me wonder who was viewing whom exactly.

Meangadh

I watched the Dublin Zoo Christmas Special on RTE from last year or maybe the year before, it was unbelievable to see the amount of care, dedication and knowledge of the zookeepers. This was during the really heavy snow two years ago, and they really cared for the animals and wanted the best for them.

I think anyone who is basing their view of Dublin Zoo on their trips there from the 80s needs to take another visit there- huge amounts or work have been done in the recent past to improve conditions for the animals- a number of whom whose species probably depend on zoos nowadays for survival.

I like Fota as well, but have to say Dublin Zoo is better. I haven't been to that many zoos around the world but I've been to a few in Australia and would have enjoyed both Fota and Dublin Zoo more.

I do generally think that Irish people have a real grá for animals (perhaps dating back to connections with farms and the land etc.) so it's good to see we have zoos and wildlife parks with such high standards.

keithclancy

Ghandee wrote: »

The silver back in Dublin zoo can regularly be seen at the viewing glass, looking at the zoos visitors.

He was sat there yesterday, starting right back at me, made me wonder who was viewing whom exactly.

Your not supposed to stare at a Silverback Gorilla, it pisses them right off.
If the glass wasn't in the way he'd rip your head off.

Penfailed

Where To wrote: »

I've never been in it. Been to Belfast zoo loads of times though, it's class, they have monkeys. No pandas though, which is good. I hate pandas.

Dublin Zoo is much better than Belfast Zoo. It's bigger, more room for the animals, 'happier' looking animals, no big hills to climb, etc. I've been to Belfast a few times but since going to Dublin Zoo, I wouldn't go back to Belfast TBH.