THE WILDS AT CHESTER ZOO

 by Earlie Doriman

One irresistible attraction at Chester Zoo,
the life-size and life-like Animatronic
Dinosaurs

     My eldest son Matthew could not simply contain his excitement, when I woke him up around 7:00 in the morning last Tuesday his first question was “Are we going to the zoo today?” Understanding my gesture, he quickly jumped off his bed and grabbed his jeans and shirt which I prepared the other night and started to ask series of questions about what he could possibly see. He was talking about rhinos, dinosaurs, lions, and elephants, and he asked if he could bring his water gun to shoot the monstrous dinosaur which he became quite familiar at the Jurassic Park movie that we watched time and again. His mom and I just answered all his queries with ‘Yes’ while engaging ourselves to get all the stuffs that we needed sorted. His younger brother Thomas was already ready for the day; he woke up earlier and was right downstairs watching his favourite Cbeebies show.

Matthew ( 2 years & 10 months)
and Thomas ( 1 year & 9 months)

A month ago, we promised Matthew for a Chester Zoo trip and we were only waiting for a good weather to book our visit. Fortunately, a very inspiring sunshine opened the morning and the forecast ascertained a sunny day so we headed for Chester, home to the UK’s largest and most successful zoo.

Chester Zoo is huge zoological garden housing a large collection of both diverse and endangered animal and plant species. It is the first zoo in the UK to breed Asian elephants in captivity. I was in fact amazed to see many Southeast Asian species of birds and animals and a wild fruit called Durian which grows best in Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines. Its breeding facilities to many endangered animals is considered one of the best in the world and the animals are well taken cared of, confined in suitable fences, provided with healthy food and balance diet – the very reason why visitors are strictly prohibited to give food to any wildlife around the zoo. 

To complete a tour around the 110 acres of rich wildlife experience, a monorail transportation system is available as well as water bus that operates on a canal network within the zoo. Restaurants and cafes are also accessible and you don’t need to worry about running out of cash inside, cash machines are just several steps away from the main entrance.

One means of transportation around the Zoo
is this waterbus that floats on canal network
within the Zoo

It was certainly an incredible trip and Matthew had obviously lengthy memories to take home. Going back was seemingly loaded with information from him. He imagined everything he saw and made up little stories about those beautiful animals. He became silent for a while and a satisfied snore took over few minutes later. I was sure he continued talking about the wilds of Chester Zoo in the world of his dreams.

The Author with two sons Matthew & Thomas

My wife Leah and son Matthew

The Animatronics, a new attraction at Chester Zoo,
settling on the lawns around the Islands
in Danger

The fierce eyes of a female lion, wondering
and most probably annoyed by the crowd taking photos

Water Buffalos taking their time to relax under
the inviting warmth of a good sunshine

The Fruit Bats Forest provide a pretend
cave of hundreds of fruit bats where they
feel at home to a beautifully simulated moonlight and
astonishing image of dawn

As the Rhino hides away, Matthew was awed by its
 massive size and monstrous physique

They are called the 'GEMSBOK'

Amongst the species that come from
Southeast Asia, I am truly happy
that these Philippine Spotted Deer
find their safe abode here

Chilean Flamingos

The exotic king of fruits DURIAN, is another tropical fruit tree
that resides in the care of Chester Zoo

Matthew was honestly scared of the moving
Dinosaurs, and it was very difficult to take
a photo of him near anyone of them

Cooler, taking a break from the day-long adventure

The Monorail, another means of transportation
around Chester Zoo