The rebuild of the main vivarium

The previous pictures of the main vivarium show it to be extremely heavily vegetated. In fact, it reached the point where this was almost uncontrollable. Although the inhabitants like some dense vegetation they also need open areas to bask in and this was becoming almost impossible to maintain. In addition, one of the outer walls proved to have inadequate foundations and an escape route opened. This was patched but could only be regarded as an interim measure. So, the decision was made to rebuild the vivarium over the 2001/2002 winter and early Spring with a view to repopulating it in early May. Despite many setbacks - not the least of which was a very wet winter, it was completely stripped and rebuilding commenced. By the end of March it was fully planted and awaited only the new mesh caging to keep predators out and the glazing finished. The picture below shows it at that point.