Chester Zoo Chester Zoo 2017

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Interesting to see what the zoo visitor numbers are this year, they announced a year ago that they had reached a million visitors on the 29th July.
 
jde7582 said:
The zoos Facebook page just announced a new species going on show
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See companion "marsupials" thread.

Worth noting for visitors that the bear cub is showing brilliantly now that she* has full access to the enclosure. Any time of day is a good time, just be patient if you don't see her* immediately.

The dwarf mongoose have five young - previously reported - expect them to be the next target of the zoo's marketing department and they're old enough for the crawl-through viewing to be re-opened.

Some supplemental information about the Javan green magpie enclosure: as suspected the birds need a dark environment otherwise they'll turn blue, hence the lack of light in their enclosure. This, however, does not excuse its other shortcomings.

* Unconfirmed / Speculation
 
In view of SMR's quoting of the bear cub being a she and calling it her, I'd like to point out that another sex is available. :p

Funnily enough though I called it she back in June and I have no knowledge of its sex.
 
SMR said:
Some supplemental information about the Javan green magpie enclosure: as suspected the birds need a dark environment otherwise they'll turn blue, hence the lack of light in their enclosure.
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I didn't know that. I had always thought blue colouration in green magpies was solely due to a lack of caretonoids in the diet. But I googled it and indeed blue colouration results not only from dietary deficiencies but also prolonged exposure to sun. I saw a blue individual in the wild once (with normal green ones) and thought that was really odd, but apparently there is also the occasional blue mutation which simply lacks the yellow pigment, irrespective of diet or sun.
 
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Chlidonias said:
I didn't know that. I had always thought blue colouration in green magpies was solely due to a lack of caretonoids in the diet. But I googled it and indeed blue colouration results not only from dietary deficiencies but also prolonged exposure to sun. I saw a blue individual in the wild once (with normal green ones) and thought that was really odd, but apparently there is also the occasional blue mutation which simply lacks the yellow pigment, irrespective of diet or sun.
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The sign beside the green magpie's flight says that their diet must contain supplementary pigment to maintain their colouration. I was surprised at this as other green birds do not appear to need such a diet, but on thinking about it I realised that most other green birds are largely vegetarian (for example many parrots and fruit pigeons) and so their food contains natural plant pigments. Do the green jays have a more omnivorous diet or do they need supplements too? Your blue bird may have been recently fledged, as I believe that young birds are bluer than adults.
 
There seems a lot of recent comment on Chester's 'Javan Green Magpies'. I formerly knew these- or a closely related species anyway, as 'Hunting Cissa'. Bristol had them in the 1960's in the aviary nearest the Monkey Temple. They knew about the diet requirement to prevent them turning blue even back then, but from memory, exposure to sun wasn't mentioned. Theirs stayed green if I remember.

Images on Google show both green and blue ones.
 
gentle lemur said:
The sign beside the green magpie's flight says that their diet must contain supplementary pigment to maintain their colouration. I was surprised at this as other green birds do not appear to need such a diet, but on thinking about it I realised that most other green birds are largely vegetarian (for example many parrots and fruit pigeons) and so their food contains natural plant pigments. Do the green jays have a more omnivorous diet or do they need supplements too?
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green is actually really interesting in birds. I think most people are aware of the unique copper-based green pigment which touracos possess (turacoverdin). The green in parrots is also from non-diet-related pigments in the feathers called psittacofulvins (or psittacins) which are unique to parrots. Psittacofulvin pigments aren't green in themselves, but red or yellow, which combine with blue to form the appearance of being green - but psittacofulvins are independent of diet, so parrots remain green irrespective of what they are fed in captivity. I've been looking at this over the course of the day and it seems that all other bird greens are due to dietary-obtained carotenoids, including in fruit doves.

gentle lemur said:
Your blue bird may have been recently fledged, as I believe that young birds are bluer than adults.
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I pondered that, as I had recently seen a photo of one of the young Chester birds (perhaps a photo of yours) which was greenish-blue. The one I saw was greenish-blue also, not the unnatural-looking blue I have seen in captive adult birds, so it could have been a younger individual. It was very noticeably not the regular green though.
 
Pertinax said:
There seems a lot of recent comment on Chester's 'Javan Green Magpies'. I formerly knew these- or a closely related species anyway, as 'Hunting Cissa'. Bristol had them in the 1960's in the aviary nearest the Monkey Temple. . . .
Images on Google show both green and blue ones.
Click to expand...
According to Zootierliste, I should have seen hunting Cissa, Cissa chinensis, at Chester and Blackpool many years ago (if they were actually on show) but I cannot remember them at all. It is found from north-eastern India to Malaysia, plus Java and part of Borneo. Two other Cissa species are found in Indochina and in Borneo. The Javan species has the shortest tail. See https://www.theguardian.com/science/grrlscientist/2012/mar/25/6 for more information about pigmentation and colour changes as described by Chlidonias.
 
For what it's worth, the green magpies at Chester are being fed dead mice in addition to the supplements mentioned earlier.
 
I have a photo of a hunting cissa at Chester, I think it was taken in 1986. The specimen was a bluish colouration.
 
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