Colchester Zoo Colchester Zoo News 2018

DesertRhino150 said:
The zoo website has released an article about the newest blue duiker calf, a male born on 16th June.

Also of interest from the article is the statement that the blue duikers are sharing their exhibit with demoiselle cranes. Certainly on my last visit it was the blue cranes they lived with....
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I saw a very young blue duiker on my last visit on 16th June; it was clearly a recent birth but I hadn't appreciated it had been born that day.

I agree with you: on all my recent visits, the blue duikers have shared their enclosure with blue cranes (Stanley cranes as I still call them) not demoiselle cranes.

On my last visit, though, I noticed the blue cranes were being very aggressive towards the young duiker...
 
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Tim May said:
I saw a very young blue duiker on my last visit on 16th June; it was clearly a recent birth but I hadn't appreciated it had been born that day.

I agree with you: on all my recent visits, the blue duikers have shared their enclosure with blue cranes (Stanley cranes as I still call them) not demoiselle cranes.

On my last visit, though, I noticed the blue cranes were being very aggressive towards the young duiker...
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I'm glad it's not just me who still calls them Stanley Cranes -- I still talk about Manchurian Cranes too!
 
FBBird said:
The currently pc term for the species could create confusion with actual Crowned Cranes.
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Tim May said:
And given that several other crane species have red coloured heads it seems illogical to single one species out as red-crowned....
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It's always confused me because there are so many cranes with red crowns! But I wouldn't underestimate the power of a name. Tension between nations in East Asia (or between parts of nations....) are much higher than in Western Europe, and the potential for nationalistic idiots to read too much into a name with political connotations could have real and negative conservation outcomes.
Don't forget, we did the same thing with 'Alsatians' :D
 
Went for a couple of hours visit this morning. Because I haven't been in a while, the small additions and changes really seemed to add up.

Species Arrivals and Departures
- The Costa Rican tiger-rump tarantula has been replaced by a Mexican red-kneed tarantula Brachypelma smithi.
- The yellowtail tang Zebrasoma xanthurum and yellow-headed goby Valenciennea strigata are both no longer present in the coral reef aquarium in Orangutan Forest, with their signage now also missing.
- A fourth species of butterfly has been added to the walkthrough; according to the signage the yellow-edged giant owl butterfly Caligo atreus now lives there too, making three species of the Caligo owl butterfly genus present there.
- A pair of West African mud turtles Pelusios castaneus are now mixed with three Madagascar tree boas in the leftmost of the three larger terraria in Kingdom of the Wild; the radiated tortoises are now only in the rightmost exhibit.
- The freshwater fish aquarium in Worlds Apart now features both peppered catfish Corydoras paleatus and bronze catfish Corydoras aeneus alongside the pearl cichlids, demon eartheater and delphax catfish.
- The aforementioned Solomon Islands skink is living in the old Komodo dragon exhibit opposite the rhinoceros iguanas but remaining stubbornly invisible over several revisits to the exhibit.

Developments
- The enclosure that formerly housed the two young female Komodo dragons in Heart of the Amazon has been emptied and is now in the process of being redeveloped.
- Work has continued on the lion expansion, with the cave at the back of the expansion now added. The only work that seems to be remaining for the monkey enclosure is adding the glass viewing windows.
- Most interesting is the addition of the climbing frame in the larger aardvark enclosure (mentioned earlier in the thread); three small access holes have been cut high up into the wall of the Kingdom of the Wild house that the climbing frame leads to. Potentially a very interesting development that is worth watching. I will be attaching a photograph of the access holes, to show their overall size and positioning.

General Observations
- Some small Malawi cichlids (unlabelled, but probably young from the large shoal now in Koi Niwa) are now living in the moat of the leaf-cutting ant island
 
Another thing I just remembered - went to check on the new blue duiker calf and they were still mixed in with the blue cranes; not sure if the demoiselle cranes on the news article were just a typo or if they were moved on exhibit for a very brief period.
 
Hello

This is my 1st post but have been reading the Forum for quite some time :-)

I am able to tell you what the climbing frame in the Aardvark is for as I asked when I visited last week to take some photos. It will be they told me Rock Hyrax moving over. This will be in addition to the ones in their current enclosure.

I also asked a keeper about when the Patas would be moving in to their new home. I was told they have wanted them moved in since May and the enclosure is ready bar the glass front which is the issue much to their frustration. Apparently there has been and still is a problem in either making the glass or getting it to site they wasn't sure which but said they hoped it would be resolved soon.
 
Update from the zoos Facebook page about the settling in process of the new Amur Leopard pair;

A few months ago we welcomed two Amur leopards who have since settled in. Crispin our male is very good at interacting with enrichment his keepers create and Esra our female loves to people watch from the high wall in her enclosure! Find out more here > Is it love for our Amur leopards? - ZOO NEWS - Colchester Zoo
 
Badgerman91 said:
Update from the zoos Facebook page about the settling in process of the new Amur Leopard pair;

A few months ago we welcomed two Amur leopards who have since settled in. Crispin our male is very good at interacting with enrichment his keepers create and Esra our female loves to people watch from the high wall in her enclosure! Find out more here > Is it love for our Amur leopards? - ZOO NEWS - Colchester Zoo
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Does anybody know where Milena and Sayan, the leopards that used to be in Colchester, have gone?
 
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