Time to review another zoo: this time, ZSL Whipsnade!
If you’re a regular reader here you might be aware of my zoo review series, which – despite running for years and years and years – has only featured a few entries so far. I seek to fix this, just as I did last time I said this. Anyway, today we look at ZSL* Whipsnade Zoo, located in the picturesque countryside of Bedfordshire in the English East Midlands, for I have recently visited and, lo, it was good…
* Zoological Society of London
Whipsnade (website here) is the UK’s largest zoo (by area; 2.4 sq km) and, indeed, is big enough that we didn’t have time to see everything. It’s named for the nearby village. Its connection to London Zoo – the other ZSL zoo – is well known and I always thought that Whipsnade originated as a sort of ‘out of city’ extension, built for the big animals no longer deemed appropriate for London, like elephants. But that’s not quite right.
Caption: Whipsnade is one of just a few British zoos to house elephants. Others include Howletts Wild Animal Park, Blackpool Zoo, Colchester Zoo and Chester Zoo. Paignton Zoo’s last elephant died in 2019. Image: Darren Naish.
Whipsnade started life in 1926 when ZSL Secretary Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell purchased the derelict Hall Farm on the Dunstable Downs, specifically for it to function as an animal park similar to the Bronx Zoological Park. It properly opened in 1931, and an interesting part of its history is that it served as a war-time refuge for animals from London Zoo. Whipsnade Zoo itself was actually bombed, and several of the craters today serve as ponds. No animals were killed by the bombing, but a baby giraffe did apparently die of shock.
Whipsnade has expanded (in terms of facilities and species on display) in particular since the 1990s, many of its features – including areas and buildings devoted to lions, lemurs, elephants, rhinos and bears – having been completed since 2005. As expected for a ZSL zoo, its main message is one of conservation and it houses and breeds numerous animals that are vulnerable, endangered or even extinct in the wild.
Caption: both ZSL zoos are committed to conservation efforts. In Whipsnade’s Aquarium, you can see their work on the captive breeding and conservation of killifishes and pupfishes, some of which are now extinct in the wild due to the destruction of their habitats. Image: Darren Naish.
For shame, I’ve never visited Whipsnade before. And now I know why, since it’s just about far enough away from where I live (Southampton, far in the south of England) that driving there can, if you’re unlucky, take several hours (yes, a drive of ‘several hours’ is considered a big deal in the UK. We’re not used to it, and our fuel prices certainly don’t make it a fun or easy financial experience).
Caption: truly, the best day for a trip to the zoo. No, I wasn’t driving when I took this photo. Image: Darren Naish.
It wasn’t just our driving experience that was unlucky: the weather was against us too. In these covid-compliant times, we booked a visiting slot ahead of time and were thus committed to setting out when we did. It was raining, and it rained throughout the journey. It rained as we arrived, and it rained for the duration of our time there. Zoo animals and rain are not enemies. In fact, some animals might be more inclined to be active, or show themselves to the public, when it rains, so this wasn’t necessarily bad. The good news is that our viewing experience at Whipsnade was sufficiently positive that we’ll remember that more than the rain. I hope.
Caption: Whipsnade is big, with big enclosures for its big animals. This shows the main Great one-horned rhino paddock. Bactrian camels are just visible in the distance. Image: Darren Naish.
Like I said, Whipsnade is BIG. The enclosures for animals like white rhinos, antelopes, deer and camels are big enough that it takes quite a while to walk round them. The green, grassy surrounds feel right for a zoo that also functions as a safari park (you can drive round it in a car, if you want) and the elevation of the site results in some really amazing countryside vistas. One of the things the zoo’s known for is the gigantic white lion, carved into the white soil of the Dunstable Downs and located just outside the zoo’s border. I think you can see the lion from ground level, but I presume you have to be on elevated area elsewhere in the Chiltern Hills for that to work.
Caption: this image doesn’t do it justice at all, but some of the views from the zoo are spectacular. Image: Darren Naish.
The zoo’s smaller enclosures – those, for example, for brown bear and wolverine – are impressively leafy and wild-looking and look right for the given animal’s habitat. Having mentioned the leafiness, I should note that the zoo’s many trees are linked to a recent (May 2021) occurrence reported widely in the media: a falling tree allowed two of the zoo’s brown bears to escape into a neighbouring enclosure. Sadly, both bears had to be euthanised.
Caption: the excellent, appropriately ‘boreal’ landscape and flora of the main wolverine enclosure. Image: Darren Naish.
The zoo is split into four major sections. Closest to the entrance is a huge miscellaneous area with lakes, a petting zoo, the aquarium and butterfly house, chimps, lemurs and more, collectively termed ‘Base Camp’. We did this area last and only visited the aquarium and butterfly house; more on them later.
Of wolverines and boars. The Europe section is the most heavily wooded part of the zoo and is home to Eurasian wild boar Sus scrofa, Eurasian brown bear Ursus arctos, Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx, Wolverine Gulo gulo and apparently Moose Alces alces, Wolf Canis lupus, European bison Bison bonasus* and Reindeer Rangifer tarandus… though I’m only learning this today as we managed to miss the last four of those animals, d’oh! UPDATE: we didn’t miss the Moose and Wolf, they are no longer at the zoo.
* Whipsnade used to have American bison and in fact had them from 1932. So far as I can tell, they don’t have them there now. Please let me know if this is incorrect [UPDATE: as discussed in the comments, the American bison are indeed no longer there].
Caption: mummy boar and her fantastic piglets. They weren’t close enough or ever still enough for me to get any good photos, alas. And the weather was against me. Image: Darren Naish.
Caption: I’ve never had such clear, good views of wolverines. What amazing animals. Wolverines are close kin of martens, something I’ve always suspected but have recently seen confirmed by both molecular and anatomical studies. Images: Darren Naish.
Our time at the wolverine enclosure was especially rewarding. As you can see from my photos, we got great views of two or three of the animals. I’ve seen a wolverine once before – they used to have one at Edinburgh Zoo, which I saw in the mid-2000s – but the proximity and co-operation of the Whipsnade animals was impressive. I must say that I’ve never appreciated before how proportionally huge wolverine paws are, look at them!
Caption: Wolverine, aka Great mega-pawed chunk-weasel. Image: Darren Naish.
The wild boar (they appeared to be the nominate European form) were also great to see, since it was a mother with four beautiful little stripey piglets. Boar being boar, the enclosure was, alas, a bit of a mess since they turn any vegetated or grassy area into an over-tilled quagmire in no time at all. Great for regeneration of wild areas, not so great for fenced enclosures.
Caption: two of Whipsnade’s several Southern white rhinos. One has had its leading horn removed; the other rhino is sporting some impressive hornage. Rhino horns grow quickly, which makes it all the more maddening that people still kill them in order to obtain it. Image: Darren Naish.
Welcome to Africa, Bedfordshire. The third major area is the Africa one, the biggest section of which is shared by Southern white rhino Ceratotherium simum*, Sitatunga Tragelaphus spekii and I think various other antelopes. A couple of small, pale-coloured artiodactyls hiding in the grass looked to me to be Chinese water deer Hydropotes inermis, and I initially declared – in some state of excitement – that these were wild-living animals which had cheekily invaded the relevant enclosure (there are naturalised water deer in parts of the UK – Bedfordshire among them – and I’ve yet to ever see one). Nope; turns out that they were captive, albeit located in an inappropriate biogeographic zone.
* Your reminder that the two living Ceratotherium taxa are distinct enough to be regarded as ‘species’ according to some (Groves et al. 2010). I wrote about that issue here.
Caption: Chinese water deer in fairly unco-operative pose. Squint and you can see one of the massive fang-like canines on the animal’s left side. These animals grow a longer, shaggier coat in the winter. Image: Darren Naish.
On the subject of ‘wild-living’ animals in the zoo, both Bennett’s wallaby Notamacropus rufogriseus* and Patagonian mara Dolichotis patagonicum appear to be roaming free about the park. I first saw a mara as it was trotting across the white rhino paddock, and it took me a moment to figure out what it was. Legend has it that a colony of prairie-dogs live (or lived?) in a part of the zoo formerly home to American bison, but I don’t know this if this is still the case.
* I’m following recent taxonomic suggestions (Celik et al. 2019) in splitting Macropus of tradition into thee genera: Macropus proper, Osphranter and Notamacropus. Thanks to Matthew Connors for the heads-up on this.
Caption: free-roaming Patagonian maras, sheltering from the rain and walking across a field in order to find shelter from the rain, respectively. I doubt that those maras that wander around in the public areas of the zoo ever get a moment’s peace, since people constantly approach them for photos or even to touch or catch them. Images: Darren Naish.
Hippos, lions and more. Near to this giant rhino-antelope-Hydropotes enclosure are giraffes, hunting dogs, oryx, red river hog, bongos and zebras. Those animals are all great and all but my priority were the HIPPOS. Yes, Whipsnade has both the forest-dwelling Pygmy hippo Choeropsis liberiensis – which I love dearly but know oh so well due to its presence in zoos more local to me (like Marwell and London) – and the colossal, insultingly-named Common hippo Hippopotamus amphibius. As you can see, I got good views of a male hippos sparring with a youngster. At one point, the big male even did the stereotypical dung-flinging trick, though my photos don’t do it justice.
Caption: big bull hippo, kept on the other side of a barrier from the juvenile visible at left. An adult female was present in the field at back right. They didn’t seem to mind the rain. Image: Darren Naish.
And, no, it isn’t true that hippos kill more people than any other animal in Africa. This probably never was true. Apparently about 500 people are killed every year by hippos (really?). I’d heard that Nile crocodiles kill more but a 2019 study discussed here reported a pathetic 214 verified deaths documented between 1949 and 2016, so maybe crocodiles are actually harmless. Venomous snakes – ok, we’re talking there about a bunch of species, not one – certainly kill some tens of thousands of people across Africa every year. The figure might be as high as 50,000. And then there’s mosquitos and tsetse flies, but people never agree over whether they actually kill anyone (since it’s their parasites that actually do the killing).
Caption: two of the zoo’s lions, co-operatively lounging within a few metres of the glass-fronted viewing area. The one closest to the camera spent a lot of time roaring. Image: Darren Naish.
The African section also houses lions, African lions Panthera leo melanochaita no less. Most lions in British zoos – or, so it seems from my visits, anyway – seem to be Asiatic lions P. leo leo, so seeing proper African ones was a surprise and it’s been years since I’ve seen one. Whipsnade currently has five lions; we only saw the two females you see here [UPDATE: not lionesses, but castrated males. See comments]. They’re viewable from a giant glass-fronted viewing area, which means you see (and hear) them from very close range if they’re being co-operative. Cheetah Acinonyx jubatus are present in the African section too, though none were showing during our visit, probably due to the rain.
Caption: yak, posing pleasingly in a buttercup field. Well, I think those are buttercups… and buttercups are toxic. They contain ranunculin, a compound that causes burning, blistering of mucous membranes, coughing and worse. I didn’t pay attention at the time, but it seems from my photos that the yaks were deliberately not eating them. Image: Darren Naish.
Caption: more yaks. Some yaks have a very cow-ish look… and that’s because they’re actually yak x cattle hybrids. It’s all very confusing but this hybrid form is traditionally treated as a separate species Bos grunniens from the far larger, more massive Wild yak B. mutus. Despite this widespread hybridisation, yak are apparently closer to bison than any other extant cattle. Image: Darren Naish.
The Asia section. The fourth and final section is the Asia one, and I think this was my favourite. Amur or Siberian tiger P. tigris altaica are there, as are Yak Bos grunniens (a first for me, I think), Bactrian camel Camelus bactrianus, Asian elephant Elephas maximus, Greater one-horned rhino Rhinoceros unicornis and Sloth bear Melursus ursinus. The Sloth bear is another animal I don’t think I’ve seen before. The zoo did have three members of this species (a mother and her two cubs). Sadly, only one remains, the male cub (see the comments for more info). And he was very co-operative for our viewing.
Caption: the best view I got of one of the sloth bears. Even with the fence, the characteristic face, ears and claws of the species are evident. Image: Darren Naish.
Caption: pachyderms of the Asia section. Whipsnade has several Asian elephants, the adult male of which was kept separate from the others at the time of our visit. I think they have three Great one-horned rhinos. This slightly muddy individual is different from the one you saw in the photo above. Image: Darren Naish.
The massive, field-like enclosures of the zoo are of course ideal for steppe animals and those of open woodland, and these are used for a list of animals that we didn’t see, including Przewalski’s horse Equus przewalskii, Onager E. hemionus, Barasingha Rucervus duvaucelii and Sika Cervus nippon. Part of the reason we didn’t see them is because we didn’t take the time, but another part is because they’re best viewed via the ‘Passage Through Asia’ area that’s not accessible on foot. You either need to be in a car or use the train. That’s a shame as I was really looking forward to seeing the amazing Père David’s deer Elaphurus davidianus, the remarkable ‘deer designed by committee’. I’ve written at length about this deer before; please go here.
The aquarium and butterfly house. After spending time in the Asia section, we looped back round to the ‘Base Camp’ area for the combined aquarium and butterfly house. The queue was slow-moving and frustrating but this is a consequence of covid-related restrictions and I don’t blame the zoo; indeed, they had sensible and appropriate precautions in place.
Caption: unassuming brick-built entrance to the Aquarium and Butterfly House. Outside of covid times (if there will be such a time) I’m guessing that queuing won’t be necessary. Image: Darren Naish.
The whole building feels new, and I think it was newly opened in 2019. The aquarium section doesn’t have the cramped style and bleak, concrete-walled aesthetic of some older zoo aquariums, and is attractive with really nice landscaped displays. My favourite exhibits were those housing Chinese crocodile lizard Shinisaurus crocodilurus (though I don’t recall any associated labelling) and a large blackwater display housing cichlids, catfishes and others.
Caption: can you spot the Shinisaurus? Oh, there it is. Am noticing that quite a few British collections now have this charismatic semi-aquatic species. Images: Darren Naish.
The aquarium is connected to a walk-through tropical house with free-flying butterflies and the ubiquitous Crested partridge Rollulus rouloul. All very nice. But the highlight is the giant tank at one end, again housing fish, but also two African dwarf crocodile Osteolaemus (I’ll refrain from naming a species as I don’t necessarily trust that they’re O. tetraspis; see Smolensky 2015). As you can see from my photos, you can see the animals both above and below the water.
Caption: Osteolaemus crocodiles underwater. They have a terrestrial area at the back of the enclosure (viewable through large windows). The animal on the left is missing the third finger of its left hand. Image: Darren Naish.
Penguins, and sea lions and dolphins no more. There are still quite a few other things I haven’t mentioned, partly because we didn’t look at them. They include the large penguin enclosure. The maps we looked at in the zoo also showed a sea lion enclosure but I see from the zoo’s website that the zoo’s sea lions were relocated in March of this year. Between 1972 and 1988 the zoo housed Bottle-nosed dolphins Tursiops truncatus. As a child I remember seeing dolphins in at least two or three zoo collections; it feels amazing today that even small zoos with small water displays were considered adequate for such animals.
Caption: American flamingo giving me side-eye while pumping and sloshing around in liquid mud. Great fun to watch. Image: Darren Naish.
Birds and lakes. I really liked Flamingo Lake, dedicated to American or Caribbean flamingos Phoenicopterus ruber. It was great because it was really muddy, meaning that you got to see – at close range – the flamingos forage and feed in liquified sediment, something they’re built for. A good number of them were sat on nests.
Caption: Flamingo Lake. A group of American flamingos, some of which are sat on mud nests, are just about visible to the right of centre. Image: Darren Naish.
A large lake in the middle of the zoo houses Bar-headed geese Anser indicus, Swan goose Anser cygnoides, American white pelican Pelecanus erythrorhynchos and Mandarin duck Aix galericulata. Some of these birds – yes, I’m talking about the geese – don’t like each other, and we got to see some textbook body language from the Bar-headed geese (alas, my photos are terrible and not worth sharing). Also on birds, I should add that two Emu Dromaius novaehollandiae and some cranes are on show too.
Caption: emu in the meadow. Emus and their cousins the cassowaries are always good value for money. Image: Darren Naish.
There’s also a Colosseum-like arena where birds (macaws, hawks, a Bald eagle Haliaeetus leucocephalus, and maybe others too) are flown for display. I’m not sure if this area was operational during the time of our visit (covid precautions would make it a bad idea to have people sat close to one another), but – whatever – we didn’t have time to check it out. Oh, there’s an owl area too but I had to forego it in order to get required time in the shop. Don’t judge me.
And the shop? It’s good. I mostly judge zoo shops on the basis of merchandise exclusive to the zoo, and their selection of animal figures, and Whipsnade was good on those counts. I was very pleased to see that they had displays of both Papo and Schleich animal figures, and were selling figures brand-new for 2020/21. You can feel good about spending money in a zoo shop as it all goes to help support the zoo’s conservation work, right?
Caption: I also unashamedly judge zoos on the basis of their signage and installations, and on artwork in the grounds. These things show how seriously the zoo takes its educational and outreach commitments, and how much effort has gone into improving and enriching the grounds. Whipsnade scores well on both counts. Images: Darren Naish.
And that wraps things up. Whipsnade really does live up to the hype as a massive outdoor experience with l-o-a-d-s to see. I work hard on my zoo trips, generally walking for hours at a time in an effort to see as much as I can. And, despite a visit lasting more than four hours, we didn’t get round everything and even missed a whole bunch of things that I dearly would love to have seen. All of which means that we’ll have to go again…
Caption: more good and worthy, point-scoring artwork. A cheetah statue, and the ‘recycled elephant’, a figure made from items previously played with and partially destroyed by the zoo’s elephants. Images: Darren Naish.
Despite the weather and that one slow queue outside the aquarium, it was a good and rewarding day and I’m thrilled with what I saw. The enclosures are generally excellent, the chances for good, unobstructed viewing are exceptionally high, and the zoo’s conservation connections and projects are promoted where appropriate and are obviously very worthy. I loved it, and I really want to go back there again!
Selection of species: 9 out of 10
Zoo nerd highlights: Wolverine, Yak, Common hippo, Père David’s deer, Sloth bear
Quality of signage: 7 out of 10
Value for money: 9 out of 10
Overall worthiness: 10 out of 10
A COMMENT ON COMMENTS. The comments here are still not visible if you’re using Chrome or various other browsers. This is a code problem at the Squarespace end of things, not a TetZoo-specific problem. They know about it and are supposed to be getting it sorted. I, myself, can see comments on my phone but not on any available PC. UPDATE: now fixed, comments are back!
For previous articles in my zoo reviews series, and articles relevant to some of the topics touched on here, see…
Britain: wildlife theme-park, December 2007
The seemingly endless weirdosity of the Milu, October 2011
Tet Zoo Reviews Zoos: Edinburgh Zoo, August 2016
Tet Zoo Reviews Zoos: Colchester Zoo, October 2017
How Many White Rhino Species Are There? The Conversation Continues, November 2017
TetZoo Reviews Zoos: the Isle of Wight Zoo, February 2020
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Celik, M., Cascini, M., Haouchar, D., Van Der Burg, C., Dodt, W., Evans, A. R., Prentis, P., Bunce, M., Fruciano, C. & Phillips, M. 2019. A molecular and morphometric assessment of the systematics of the Macropus complex clarifies the tempo and mode of kangaroo evolution". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 186, 793-812.
