# thoughts about port lympne



## rosanna123 (Sep 1, 2010)

hi can anyone tell me what they thought about port lympne, me, my boyfriend and my two children went two weeks ago and we wasnt very impressed, we felt that the enclosers were too small for most of the animals, some of the animals such as the male lion shouldnt have been on his own and that the enclosers werent very well maintained.

can anyone else tell me there feelings about it please


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## talanie506 (Nov 24, 2009)

ive never been to port lympne, but in kent and both aspinall zoos had a terrible reputation in the early eighties for animals escaping and animals killing keepers. 

i have a bit of an obsession with zoos, and go to one whenever i visit a city that has one.
i used to live in kent and my mum still does, so ive been to its sister zoo howletts with school etc and recently i took my neice and i found that things were better than when i went as a child. 
it seems Damien Aspinall is improving things bit by bit, the enclosures are better, bigger and the animals all seemed in good health.
I think his dad was somewhat a romantic and just cobbled together the enclosures and let his keepers in with dangerous animals because he thought that the animals could be tamed. it was like a hobby rather than a conservation project.

it was i think the tigers that kept mauling people and one even killed two keepers before he was banned from allowing keepers to go into the enclosures. ( a rule im fairly sure he got overturned until the third keeper was killed).

they do, however, take in any zoo animal in need of a home and some of his elephants were taken in when they were due to be put down for having killed their keepers. 

so, i agree that things aren't as they should be, and i do hope that he continues to improve things as they do have some worthwhile projects going on and although i dont know much about release programs they do have a rather respected release bibliography. (according to a conservation website i found on google. lol)


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## rosanna123 (Sep 1, 2010)

well from what we saw as i said the male lion was on his own in an encloser that seemed too small, it didnt seem maintained, there was a large vine type plant growing up the outside and over the top of the encloser, there was a rhino on his own with electric fencing laying on the floor (we belevie this was to stop him pacing up and down the fence) and so he was walking near enough in circles, most of the ropes in the primate enclosers were green with mould, and in some the the enclosers there was logs and bits and pecies that seem to have been just thrown in, it didnt seem very safe for the animals, this was my first time to a proper zoo type place and i just wasnt impressed, i believe that the animals were going to be cared for more, i am not meaning to slag port lympne off as it may seem, i am just expressing how i felt about the place


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## talanie506 (Nov 24, 2009)

yeah, it doesnt sound too homely. i'd be worried that lion would climb the ivy and make off to canterbury!


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## Zoo-Man (Apr 12, 2008)

I've never been to Port Lympne Zoo, but my friend is a primate keeper there. 

Also, it is not entirley unnatural for a male Lion to live on his own. In the wild, males often roam alone, or in pairs or trios, called a coalition. They live like this until they get an opportunity to challenge a pride male & take over his pride. The ousted male will then have to live alone roaming until he gets a chance to take over another male's pride.

Rhinocerous are also solitary animals in the wild, though White Rhinos will tolerate company.


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## rosanna123 (Sep 1, 2010)

thanks for letting me know, i just dont understand why the to female lions are not with the male


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## talanie506 (Nov 24, 2009)

in the wild single males live on their own as they kill other males' cubs. 
and i would assume that two males would tear lumps off each other. 

so i guess its six wives and twenty kids or a batchelor life and no sex.


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## Lydia.Preece (Jan 22, 2010)

Port Lympnes enclosure are smaller than they should be, last time I went the first enclosure I saw was about the size of an average back garden maybe a little bigger. I think they don't put that much into it as howlettes is the most popular. 

My dads best mate use to be the head cat keeper of howlettes in the 90s and my dad built most of the enclosures after the tiger escaped(no escapes yet lol)
I was lucky enough to be able to go behind the scenes of howlettes and was lucky enough to meet some tigers. Only one keeper was allowed in with the tigers, they only trusted him once the ban was put in place that keepers weren't allowed in with the animals my dads mate left. He only wanted to work someone where he could interact with them.


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## Talk To The Animals (Jan 10, 2008)

The other thing with keeping lions in mixed groups is that although lions in the wild are under threat, lions in zoos are not. If they breed, it would be hard to find homes for the cubs and they could even end up being PTS. Which would be a shame really!!

I think that the original point of Port Lympne and Howletts was that the enclosures were more natural and the animals could hide if they wanted to (although now I've typed that it seems like a bit of an excuse for not doing the weeding!!).

xx


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## ashers (Jun 3, 2008)

I visited Port Lympe for the first time a few weeks back and yeh I would agree many of the enclosures look old and you do have to look real hard to see some of the animals especially the small cats which was a bit of a shame as I only saw about three during the entire day!

All the animals seemed happy enough and you cant say the enclosures are small as most are massive take the baboons for instance, who have a paddock which they share with a rhino! The Tapir enclosure is also the biggest I have seen in the UK. 

However, there is a definate lack of visitor friendliness as many of the enclosures are overgrown and its a nightmare to walk around as its a huge Zoo. Paying extra to go on the safari was a bit of a con. Not the sort of zoo id visit again to soon but it has some impressive animals especially primate wise, worth a visit if you have never been before but dont expect to see everything on the map, especially Red Pandas as they dont have any!


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## angelgirls29 (Jul 10, 2010)

Some zoos castrate male offspring so that they can still live with the pride (they look female as they don't have a mane, their roar is higher than a normal male's but low for a female and they generally get the food after the alpha). So the 'females' you saw may not have been all female as castrated males can still dominate a group and challenge the leader but they 99% don't.


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