Peafowl, Camels, Flowery Shirts and the Price of Beer

I picked up this vintage Newquay Zoo peacock postcard online recently – but not so much for the picture.  This is an image that we already have already in the Newquay Zoo Archive as it appeared in our 1970s / 1980s guidebook and I have a second unposted copy of the Peacock postcard somewhere.

What I liked  was the holiday message on the back, postmarked 22 June 1987. Newquay Zoo was then still in its mid 1980s rebuild under Restormel Borough Council ownership.

Sadly the sender Michael didn’t say more about his trip to the zoo on the Monday of his June 1987 holiday. I wish he’d written more about the Zoo. We do learn the weather was not good that week and that the journey (from Cumbria?) had been long.

Most importantly Michael needed to tell Mr. Willis that in Newquay  beer is 90p a pint, 1987 prices, a bit different to the £3 to £4 plus a pint  you’d pay today (30 plus years later).

Was he writing back to his school teachers, I wonder, advertising Newquay’s cheap beer as well as its zoo?

Two years later Michael would have been able to buy the innovative Newquay Zoo ‘colour in’ Children’s Guide from 1989.

Colour Me Beautiful – Newquay Zoo Children’s 1989 Guidebook peacock page. 

Peacocks are still amazing our visitors  with their show-stopping tail, song and  dance displays at the zoo and have been doing so  since the first months of the zoo in 1969, changing the Newquay soundscape for ever. A little sonic slice of Indian forest.

We know a little about the early Newquay Zoo Peacocks from 1969 to 1975, including the first 3 pairs costing 36 pounds (no shillings, no pence, old L-S-D money), a few hatchings and the odd bizarre death. 6 old pounds each in 1969! In these days of 2019, zoo animal transfers for conservation breeding programmes do not involve purchase money, other than paying transport costs.

Peafowl record card Newquay Zoo Archive 1969-1976

There were unfortunately three peafowl Killed in  Bear Pit in 1972/3 (two males, one female) – not clear if these were Chicks? Adults?

In 5th January 1975,  sadly 1 Peahen found drowned in Sealion Pool – where our penguins now live.

Looking into the background of photos and postcards is often interesting. Heading down the steps from what was the Bear Pit  are a trio of zoo visitors on an early 1970s  sunny day.

Spot those flowery men’s 1970s shirts and long hair  in the background. A slice of 1970s fashion on our happy zoo visitors.

Haven’t we seen one of those visitors before? Bizarrely the dapper blue chap  in the blue cap appears several times in the 1970s to 1980s Newquay Zoo guidebook. He obviously had the knack of almost being in the photograph but not quite on the day the publicity photographs were taken.

Once were Camels … using 1970s guidebook photos, here is the Bactrian camel sign from  our new Then and Now 50th anniversary signs 2019  (next to our vintage Portakabin Education buildings) Newquay Zoo April 2019.

Ten of these great vintage Newquay Zoo photos from 1969 to the mid 1980s (the Council run zoo days)  now form a part of our Then and Now Trail, part of our NZ50 50th Anniversary events.

The ‘colour in yourself’  front cover of our New 50th Anniversary 2019 Then and Now Trail, ideal for families, children … and zoo history nerds.

These Then and Now signs should stay up for the rest of our 50th birthday year2019  and hopefully for several years  afterwards.

Once were camels … 1970s 

Same scene looking out  from the old camel paddock today 2019. The 1970s Rhea or Emu enclosure is now a much enjoyed playground, first built in  the  1980s – photo April 2019. The camel paddock (behind me) is now the Lynx enclosure and Education buildings. 

2019 Here Still Be Peacocks …

The peacock postcard / image didn’t make it into the highly select NZ50 anniversary Then and Now trail images but I tracked down where it was taken – these unnamed steps down from or up to Macaques –  and peacocks are still displaying  in that area.

Then and Now 2019  – the steps down from the Bear Pit / Macaque Enclosure where this peacock photo / postcard was taken in the early 1970s.  

This peacock photo would have been taken with the old 1969 walkthrough aviary behind me (now dismantled c. 2005, our  Secret Garden area). You can just glimpse it’s netting or mesh possibly lower left.

Within a few feet of where the postcard  photo was taken in the 1970s, peacocks still dance, sing and display.

Displaying still in the same area 2019 … intriguingly close to where the bears once lived. Whoops! 

Peafowl 2019 next to or almost in the old Bear Pit, now Sulawesi macaque monkeys 2019. 

Killed in Bear Pit? Our peacocks have been playing tag with Bears from 1969-94 and now our Sulawesi macaque monkeys since 1995. Thankfully these days only the odd tail feather is lost …

Displaying – an unusual lek or display  area – using reflections in the Bear pit / Macaque Monkey Enclosure window glass, April 2019.

1970s peacock and 2019 descendent? Then and Now,  Newquay Zoo 2019

So there we are, peacocks, camels, visitor fashion and the price of beer, past and present. 

Blog posted by Mark Norris from the Newquay Zoo Archive as part of our countdown to Newquay Zoo’s 50th Anniversary, which is on Sunday 26 May 1969 / 2019 

Find out more at:

https://www.newquayzoo.org.uk/plan-your-visit/whats-on/50thanniversary

https://www.newquayzoo.org.uk/plan-your-visit/whats-on/events/detail/50th-anniversary-party-2019