Here we go, here are all of my notes from my visit for my Aardvark Keeper Shadowing experience on Thursday the 14th of April. Let me know any feedback and if it is even appropriate to announce some of this news. I think I will start with what I found out from questioning the keeper who did the experience, bearing in mind she was fairly new (started last July) and quite young, so only really knew what was going on on the section she works on. While you read this remember this is all probably subject to change...
Notes from the experience:
The Aardvarks consist currently of Afer, 31, the current breeding male; Oq, 22 the main breeding female (it has been this way for almost the whole time Aarvdarks have been breeding); and Jaja, their son who is nearly 2 and may be moving on this year and hasn't previously because of Covid. Aardvark news: Jaja is bigger and hairier than both of his parents by quite a bit, Oq is not currently pregnant, and Puq, her fellow female died last month of heart failure. Also Aadvark Burrow currently houses all the zoos Rock Hyraxes. Other news from the experience: Sia, and her female cubs Nova, Hope, and Star have moved to Flamingo Land (I only saw 2 cheetahs on my visit which I assume was Abasi and Azizi). The zoo plan to move the Warthogs out of the zoo (she admitted their location might have been Flamingo Land rather than the Cheetahs) to free up their enclosure for new female Cheetahs in the future. This will probably require some construction work but it is also partly sad news as the Warthogs have become a good display since the pair started breeding last year and have welcomed 4 offspring recently, bringing the group up to 8 individuals. The Pygmy Hippos outdoor enclosure development will come in the form of 2 separate areas and I was told it was nearing completion. I later saw that development is taking place on the original paddock, it seems it might remain similar to how it was before, but the second paddock on the site of the old Patas Monkey outdoor area is now seemingly completed, with food waiting down the far end but no individuals were outside at the time. Hopefully my pictures of this exciting development will come out within the next week or so, I need to finish posting my other photos from my 3 zoo visits this year in chronological order first, I did take quite a few detailed photos of this particular development though. As I have mentioned on another thread I was told the possibility of A.I was investigated on one of the zoos African Elephant cows earlier this year on a vet day (she didn't know which cow though). The keeper that did the experience also said that 2 of the older Maneless Zebra mares died last year, now leaving another female and Ziggy, the stallion who is fairly young. I was told that there is no current pregnancies in the section that she works on that the zoo are aware, but matings had been observed between Otto and Astrid so hopes are high, though my Grandad seemed to think that a rhino had already been confirmed pregnant and due in December, but I wasn't aware of this, and if no other zoochatters are aware of this I have doubts of its truth.
On an experience previously I learnt the Crowned Cranes have had a high infant mortality rate in recent years because of fluctuating weather.
Other notes and observations:
Crispin the Amur Leopards' viewing area was undergoing construction work.
There seemed to be a new Colombian Black Spider Monkey redevelopment of an older enclosure, though I hadn't heard the group were moving at all, behind the Capuchin enclosure and on the first path you see as you walk through the entrance, accompanied by one of the zoos signature "Have you Herd?" boards. When I took a peek I noticed a fresh noticeboard for the species, some of the zoos old fake rock work that looked like that of the 90s, weeds, neat plants, and newer climbing frame.
I saw all 3 Tamandua, a rare occurrence.
The new Playa Patagonia toilets are visible and probably near completion but still fenced off.
The gibbons seem to have been more active recently.
Bailey put on quite a display for visitors in the same way he did when I last visited, walking ub and down beside the tunnel viewing for Lion Rock and roaring loudly.
I heard in the Meerkat encounter that the individuals at the zoo currently are all brothers- 8 of them.
There was a lot of Gelada babies, possibly more than have currently been announced by the zoo.
Bushes have been cut down in the Anteater and next to the viewing areas for the same species and the Asian Short Clawed Otters (of which I saw the offspring), near the entrance for the Lost Madagascar building.
The animals in the Island Dwellers enclosure near Tiger Taiga were quite active, although I sadly missed the baby deer by a matter of hours, the Philippine Spotted Deer were challenging the Visayan Warty Pigs which was interesting to watch. Can anyone remember when this enclosure was built?
In the recent magazine, it was announced that the exclusive "Wake up with Colchester Zoo" experience will return this July, and this is great news for me as I did it in 2019 and enjoyed it.
I think that's everything, I wanted to mention, and if it is not I can just edit this, this post have been in the making since I made this visit and now, as I said, I will have time to catch up on uploading my media from this year, including some of the exciting developments mentioned in this post. This is all highly exciting news and I hope it will be received well.
