ZSL London Zoo ZSL London Zoo News 2021

Visited today and spoke to a member of staff- the old play area behind the carousel has been ripped up and the new Galapagos turtle walkthrough and a new reptile house will be built in that area. The rebranding for BUGS seems to have been having some finishing touches done and we were able to get a lovely view of the beautiful new lioness
 
Mugglewump83 said:
Visited today and spoke to a member of staff- the old play area behind the carousel has been ripped up and the new Galapagos turtle walkthrough and a new reptile house will be built in that area. The rebranding for BUGS seems to have been having some finishing touches done and we were able to get a lovely view of the beautiful new lioness
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By "Galapagos turtle walkthrough" will visitors be able to be in the enclosure with the tortoises because IMO that sounds like a bad idea?
 
ShonenJake13 said:
The house isn’t energy efficient enough, and from what I hear the staff accessibility is a slight issue as well. The new house should hopefully rectify issues that they have with the current build, and allow for potential breeding.

One wonders if they’d try going for Aldabra tortoises in the old house...? Would be interesting to have both ‘species’ of giant tortoise (said between inverted commas due to the majority of captive Galapagos tortoises being hybrids of the different island species).
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IMO breeding from crossbreeds is not conservation breeding, what is the point of bringing in more. What should happen is see how many purebreds are about and create viable breeding groups along the lines of island or volcano-on Isabela species. For sure, Europe does have a few porteri / nigrita Western Santa Cruz, 1+? becki Volcan Wolf. Across Europe we should have around 10 of them. Align these with the US SSP Galapagos tortoise programs and try and engage Galapagos National Park Service to establish overseas captive assurance colonies with a view of providing hatchlings for wild releases on Galapagos islands to their respective source populations.

It is worth noting that in Aldabran tortoises at least 3 or more subspecific groupings can be determined. Mind you not the erstwhile Seychelles hololissa or arnoldi, but those existing on the Aldabran island atolls.
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
IMO breeding from crossbreeds is not conservation breeding, what is the point of bringing in more. What should happen is see how many purebreds are about and create viable breeding groups along the lines of island or volcano-on Isabela species. For sure, Europe does have a few porteri / nigrita Western Santa Cruz, 1+? becki Volcan Wolf. Across Europe we should have around 10 of them. Align these with the US SSP Galapagos tortoise programs and try and engage Galapagos National Park Service to establish overseas captive assurance colonies with a view of providing hatchlings for wild releases on Galapagos islands to their respective source populations.

It is worth noting that in Aldabran tortoises at least 3 or more subspecific groupings can be determined. Mind you not the erstwhile Seychelles hololissa or arnoldi, but those existing on the Aldabran island atolls.
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Do you have any resources on the tortoise populations? I would be interested to learn more, especially after having been to Gladys Porter, who is pretty involved in the programs.
 
nczoofan said:
Do you have any resources on the tortoise populations? I would be interested to learn more, especially after having been to Gladys Porter, who is pretty involved in the programs.
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As far as I know there are six confirmed pure populations - becki, duncanensis, porteri, microphyes, vandenburghi and vicina. Of those six, the only ones that definitely aren’t viable are the first two (becki has I think three individuals across three zoos, the duncanensis is one animal at Prague). Think the only one with a large(ish) international population is porteri. Ex-situ wise the other three are almost all exclusively kept in the US, though if I remember rightly Auckland have some vicina.

There are still a fair few places that just list theirs as Chelonoidis niger....thankfully a lot of places that keep the hybrids from Zurich’s becki/porteri pair list them as such though.

I’m of the opinion that if London want to breed the animals they should bring in some porteri - this is the species they have the highest chance of being able to legally acquire I wager in any case...
 
ShonenJake13 said:
As far as I know there are six confirmed pure populations - becki, duncanensis, porteri, microphyes, vandenburghi and vicina. Of those six, the only ones that definitely aren’t viable are the first two (becki has I think three individuals across three zoos, the duncanensis is one animal at Prague). Think the only one with a large(ish) international population is porteri. Ex-situ wise the other three are almost all exclusively kept in the US, though if I remember rightly Auckland have some vicina.

There are still a fair few places that just list theirs as Chelonoidis niger....thankfully a lot of places that keep the hybrids from Zurich’s becki/porteri pair list them as such though.
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ZSL sent out their ONLY purebred Galapagos male Dirk to Crocodiles of the World. But I agree Europe should make a concerted effort to start breeding with original and purebreds of the correct species.

Europe holds 15 purebred Galapagos tortoise, all others are the unfortunate becki x nigrita crossbreeds. The ephippium male from Praha should really be sent back to CDRS Galapagos in exchange for a few nigrita or others to make up purebred breeding groups. Zuerich acquired 3.0 becki direct from Galapagos in 1962.

BTW: Auckland Zoo's hatchlings and adults are all crossbreeds (Honolulu hatchlings were all between species from different islands). Definitely, no vicinas, an unfortunate myth bandied about since a late IZY publication citing Honolulu bred elephantopus = vicina. It is a misnomer copied time and again alas.
 
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Well my first post on this forum!!!

I see the plans for the new Reptile House, my reason for coming across this forum and if what I read is true, I am exasperated with the constant downsizing of the collection. I see today in the 2021 collection list that the Puff Adders are now gone.

Who really goes to a zoo to see a museum? The word ‘zoo’ is just that. The current Reptile House isn’t that special to deserve keeping, to just turn into a museum - what I would say though the historic Reptile House frontage is definitely worth keeping and knock down the building behind that frontage. There then you can build a world class building to house the Galapagos Tortoises with more than ample room, you could even put a few small Amphibian displays in there too around the sides.

Then where the new Reptile House is being built, you could have a brilliant exhibit with many different reptiles and hopefully new species and the best collection in the country. If you want a great Reptile House look at the interactive Reptile House at Atlanta Zoo, no reason why a similar house couldn’t be achieved in London.

I remember the Reptile House when it had an awesome collection, with many snakes and many venomous serpents too, not like today with that stupid infra-red sensor and former animal display, with non animal displays. I would be the first to say that it was wrong to keep Elephants, Rhinos and Chimpanzee and relish the bigger space animals now have - But I ultimately pay to see animals and the constant downsizing has gone from the sublime to the ridiculous.
 
Some new paid experiences are available now. £15 to throw some food onto the outdoor island for the gorillas. £5 for a 20 minute "behind the scenes" tour of the food prep area in the Casson. Big push on experiences to increase revenue per visitor with the likely reduced visitor count for the next year (especially when London relys on overseas tourists which will be in short supply).
 
 
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