Front page Meerkats, Paw Prints Newsletter Newquay Zoo No. 2 December 1995 Page 1
Mike Thomas who ran the zoo from 1993-2003 wrote this Christmas Editorial on Page 1 and 2, about what we could achieve to rebuild and improve the zoo when “Our visitors became friends …”
As the original newsletters were produced in black and white, I have added some linked colour pictures of the subjects covered or the same zoo areas now in 2018.
Where the Paw Prints Front Page Meerkats once lived – The old Meerkat Mound on the old African Plains (1995) still exists, part now of our Philippine Deer exhibit (2018)
As Mike Thomas pointed out, “As you know we are called Animal World , but I tend to favour [the word] zoo – after all that’s what it is!” By my first Paw Prints issue as editor, issue 3 in Summer 1996, the name had changed back to Newquay Zoo.
Living Together is Fun on the African Plains 1995 – see photo below of today – Paw Prints Newsletter Newquay Zoo No. 2 December 1995 Page 2The old African Plains mixed species exhibit of Lechwe antelope, Zebra, Porcupine, Meerkat and Crowned Cranes (1995) is now home to Critically Endangered Philippine Spotted Deer and Visayan Warty Pigs (2018).
Chunky our last elderly Himalayan Black Bear was euthanased a year before due to ill health at Christmas 1994, leading to the original 1969 Bear Pit being redeveloped for new rare Sulawesi Macaque monkeys (“Black Apes”) throughout 1995 – see articles on page 8 and 9.
Keeper Mark Tomaszewski (“Cheski”) still works part time at the zoo, having joined the Council Run zoo in 1982/3, our longest continuous serving member of staff.
The Newquay Zoo Wildlife Rescue Hospital (closed c. 2003) was in full winter operation with rescued hedgehogs surfacing too early from or failing to fatten up for Hibernation. Claire Roper wrote about or contributed to three pieces on Hedgehogs on pages 3, 4 and 10.
Paw Prints Newsletter Newquay Zoo No. 2 December 1995 Page 3Paw Prints Newsletter Newquay Zoo No. 2 December 1995 Page 4First mention of a Zoo Halloween 1995 – although there may have been one in 1994, this was early days for this very popular Halloween dressing up event / tour which at the time, very few venues offered locally.
1990 was International Year of the Rainforest, so rainforest conservation was (and remains) an important and popular topic for school visits. My predecessor Jane Angwin organised a school workshop visit to Newquay Zoo over three days in 1995 by the Green Light Trust. The Green Light Trust is still going strong, working on many UK forest and overseas conservation and education projects. http://www.greenlighttrust.org/about-us
Paw Prints Newsletter Newquay Zoo No. 2 December 1995 Page 5Paw Prints Newsletter Newquay Zoo No. 2 December 1995 Page 6
Overheard in the shop at the end of the day in 1995 as Penguin Feeding time was announced:
“Doris, do you want to see the penguins being fed?”
“No Ethel, it’s only fish!”
The much missed Courtney Eustice, My ‘Ansum! This pose would make a fine sculpture of the “unknown zoo maintenance man at rest” …
Courtney Eustice was a truly dreckly Cornish zoo character, sadly missed, who is worthy of a whole blog post of his own sometime soon. No hurry, my lovers!
His funeral was a sad day for the Zoo and he is buried in St Keverne Churchyard on the Lizard, in case you are ever passing. This little plaque at Newquay Zoo is now relocated, down by the Dragon Maze.
Courtney’s memorial plaque, now moved down to the Dragon Maze area, 2018Courtney’s Corner, August 2018 – relocated plaques and Reece Ingram carved fern fronds from the past Sensory Sculpture project, now down near the Dragon Maze entrance.
Page 7 features a typically busy and varied day in the working life of Head Keeper and Site Operations Manager Peter Trebilcock, who worked as a keeper from 1977 to about late 2000.
A very serious looking Peter Trebilcock (centre) with Newquay Mayor Jon Weller and John Macknelly, Marketing Manager (sunglasses), on the occasion of ‘ Hemlock’ Sulawesi Macaque (“Black Ape”) adoption by No 1 RAF Regiment, “The Rock Apes” Newquay Zoo, March 2000. Newquay Zoo Archive local press cuttings
Much of what I learnt about working with visitors from Pete Trebilcock is embodied in this “typical day” article. Note the 9.30 a.m. opening in 1995 – a bit early?
Paw Prints Newsletter Newquay Zoo No. 2 December 1995 Page 7
Curator Jon Blount redesigned the Bear Pit into the Black Macaque enclosure in 1995. He wrote this two page article on its progress, just as some of the new female macaques on breeding loan were due to arrive from Jersey Zoo.
Jon wrote this Black Macaque article partly to counter the many criticisms of old-fashioned zoos that were around at the time. Only three years previously, c. 1992, even London Zoo had been facing down demands for closure, events filmed at the time by a fly-on-the-wall documentary team.
Paw Prints Newsletter Newquay Zoo No. 2 December 1995 Page 8News of future research and eagerly looking forward to macaque babies in 1996: Paw Prints Newsletter Newquay Zoo No. 2 December 1995 Page 9
This macaque breeding programme is still going well (2018) and benefits from an in-situ overseas conservation education and research programme for these now Critically Endangered monkeys from Sulawesi in Indonesia. http://www.wwct.org.uk/conservation-research/sulawesi/macaques
Claire Roper, senior keeper in charge of the Wildlife Hospital is pictured here in colour from our 1996 Guidebook working with our then Zoo Vet Mike King.
Senior Keeper Claire Roper and Mike King the Zoo Vet, Newquay Zoo Guidebook, 1996Paw Prints Newsletter Newquay Zoo No. 2 December 1995 Page 10
We kept some newsletter pages blank until the last moment, ready for special stop press news for our adopters and members to read about new births, etc. such as our recently arrived Asian Otters and Cotton-topped Tamarins. This Christmas baby was probably an unusually pale grey baby Asian otter called Cinnamon – will have to check the roecrds on this.
Stop Press – Births page – Paw Prints Newsletter Newquay Zoo No. 2 December 1995 Page 11Paw Prints Newsletter Newquay Zoo No. 2 December 1995 Page 12
The forerunner of the Amazon Wishlist for Newquay Zoo, page 12 is an appeal for spare equipment to carry on our conservation, rescue and incubation work.
I hope you enjoyed this glimpse of Newquay Zoo in 1995 and how, whilst many things change, it continues to do important conservation and education work in 2018 with your help.
Paw Prints No. 1, August 1995: Original front cover made from headed paper, Letraset titles and Newquay Animal logo added top left. Black and White (Newquay Zoo Archive).
Many people have said to me “I don’t like Zoos …”
being the opening words by Mike Thomas of the first Paw Prints newsletter from Newquay Zoo, August 1995.
Paw Prints newsletter ran for almost ten years before merging with Paignton Zoo News c. 2004 and all this is now replaced by websites, social media and blogs, things unimaginable then. By 1996 we had a zoo website of sorts.
The Noah’s Ark theme of this first Editorial by Mike Thomas in the first edition of Paw Prints (August 1995) was one that he was to return to over the next ten years and was celebrated in our Ark ticket entrance, new c. 1994/5, rebuilt since but it still doggedly retains the Ark name today.
Zoos were heavily criticised in the late 1980s and early 1990s by some people on animal welfare grounds. Some zoos closed, others like Newquay Zoo struggled to survive financially and improve its enclosures.
The first Paw Prints Newsletter came at a point of much rebuilding on a very tight budget. Hence Mike Thomas and Jon Blount spend much time in their first editorial and articles setting out a vision of what small zoos like Newquay could become, with the support of visitors, working with many other good modern zoos around the world.
Looking at the logo used on the front page, we were proudly Newquay Animal World – subtitled Wildlife Rescue and Conservation. These two themes make up much of this first edition in August 1995. The first edition was probably written by a combination of Jane Angwin, Jon Blount and Mike Thomas. The ‘Animal World’ name would change by the time I first edited Paw Prints issue 3 for ‘Newquay Zoo’ in Summer 1996.
These early Paw Prints editions are quite simply made, cobbled together using a very basic PC word processor in the Zoo Curator’s office (the only computer in the zoo in 1995/6), a black and white photocopier, Letraset lettering transfers, black and white photographs, line drawings, ink pens, scissors, glue and sweat.
They were usually photocopied by the friendly folks at Quintdown Press in Newquay for sale in the zoo shop or sending to members, adopters and local schools, all to promote the zoo. We were encouraged as staff to take them home and leave a few around in waiting rooms whenever we had a doctor or dentist appointment.
Close up of photo of Bear Pit becoming the Macaque enclosure. Paw Prints 1st Edition Aug 1995
As there is no colour in these Paw Prints , I have added some relevant colour photos from our Archive or of the scenes today. Here is the 2018 scene of the 1995 enclosures and animals shown on page 2:
The same Sulawesi Macaque enclosure today 2018 with those distinctively shaped rocks.Now 2018: Where swans and wildfowl waddled, this is our front lawn and café entrance area.Page 3 Hedgehog Hospital info with the Hedgehog parade pic borrowed from our 1994/5 posterNewquay Animal World 1994/5 era A4 size poster – spot the hedgehog parade.
Advertising posters may have been colour in 1994/5 but it was far too expensive an option for the Paw Prints Newquay Zoo newsletter. This remained mostly black and white until August 2003 when we switched to a colour front cover. Shortly after c. 2004 we merged the Paignton and Newquay Zoo and Living Coasts newsletters to provide a full colour A4 newsletter, covering news from each zoo.
Senior keeper Claire Roper interviewed about the Newquay Animal World / Zoo Wildlife Hospital by 1995 Education Officer Jane Angwin. Mike King the 1995 zoo vet is mentioned.
Hedgehog Rescue and our Wildlife Hospital 1994 – 2004
These pages all bring back many rich and smelly memories for me as I spent many happy hours helping out in our Newquay Zoo Wildlife Hospital in the quieter times of the year in between education sessions, from about 1996 onwards. Working with native wild animals in Britain as well as ‘at risk’ species overseas were both important to the Newquay Zoo of 1995.
Mark Norris working in our Wildlife Rescue Hospital at Newquay Zoo, c. 1996. Not a uniform day obviously! (Newquay Zoo Archive)
Hopefully the prickly descendants of rescued hedgehogs Spike, Oily, Bumble and Bill are still enjoying a wild life in Cornwall. Some of the more injured rescued hedgehogs were released into the zoo grounds and hedgehogs were certainly still around when I was working late evening several years ago.
page 5 A few rescued Hedgehog success stories and a warning about invasive flatworms!
Apologies for the copy or scan quality of the next three pages. We don’t have the original pages of the next three page article on “The Modern Zoo “ by Zoo Curator Jon Blount, as they were probably kept and heavily photocopied to help answer student and visitor enquiries about the role of a “Modern Zoo”.
“Best job I ever had“, he recently mentioned when I contacted Jon about our 50th anniversary in May 2019.
Jon Blount, then recently graduated, was our Newquay Zoo Curator from 1994 to 1997 before returning to college to do research. Today (2018) Jon is a Professor of Animal EcoPhysiology and Director of Postgraduate Research at the University of Exeter (based not very far away at the Penryn / Tremough Campus). http://biosciences.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=jon_blount
I wonder what Jon would makes of his 1995 article today, comparing his Zoo Curator job as it would have been in Victorian times or the early 1900s to that he enjoyed ‘today’ in the 1990s ? He’s a busy man but hopefully he’ll have time at some point to reread it and comment, and we shall include this here if possible.
What do we learn about developments in the 1995 era zoo from this article?
New 1994/5 arrivals that Jon mentioned include the Asian Short Clawed Otters, a species we still hold and breed today in 2018. Kafue Flats Lechwe antelope and Damara Zebra “Etosha”are no longer with us. They lived on the original ‘new’ mixed species African Plains (where the rare Philippine Deer now live), but since 2009 we have an expanded African Savanna section with Chapman’s Zebra, Black Wildebeest and Nyala antelope. The last elderly female Lechwe moved in with this mixed herd in 2009. The Meerkats now live at top end of the zoo.
Jon mentions the arrival of some escapologist Banded Mongoose (housed where Tippys Café now stands), two Sooty Mangabeys (oddly behaved ex-pets “Misha” and “Ramrod”), free range Cotton-topped Tamarins (pictured) released from the Tropical House in 1996 into the trees near the Maze. We still have Crowned Cranes on our main lake edges.
Page 6, 1st Edition Paw Prints, Newquay Zoo, August 1995
Conservation, Education, Research and Recreation – still pretty much the role of a good ‘Modern Zoo’ in 2018.
Page 7 1st Edition Paw Prints, Newquay Zoo, August 1995Final / Back page 8, 1st Edition Paw Prints, Newquay Zoo, August 1995
By 1994 5 we had joined and been mentored into membership of the Federation of Zoological Gardens of Great Britain and Ireland with its zebra head logo, now known as BIAZA or the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariumshttps://biaza.org.uk/
We also joined EAZA, the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria, around the same time, widening the range of breeding programmes, studbooks and loans we could be involved in https://www.eaza.net/
We remain highly active members of both BIAZA and EAZA and so are involved in today’s version of co-operative breeding programmes for increasingly rare animals, zoo research and working on overseas conservation projects in country.
Jon Blount also mentions the creation of the Sulawesi Crested Macaque monkey group with animals on “breeding loan” from London, Marwell and Jersey Zoo. This species are still doing well here as part of that cooperative breeding programme but are now Critically Endangered on their home island of Sulawesi. One of the early youngsters born to our first Alpha Male Hemlock, a 1998 baby known as Chekeeto still heads our group in 2018.
A new Puma enclosure designcompetition is mentioned in 1995 for two rescued Pumas from a zoo which closed at Haigh in Wigan. This Puma enclosure in 2018 now houses Carpathian Lynx and their recent twin kittens.
Newquay Zoo Keeper Michelle Redmore feeding a hand-reared Humboldt Penguin c. 1996 (photo by Paul Armiger , c/o Newquay Zoo Archive collection)
Research 1995 and 2018
Research projects mentioned at the time include hand rearing Penguins, along with studying enclosure design and dietary effects on the behaviour of nocturnal Kinkajou and Sooty Mangabey monkeys. Botth these last two species we no longer work with. However similar nutrition, behaviour and enrichment research by students still continues today http://www.wwct.org.uk/research supervised by a full-time Research Officer, Dr. Kathy Baker. http://www.wwct.org.uk/about/people/the-team/kathy-baker
Mark Tomaszewski “Cheski” and female Black Lemur (only males are pure black). Archive photograph from Mike Thomas’ memoir. Strange Things Happened on My Way To The Zoo.
The Black Lemur Forest Project education and conservation project in Madagascar mentioned in our 1995 newsletter 1995 was a forerunner of the many overseas conservation and education projects that we are still involved in as the three zoos of the Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust. http://www.wwct.org.uk/conservation-research
Black Lemur Forest Project fundraising t shirt, many were sold in our zoo shop from 1994 onwards for several years; this tatty example is still in our Newquay Zoo archive.
Ring-tailed lemurs have now occupied and bred on the ‘Black Lemur island’ for over fifteen years, as the last of our Black Lemur group moved off on breeding loan elsewhere.
Ring-tailed lemurs on the Lemur Island, c. 2003? Photo by volunteer Connie Slaney.
That was our first edition of Paw Prints, Newquay Zoo, August 1995 revisited and updated looking back from 2018. I hope you enjoyed reading it again or afresh.
Look out for the second edition Christmas / December 1995 to be featured soon.
I have typed out the relevant zoo entries, compiled it appears from newspapers. This covers a useful gap in the Zoo’s press cuttings archive which only really exists in any detail from about 1994/5 onwards.
Jan 1985 Snow storms severe
May 1985 Bank Holiday weather a washout May 1985 8 foot Boa Constrictor stolen
May 1985 Zoo denies Animal Rights complaints re Conditions.
October 1985 Zoo Python found in phone box
Jan 1987 – Snow
April 1987 – Cosy Nook and café complex should be sold
April 1987 £150,000 development at Zoo
July 1987 New Tropical House and Education Centre opened
October 1987 – Zoo record net profit £52,000
August 1991 Humboldt Penguin born
June 1992 Zoo baby Boom
December 1992 – Zoo in danger from starling flocks
Dec 1992 – Zoo – Council to sell?
February 1993 Zoo starling flocks gone?
April 1993 Animal World New name for Newquay Zoo
July 1993 Sea Life Centre to be built on Towan Prom
September 1993 – 12 prairie dogs arrive
December news papers increasingly saw a zoo animal births of the year round up article.
Jan 1994 Sea Life Centre Foundation stone laid
March 1994 Animal World article / zoo article in Guardian
April 1994 – 3 Humboldt penguins born named Wet Wild Windy (Wild did not live very long)
April 1994 – Animal World extends hospital facilities
June 1994 – Sea Life Centre official opening
June 1994 – Zoo beats gull menace
December 1994 – Animal World baby boom
December 1994 – Zoo baby boom
December 1994 – Nativity Play with Live animals
January 1995 – Chunky Himalayan Bear put to sleep aged 28
March 1995 – Animal World python laid approx. 30 eggs
March 1995 zoo Diana Monkey baby born
March 1995 – Animal Rights Group peaceful protest march
June 1995 – Zoo News
August 1995 / April 1996 – Newquay University on the short list
Sept 1995 Animal encounter Sessions
Nov 1995 Animal World has oldest lady visitor 102 years old
Dec 1995 – New Arrivals
Around 1996 our own zoo press cuttings archive is better estableished so we can link these stories to ones in our archive much better.
Feb 1996 Trenance Pavilion near zoo – Council invite tenders
February 1996 Cream Coloured Asian otter born (named Cinnamon)
April 1996 – 2 meerkats and 2 tamarin monkeys born
April 1996 – P439enguin Chick hatched, Tapir acquired
August 1996 – Third Top award
Oct 1996 – Macaw born and reared
November 1996 Zoo spooky fun 1
Jan 1997 Chernobyl children in Cornwall (visited zoo)
Jan 1997 Hedgehog Hospital
May 1997 – Gulls declared war upon at Zoo
June 1997 – Tiles sold for Puma Enclosure
June 1997 – Craig Rich the SW TV weatherman meets Craig the penguin
August 1997 Zoo Feature and pics
October 1997 – Lion Ross put down
October 1997 – Round Table Toddle
October 1997 – 4 meerkat babies
October 1997 – Ross replaced and Zoo Feature
Jan 1998 – Black Created macaque born
Jan 1998 – Major storm damage
Feb 1998 – Wild and Whacky Workshop
April 1998 – Meerkat babies
(NOCS Timeline ends July 1998, created in November 2011 NOCs)
Animal World Leaflet mentioning Conservation (c. late 1980s / early 1990s) with our Education Centre within the Tropical House and the newly rebuilt Lion House. Flamingos, Diana Monkeys, Kinkajous, Penguins and our Tarzan Trail rope bridge.
Our monthly Newquay Zoo history snippet for February 2017 focusses on the late 1980s and a rather unusual renaming of Newquay Zoo.
When I first started work at ‘Newquay Zoo’ in the mid 1990s, under the new private ownership of Mike Thomas, it still bore its Council Zoo renaming of Newquay Animal World. So did our letter heads, leaflets, vehicles and uniforms.
This strange name, presumably chosen to match the Water World swimming pool name, led to some odd telephone conversations in the zoo office.
People would phone up and ask to buy a guinea pig. We would then have to explain we were a zoo, not a pet shop, despite our name.
Mike thankfully changed the name back to Newquay Zoo about 1996/97, despite the extensive criticism of ‘zoos’ and the word Zoo flourishing at the time.
The posters and leaflets show the joint marketing of 2 major ‘world’ attractions‘Animal World’ and ‘Water World’ along with the other surviving elements of the original 1960s and 1970s Trenance Leisure Gardens.
The newly built or refurbished Water World late 1980s
This was all part of renewed attempt to market the Trenance Gardens area as a ‘World’ of Leisure, 26 acres of Sports and Leisure.
Early 1990s Animal World leafletInside the early 1990s Animal World leaflet – llama, monkey walk, lioness, flamingos, walking over the stepping stones of the original Japanese or Oriental Water Gardens where otters now live.
Inside the Animal World leaflet (c. 1993) are visible some staff that I remember when I started at Newquay Zoo – top left, keeper Claire Roper with our then zoo vet Mike King, Claire is also seen with some of the encounter animals with visitors, keeper David Eyre with python (and elsewhere Kinkajou).
Giant insects and a painted Black lemur (one of our early overseas conservation links) c. 1993
I recognise that painted Lion! See where the Lion on the c. 1993 leaflet artwork comes from? Roundels usually covered up at the last minute something on the artwork we had decided against! The hedgehogs were from our Wildlife Hospital section which ran till about 2003/4.
The posters below are from the joint Newquay’s World of Leisure that was (and still sort of is) Trenance Leisure Parks late 1980s / early 1990s.
Scarlet Macaws feature on this joint advert.
Pumas, lions and penguins feature here whilst the “new Oriental Garden and renewed Monkey Walk” of the mid to late 1980s are mentioned here as included in Zoo Admission .
Interestingly the Zoo (at only 8 acres) is branded as a “ZOOlogical theme park”, no doubt to account for the entertainment features such as the recently planted Maze, Activity play park and Tarzan trail all c. 1983.
Zebra(s) feature on this poster.
Interesting in itself to see how styles of zoo posters and general attraction advertising have or haven’t changed over the years, something we look at with students on business and marketing or leisure and tourism type school and college talks.
The 26 acres of the ‘World of Leisure’ that was ‘Trenance Leisure Gardens’ have changed somewhat after a business dip mid-1990s.
Newquay Zoo is now run as part of a conservation charity, the Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trusthttp://www.wwct.org.uk/ with Living Coasts and our big sister zoo in Devon, Paignton Zoo. Newquay Zoo expanded onto the nearby ‘Little Wembley’ sports field, growing a few acres to its current 12 – 13 acres to create the Savannah area which opened in 2009.
We now open all year round, from about 1993/4 as opposed to the original Council Zoo being open Easter to October.
The Toboggan Run has given way to the Wooden Waves skate park.
The miniature train and the pitch and putt / crazy golf still thrive, the Tennis Courts are now part of the Heron Tennis Centre whilst Water World’s swimming pool and gym is still very busy, its visitors watched as ever by our African Lions. http://www.tempusleisure.org.uk/waterworld-newquay/
The Lakeside Café, Boating Lake and Rose Gardens (home to the original Charles Trevisick’s Newquay Children’s Zoo – see below) are still flourishing.
newquayzoohistory 