Hamerton, but you won't have seen her there cos she hasn't been on show to the public.
Beale Park Beale Wildlife Park 2023
- Thread starter mrcriss
- Start date
Hamerton, but you won't have seen her there cos she hasn't been on show to the public.
Alwaysevergreen
Well-Known Member
4 insanely cute common toads gone on show today. Bet you can't guess the theme of the new development
Wind and the Willows?
Well it's been a minute, so a quick update.
Since last time, we've had 2.0 Cameroon lambs born and today we welcomed 10 sun conures to join our existing pair, making a stunning (and noisy) flock!
They're now living in an aviary with all these (I'm sure you agree it makes for a very cool mix).....
Since last time, we've had 2.0 Cameroon lambs born and today we welcomed 10 sun conures to join our existing pair, making a stunning (and noisy) flock!
They're now living in an aviary with all these (I'm sure you agree it makes for a very cool mix).....
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Thank you! It's taking a while to get it all together. Being a charity and a small team, we don't always have the budget and time to do it all right away, but we're getting there.
The aviary ones were made this way cos it makes it easier to move the birds around.
What does Beale have against unusual (in Europe) ibises?
I see the Australian White Ibis (Threskiornis molucca) have now left the collection
The problem was that our aviaries were a difficult to manage mish-mash of all sorts which needed to be streamlined and focused on the things we really want to breed and thrive in line with the collection plan.
There was no interest shown by other zoos in any potential progeny of the white ibis, so although they really wanted to breed (and would have been very prolific), we couldn't let them do that in our collection. For this and a few other reasons (as in we wanted to bring in a breeding flock of endangered sun conures for that aviary), it was time to let them go. But you can see them at Chessington World of Adventures.
So all in all, we had 4.0 cameroon lambs and 2.1 pygmy goat kids born (including one insanely cute almost completely black goat with a white forehead spot).
But, in other baby news, we had a bunch of prairie dog babies emerge from the burrows this weekend. Very sweet.
More baby news to come later in the week.
In the mean time, news of a new development…..Human Nature
I’m not a social media whizz at all but I’ll be attempting to post teaser pics on the hashtag above in the coming days (once I learn how to do it!)
But, in other baby news, we had a bunch of prairie dog babies emerge from the burrows this weekend. Very sweet.
More baby news to come later in the week.
In the mean time, news of a new development…..Human Nature
I’m not a social media whizz at all but I’ll be attempting to post teaser pics on the hashtag above in the coming days (once I learn how to do it!)
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So I don’t know whether to talk about new development or baby news today. Let’s go with baby.
Something very exciting happened this week. As the only park with female Chacoan maras in the UK, we’ve had a lovely little baby!!!! It’s doing really well so I’m happy to share pics now.
For those aware of the layout of the park, this is the pair living next to the tapir.
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Lafone
Well-Known Member
View attachment 623578 View attachment 623579
So I don’t know whether to talk about new development or baby news today. Let’s go with baby.
Something very exciting happened this week. As the only park with female Chacoan maras in the UK, we’ve had a lovely little baby!!!! It’s doing really well so I’m happy to share pics now.
For those aware of the layout of the park, this is the pair living next to the tapir.
That's excellent news..congrats!
Thanks....this is super special for us. It's one we've been keeping everything crossed for! Now if the other pair would have a youngster of the opposite sex, that would be even better!!!
Alwaysevergreen
Well-Known Member
Oh my, it’s adorable! Congrats
Lafone
Well-Known Member
Had a great day out at Beale today. I was intending to visit to see the young prairie dogs anyway but the small Mara was an icing on the visit cake. It’s interesting to visit collections as diverse as Colchester / Beale over a couple of days. Think we are pretty fortunate to have such variety.
Not too many people though the play areas / mini lido looked pretty busy. Weather was lovely. Was a very nice day to spend around the lakes and gardens as well as around the animals.
Saw the young Mara in the morning along with the adults in the enclosure but they were in their house later on. Great to catch them. It’s a treat to see a young one given how unusual they are here.
The prairie dog pups were great to see. Have seen them at Banham but not everyone breeds them successfully and there were quite a few all playing and enjoying the sun. The banded mongoose next door were out each time I went by which was great.
The wallabies have moved from their location opposite the pigs / near the lynx to a field beyond the rail track. Makes them viewable from the train, though harder to see on foot, but their new space is much larger and open etc vs their smaller wire and mesh enclosure so great move imho.
Enjoyed the lambs and kids - it really is a bit of a bumper Cameroon sheep moment.
The Scottish wild cats were active though one was closed off from the other areas.
Both Tayra were super active and getting a good look at each other and visitors.
A pair of Greylag geese were seeing off the peacock and any visitors who wandered near their gosling.
Got good views of the lynx at their feeding time which was worth the wait. Earlier on a first circuit I was taken aback a bit when a visitor jumped the stand-off fence (it’s not low, it was a bit of a vault and if it hadn’t been a dumbass thing to do it would have been impressive as a jump) to film the lynx, but he got back over after a couple of us spoke to him. Generally of course people were friendly and behaving as you’d expect.
The lynx enclosure looks great now with all the growth / plants and weeds. Some lovely backdrops for pics of them and lots of places for them to hide and wander about. It’s a really good space and judging from how much time she spent in it over the course of the day the female certainly loves her big tree!
Not too many people though the play areas / mini lido looked pretty busy. Weather was lovely. Was a very nice day to spend around the lakes and gardens as well as around the animals.
Saw the young Mara in the morning along with the adults in the enclosure but they were in their house later on. Great to catch them. It’s a treat to see a young one given how unusual they are here.
The prairie dog pups were great to see. Have seen them at Banham but not everyone breeds them successfully and there were quite a few all playing and enjoying the sun. The banded mongoose next door were out each time I went by which was great.
The wallabies have moved from their location opposite the pigs / near the lynx to a field beyond the rail track. Makes them viewable from the train, though harder to see on foot, but their new space is much larger and open etc vs their smaller wire and mesh enclosure so great move imho.
Enjoyed the lambs and kids - it really is a bit of a bumper Cameroon sheep moment.
The Scottish wild cats were active though one was closed off from the other areas.
Both Tayra were super active and getting a good look at each other and visitors.
A pair of Greylag geese were seeing off the peacock and any visitors who wandered near their gosling.
Got good views of the lynx at their feeding time which was worth the wait. Earlier on a first circuit I was taken aback a bit when a visitor jumped the stand-off fence (it’s not low, it was a bit of a vault and if it hadn’t been a dumbass thing to do it would have been impressive as a jump) to film the lynx, but he got back over after a couple of us spoke to him. Generally of course people were friendly and behaving as you’d expect.
The lynx enclosure looks great now with all the growth / plants and weeds. Some lovely backdrops for pics of them and lots of places for them to hide and wander about. It’s a really good space and judging from how much time she spent in it over the course of the day the female certainly loves her big tree!
Hey. Glad you had a good day and got to see our new babies.
The wallabies were only in those aviaries temporarily whilst we dealt with a fox problem. It's lovely to have them back in the big paddock with the emus.
The wildcats have been split as they're all siblings (2.1) and we've not renewed the females contraceptive implant as we hope to move the boys on and bring a new male in for breeding. We're also working on a brand new enclosure for them.
Really happy with the way the lynx enclosure is maturing. It gives them some great cover, and we're hopeful for eventual breeding, so that'll certainly help. Can't believe someone climbed the stand-off though! You're right in that it's not at all a low fence (about 4'-4.5') but i guess that there'll always be idiots, eh? Thanks for telling them off for us.
The wallabies were only in those aviaries temporarily whilst we dealt with a fox problem. It's lovely to have them back in the big paddock with the emus.
The wildcats have been split as they're all siblings (2.1) and we've not renewed the females contraceptive implant as we hope to move the boys on and bring a new male in for breeding. We're also working on a brand new enclosure for them.
Really happy with the way the lynx enclosure is maturing. It gives them some great cover, and we're hopeful for eventual breeding, so that'll certainly help. Can't believe someone climbed the stand-off though! You're right in that it's not at all a low fence (about 4'-4.5') but i guess that there'll always be idiots, eh? Thanks for telling them off for us.
