Colchester Zoo Colchester Zoo News 2019

Asian Brown Wood Owl, Eurasian Eagle & Steppe Eagle have all left the collection and been transferred to Dudley Zoo.

Assuming this is the break up of the display birds?
 
Went today for a morning visit new young female Kudu Mavis has joined the collection and has settled in very well and quickly not sure if she has been brought in to be a mate for Eric when hes older. Kifaru will be leaving at the end of this year when Emily's Calf is due. It is hoped that Astrid will become pregnant as well so have two baby rhino's running about.

Pygmy Hippo enclosure seems to be coming along well looks like going to have and new entrance to outdoor part but no work has started of taken down the old patas monkey outdoors section yet.
A large flock of GuineaFowl where walking about the old Bird or display area. Saw both the crowned lemurs in the walk through enclosure to no sign of the red bellied. Both Baby Red River Hogs were outside laying with mum. Also keeper mentioned they are trying the breed the zebras due to being one of two zoos in the uk to hold them. Keeper also said they are stopping the Ostriches from breeding by removing the eggs each time one is laid and giving to other animals in the zoo for enrichment as the male becomes to protective toward the keepers and other animals if they were to allow them the breed.

Barn Owl and Macaws still remain within the collection saw keepers walking them around zoo for people to have photos with. Think it would be nice if they built somewhere for the macaws to be able to free fly and the barn owl an aviary like many other zoos have done be a shame to lose more birds from the zoo.

i do wonder if the zoo do ever plan to bring a Male Reticulated giraffe for breeding. one thing that colchester does lack is births which would help bring people through the doors and the breeding programs.
 
Does anyone know what the plan is with regards to breeding the African elephants,Tembo,Tanya,Opal and Zola i think they should bring in a new bull elephant to replace or exchange with Tembo or maybe bring in some new females or possibly even try artificial insemenation again as if you remember that's how Kito the elephant calf born in 2002 was born! It's a shame that Rosa died as she naturally conseved Jambo with Tembo in 2004. She's the only
SSw
 
The Hedgehog said:
Does anyone know what the plan is with regards to breeding the African elephants,Tembo,Tanya,Opal and Zola i think they should bring in a new bull elephant to replace or exchange with Tembo or maybe bring in some new females or possibly even try artificial insemenation again as if you remember that's how Kito the elephant calf born in 2002 was born! It's a shame that Rosa died as she naturally conseved Jambo with Tembo in 2004. She's the only
SSw
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It's likely none of those cow elephants are cycling any more.
 
There were rumours of a potential swap of males last year but that has all gone quiet.

If Colchester were to want to actively breed elephants they would probably need to send their cows to another collection and bring in a a younger herd of cows.
 
FBBird said:
It's likely none of those cow elephants are cycling any more.
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Tembo is just coming into his prime for a Bull African Elephant and all 3 Cows are now in there 30s and African elephants have been know to have calfs up till their 50s. Be nice to see them breed again. I think it is very unlikely that any younger cows will be brought in to the herd, Tanya can be a bit funny towards Zola not fully expected her back into the herd since she's been put back her her and opal. Tanya is the only one of the 3 to have a calf as the other two have had stillborns over the years. Zola lost 3 calves with the last one being 2011 and Opal was 2010
 
4ways NAP said:
one thing that colchester does lack is births which would help bring people through the doors and the breeding programs.
Click to expand...

Colchester has a pretty good breeding record (Red Panda, Pygmy Hippo, Aardvark, Rhino, Saki Monkey, Tamandua, Smooth Coated Otters etc) but I agree not so much luck with the “crowd pleasers” such as the big cats, apes, etc.

However they are now in a good position with most of these “crowd pleaser” animals:
-New pair of Amur Leopards
-Tiaga the female Amur Tiger to breed with Igor
-Potential to bring in female Orangs now Rajang has passed away
-Sun bears have been seen mating (finally)
-Two Male cheetahs arrived last year for the resident female
- Still potential for elephants to breed

So hopefully with a bit of time (& luck) there could be lots of important births in the next few years at the zoo!
 
I went for a visit to Colchester today as part of my MSc course. I managed to get about an hour roaming during the day; there is very little news of note:

Births
- Saw two young geladas today; the sign suggests one was born in mid-April (cannot remember the exact date) so would have been born after my last visit on April 5th

Developments
- Some of the Kingdom of the Wild terraria being currently developed have changed somewhat since my last visit:
  • The leftmost tank now has had water added into its sunken third; the water is planted with lily pads and has a live hazel cutting as well (all of the new terraria are extremely well-planted).
  • The middle tank meanwhile has been completely drained of water again and had the plants removed.
- The aquarium near the pygmy hippos in Kingdom of the Wild has now been redeveloped and can be seen through the construction site.
 
From reading recent reviews on the zoos tripadvisor profile it appears the zoo have had an aardvark born. In the review from 2 days ago titled “Aardvark shadow a keeper experience” the person states “I also got a sneak peak at the newborn baby Aardvark.”
 
Badgerman91 said:
From reading recent reviews on the zoos tripadvisor profile it appears the zoo have had an aardvark born. In the review from 2 days ago titled “Aardvark shadow a keeper experience” the person states “I also got a sneak peak at the newborn baby Aardvark.”
Click to expand...

That makes sense. On my last visit there were only two adult aardvarks in the main on-show burrow and the second 'half' of the enclosure was separated off to them.
 
migdog said:
That's not good news. I believe the previous juvenile died from the same issue.
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The previous juvenile was found to haven eaten the soil I believe so this time round it was all removed- could it be a genetic issue with the gut? Sadly not a lot of luck coming Colchester’s way!
 
I'm definitely including Colchester on my next trip to the UK, with the Sakis of course being my main aim
 
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