West Midland Safari and Leisure Park West Midland Safari Park 2023

Presumably, for the sake of the herd's continuation, one will have to be brought in at some point. (That or artificial insemination).

As mentioned above, the number has declined rather in recent years- they had fifty females a few years back, now its around thirty (?). A lot of them probably wouldn't breed any more anyway if they are too old. Bringing in a new male would be far less labour intensive than attampting AI.
 
Any update on arrival of new Bull elephant? Wasn't he due in this Summer?
No news just yet as I believe that the new bull WMSP is getting is going to crated trained from another zoo ready to be at his new home in the safari park in near future
 
How many young Rothschild giraffe are there her now? I know there 1:4 adults 3 of which are breeding but it's the youngsters that I'm losing track of. 2:0 youngsters were moved to Edinburgh to form the new tower, but how may were left?
 
**copied from social media**

Happy World Elephant Day!

We have some exciting news to share soon! Keep your eyes peeled on our social channels in the next week to find out more!

Presumably this will be the announcement of Coco's arrival
 
Does WMSP plan to get more elephant cows as well? Breeding from just a pair is quite unusual, wouldn't they want to build up a herd?
 
Coco has officially arrived at West Midlands Safari Park as announced on social media:

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This is amazing news the Coco arrived at West Midland Safari Park. We all know that he is an experienced bull, he's been in with female elephants and he sired lots of calves. Coco was very successful in Cabarceno Zoo Obregon, in Spain, he was successful at Howletts and there is no doubt that he'll be more successful at West Midland Safari Park
 
Does WMSP plan to get more elephant cows as well? Breeding from just a pair is quite unusual, wouldn't they want to build up a herd?
I'll refer you to a conversation about this subject from back in May.
That is obviously the best case scenario for WMSP ( and probably their preference)to have at least 2-4 cows of breeding age before a new breeding bull is introduced, but if you know anything about the current state of African Elephants in Europe, you would know this would be very difficult to achieve at the moment (I am far from an expert, but am aware of this), and you could argue they are lucky to have Five in the first place. The realistic option a few years back would have been for them to keep Five and Latabe alongside each other, trying to build a matriline from Five while having Latabe as a companion and aunt to any calves born, but obviously that is no longer possible although bringing in a lone female or two not particularly bonded to the groups they are already in could be on the cards. This does leave them in a difficult situation with the arrival of Coco imminent yet only having Five by herself, but it is not easy to just "set up a proper herd" and obtain "a group of female elephants" in the current climate (although I wish it was), in fact almost impossible from what I understand. Ideally they would probably hope to go by your plan with building their herd, but they will have to take what they can and make use of what they already have at the moment. For the future I guess we can hope that either Five gets on ok by herself, or they manage to get some other breeding age females not cemented into a family group (Valencia springs to mind once again) late this year or at sometime next year. Worst comes to worst they might have to find an older non breeding cow to live with Five if she is really struggling with Coco by herself. As I said the situation you mentioned would have been a shared preference by many but WMSP just do not have the same opportunities as Blackpool did especially comparing the contrast between the successes of the two elephant populations in Europe, not to mention the problems Brexit would cause nowadays (their best chance for more unrelated breeding age females is from mainland Europe), and I do share your hope that one of the scenarios of obtaining more individuals is still on the cards.

"Setting up a proper female herd" around Five before getting a bull is not an option for 2 reasons:

1. Five has no time if you want another calf from her. Sutton is already 9 and she didn`t have another calf since him. That may already be too long of a break and may have cost her the ability to get pregnant again. Bringing in other females, introducing them and delaying the arrival of a bull until the females are integrated would simply take too much time. West Midlands apparently have the possibility to get Coco now and they would be really stupid not to take him!

2. Unrelated adult female elephants are notoriously difficult to integrate. Female elephants in breeding age are simply not availible (that may change at any time if Valencia or Cabarceno might decide to send away one or more of their many females, but that may also not happen in the foreseeable future). Older, non-breeding females are availible more easily, but no one knows if a female transferred to West Midlands would bond with Five or not.

Keeping just a pair of a male and a female elephants with their offspring is obviously not ideal socially, and West Midlands should absolutely bring in one or two more female elephants in the future, but that is not a priority now; giving Five the opportunity to breed ASAP is much more important.
 
I am the person @Yassa was replying to - and I'd like to clarify a few things.

I was not criticising WMSP for what they chose to do - what I was saying was that my preferred course of action would have been some female elephants first, but I understood, why this was not a possible course of action.

However, I do think - and hope - that, now Coco's arrived, getting some female elephant company for Five should really be looked at... once Coco's settled in, of course. The most likely option would be a couple of older females.

I was more expressing surprise that Coco was arriving first - since someone had said that, as part of the Elephant Lodges, there had been a plan to get at least 2 more females, I had assumed that the females were arriving first and then the bull.
 
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I am the person @Yassa was replying to - and I'd like to clarify a few things.

I was not criticising WMSP for what they chose to do - what I was saying was that my preferred course of action would have been some female elephants first, but I understood, why this was not a possible course of action.

However, I do think - and hope - that, now Coco's arrived, getting some female elephant company for Five should really be looked at... once Coco's settled in, of course. The most likely option would be a couple of older females.

I was more expressing surprise that Coco was arriving first - since someone had said that, as part of the Elephant Lodges, there had been a plan to get at least 2 more females, I had assumed that the females were arriving first and then the bull.
Don't worry, I didn't mean to criticise you or bring attention to the fact that those comments were directed towards you, just referring back to those points made which i think provide a good idea of the situation, sorry for the misunderstanding. I do agree with what you have said here though.
 
Yesterday was the exciting news when Coco the African Bull Elephant arrived to join Five and there is history about him as yes he's an experienced bull, he's been in with the female elephants and he sired alot of youngsters so hopefully there should be elephant calves at the Safari Park
 
Yesterday was the exciting news when Coco the African Bull Elephant arrived to join Five and there is history about him as yes he's an experienced bull, he's been in with the female elephants and he sired alot of youngsters so hopefully there should be elephant calves at the Safari Park
It will take over halve of a decade before some elephant calves will be present!
 
Had a nice visit here, was there first thing quite quiet managed to get round the drive through with no holdups even by the giraffes lol it was quite pleasant then had a walk through managed to see the tiger cub playing(through a fence) and noticed this new enclosure as you go in, it’s a shame they have stopped people going around the safari again as today would have been a good day to do so
 

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Had a nice visit here, was there first thing quite quiet managed to get round the drive through with no holdups even by the giraffes lol it was quite pleasant then had a walk through managed to see the tiger cub playing(through a fence) and noticed this new enclosure as you go in, it’s a shame they have stopped people going around the safari again as today would have been a good day to do so
When we went in the summer, we went on their safari bus to do a second safari around. I was good having a tour guide to tell us about there animals and he took his time was an hour and a half experience and let you feed the animals if you wish there was only us and another couple on the bus so was almost like a private tour I think it was only seven pound a head so not to expensive either though we where on a free return day.
 
Had a nice visit here, was there first thing quite quiet managed to get round the drive through with no holdups even by the giraffes lol it was quite pleasant then had a walk through managed to see the tiger cub playing(through a fence) and noticed this new enclosure as you go in, it’s a shame they have stopped people going around the safari again as today would have been a good day to do so
Hang on. Have they ever looked after Marmosets before ?
 
You can only drive around WMSP once? When was this rule decided? If this is correct I'd never return
 
It started back in June you now have to book a time slot if your drive through is later you can go round the walkthrough first which is also now barrier controlled so you have to scan tickets before you go in. We went because it was a return visit but I certainly wouldn’t go there without having that offer because it’s not worth it I’d rather go to Woburn .
 
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